African Mining November 2019 | Page 21

GLOBAL NEWS  thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions is developing a new materials handling system in Canada, Mary River Iron ore mine, mining in Canada. screen and store the ore produced in the Mary River Mine all year round and load it onto Panamax or Capesize ships during the ice-free season. For example, the system can fully load a Capesize ship in just one day. Few people outside Canada know much about Baffi n Island, the fi fth largest island in the world with a surface area of over 500 000 km 2 (almost 1.5 times the size of Germany) and a population of under 12 000. One reason for the low population fi gure is the harsh climate roughly 600km north of the Arctic Circle. Spring arrives in mid-July and winter returns in September. Baffi nland Iron Ore Mines operates the Mary River Mine at the northern end of Baffi n Island in the Canadian Nunavut territory. At a latitude of around 72°, it is one of the northernmost mines in the world and has been producing high-quality iron ore for 12 months a year since 2015. The ore is transported from the mine to Milne Inlet port on the northern coast around 100km away. As part of the overall project, this transportation will be converted from road to rail. MONGOLIA: WINDERS FOR LARGEST FRICTION HOIST South African based Becker Mining has supplied the rope attachments equipment currently being fi tted to the winder ropes of the world’s largest friction hoists. This equipment has been designed and manufactured by the Becker Mining team in South Africa, to meet specifi c winding requirements of a leading copper mine in Mongolia. “Becker Mining’s rope attachments equipment consists of both running and spare sets of rope attachments for all three winders being installed as production, service and auxiliary hoists,” says Tom Searle, senior general manager at Capital, Becker Mining South Africa. “The production hoist rope attachments consist of six strings of hydraulically adjusting headrope sets, six strings of fi xed head rope sets and 12 sets of tail rope attachments. A complete spare set, which is identical to the running set, was also supplied. “The service hoist has identical attachments to the production hoist and is enhanced by a complete set of spares. “Both the production and service hoists, which are friction winders, are the largest mine winders of this type ever to be installed.”  www. africanmining.co.za African Mining Publication African Mining African Mining  November 2019  19