Power Shovel (Paperback)

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! A Power shovel (also stripping shovel or Front Shovel or Electric Mining Shovel) is a bucket equipped machine, usually electrically powered, used for digging and loading earth or fragmented rock, and mineral extraction. Shovels normally consist of a revolving deck with a power plant, driving and controlling mechanisms, usually a counterweight, and a front attachment, such as a boom or crane which supports a handle with a digger at the end. The machinery is mounted on a base platform with tracks or wheels. The bucket is also known as the dipper. Modern bucket capacities range from 8 m3 to nearly 80 m3. Power shovels are used principally for excavation and removal of overburden in open-cut mining operations, though it may include loading of minerals, such as coal. They are the modern equivalent of steam shovels, and operate in a similar fashion.