Access roads and geotechnical structures for mining operations

Efficient access roads and robust geotechnical structures are vital components in mining operations, ensuring seamless transportation and site functionality. Naue offers advanced geosynthetic solutions designed to enhance the performance and longevity of these infrastructures. Our Secugrid® geogrids provide high tensile strength and low elongation, delivering long-term reinforcement for roads and soil structures. These geogrids effectively stabilise unpaved roads, construction sites, and heavily trafficked areas, improving load distribution and reducing rutting, even over soft subgrades. For applications requiring separation and filtration, Secutex® nonwoven geotextiles prevent the intermixing of soil layers, maintaining the integrity of base courses and extending the service life of roadways. In scenarios where both reinforcement and separation are essential, our Combigrid® geocomposites combine the benefits of geogrids and geotextiles in a single product, offering immediate support and simplifying installation processes. By integrating these geosynthetic materials, mining operations can achieve more durable and cost-effective infrastructure, ensuring continuous and safe access to critical sites. Explore our comprehensive range of solutions to optimise your mining projects and enhance operational efficiency. 

Mines are, in many respects, small cities

They require roads, water, power, waste management, food, safety, housing, etc. Access roads are especially integral to a mine’s viability. Ore must move around and away from the site. Shipments of supplies must not be impaired. Site access delays of a single day can cost a lot. Extended interruption in access to the site can threaten the mine’s continued operation, as investors and mine owners might no longer consider it economically viable.

The massive vehicles used in mining today require extremely strong roads. Haulers carry payloads of more than 100 tons. For ore, oil sands, rock, and coal operations, the roads must sustain repeated passings of these vehicles over years of mine activities.

Geogrid reinforcement materials and separation geotextiles are used to redistribute the tensile forces within the road and prevent the mixing of fi nes and coarse aggregate. The increased road strength mitigates the risk of road erosion and rutting in wet or arid mining environments.

These same reinforcement, separation, and drainage control materials are used in various other geotechnical applications in mining. The diffi cult terrain that characterizes many sites requires a number of vertical or near vertical constructions to be built, such as to support crusher walls. Mechanically stabilsed earth (MSE) walls, reinforced with geosynthetics, are a common and effective strategy. Also, there are embankments, abutments, operating pads beneath heavy equipment and cranes, and many other points at which soils must be reinforced to enable the little city that a mine is to function as designed.

Naue Solutions access roads and other geotechnical structures

Secugrid® geogrids offer long-term, robust reinforcement of roads and soil structures. Secugrid® geogrids achieve a high modulus and high strength at low elongations, which enables them to deliver long-term performance in road and railway reinforcement, MSE walls, veneer stabilisation, embankments, load transfer platforms, and other demanding applications.

Secutex® geotextiles deliver filter stability and robust protection for high-level performance in protection, separation, filtration, and drainage in geotechnical applications. The densely needle-punched, nonwoven matrix of staple fibres in Secutex® keeps granular layers in place and provides efficient in-plane transmissivity for support in road, wall, and other engineered structures at a mine.