Bucket wheels are the central component of bucket-wheel excavators and bucket wheel reclaimers, which are used for the mining of resources in surface mining. Due to changing operating paramters in the range of raw materials production and the problem of efficient utilisation of large units, on adegate construction of mining-units is getting more and more important. On the basis of real live operation-examples the constructive distinctions between the use of bucket wheels in bucket wheel excavators and bucket wheel reclaimers are pointed out. Supplementary installations for the protection of the subsequent haulage plant, as well as elements for the reduction of the input power in case of extreme operating conditions, are also mentioned in the present thesis. The calculation of the bucket wheel input power against the formation types is of vital importance for the practical design of a bucket wheel. The compilation of the basic principles for the calculation, the provision of the operating parameters and the limits of the insert of different bucket wheel types will help the engineer to make an adegate decision concerning the technical choice of bucket wheels.