Hello Louis,

The only ones that would come close are from the

either www.TESMEC.com

or www.TRENCOR.com

with their line of trenchers and road miners with drum

cutting heads. The only thing is the conical bits are

very expensive and you should explain that a conical bit

grinder is must have item. If you have an entity that can

reclaim the carbide and pay you for the steel scrap it will

be economical.

The only other serious option that would be on equal footing

would be a road header used for surface work as the cutter heads

and bits will be larger for faster breakage.

I am unsure if the new Terex road miners are even as large as the smallest

TESMEC TRENCOR units.

Have you examined the possibility of using a Vibrating ripper on a

D11 Caterpillar dozer or the equivalent or is this a moot point? ■

I assume that by surface miner you mean such as Wirtgen and Easy Miner type machines. These machines are at their heart pick type roller crushers. Are you looking for a machine that includes an additional, secondary crushing stage between the surface reclaim and bulk load-out? I'm not aware of such a machine.

Joe Dos Santos ■