Tehran- These pictures show the beauty of the bentonite mine in Dustabad village of Sarayan County in South Khorasan province in southeastern Iran where the mineral is going to be extracted using open pit mining method.

Open-pit mining is one of the surface mining methods that is usually employed to exploit a near-surface, nonselective and low-grade zones deposits. It often results in high productivity and requires large capital investments, low operating costs, and good safety conditions.

Bentonite mine in Dustabad village of Sarayan is the largest and most significant mine using the open-pit mining of bentonite in Iran and the Middle East in terms of proven reserves and annual extraction capacity, the news website of Sadr Tamin Investment Company reported on Monday, October 9.

Emam Port Powder Production Industries Company, which is a subsidiary of Sadr Tamin Investment Company, owns the exploitation license of the mine and is involved in the extraction of bentonite in this mine using the open-pit method.

In the early stages of bentonite extraction, the tailings disposal operations of the upstream layers are carried out to reach specific layers whose technical characteristics have been precisely determined in the quality control laboratory prior to this stage.

Excavators carry out the extraction of the mineral from different layers. Trucks transport the extracted minerals to the depot later to be exposed to the sunlight to reduce the humidity.

Bentonite mining and depositing operations are conducted in the first half of the Iranian year (March 21-September 22) considering the weather. The preparation stages, tailings removal from the site for the next episode of extraction and exploration are usually conducted in the second half of the year (September 23-March 20).

Bentonite (or smectite deposits) is a clay formed by the alteration of minute glass particles derived from volcanic ash. They are ash falls that have undergone extensive devitrification to dioctahedral smectite (usually montmorillonite). Bentonites are used in many civil engineering applications.