CONVEYORS
‘ grasshopper’ style portable conveyors, two 20 m short portables, two 29 m horizontal feed conveyors, two 43 m horizontal conveyors, two 55 m radial stackers and two mobile crossover conveyors.
This is the second system TNT has supplied to Nordgold. At the Bouly gold mine in Burkina Faso, the stacking system, overland conveying, and agglomeration drum supplied by TNT began operation in May 2016.
Two long-time clients added new Ramp Portable( RP) conveyors to their TNT systems in 2016: four RPs at Glencore ' s Lomas Bayas copper mine in Chile and three RPs at Areva ' s Somair uranium mine in Niger.
FAM recently successfully installed and put into operation the first line of a leach pad system in Wanbao Mining Co’ s open-pit copper mine in Myanmar. The machines are designed to convey and spread copper ore at a capacity of 6,500 t / h. Operation of the first line is already running in full compliance with contractually agreed technical parameters. Both identical conveyor lines of the system consist of one shiftable feeding belt conveyor, one tripper car, and one conveyor bridge on crawlers.
Innovative applications
Booysendal Platinum, a subsidiary of Northam Platinum is expanding mining capacity at its Booysendal mining concession. Key to the success of this expansion is the cost effective, reliable, safe and environmentally low impact transport of ore over topographically challenging terrain, from mining modules in the south of the concession to the concentrator plant.
To this end, Doppelmayr Transport Technology, describing itself as“ the world ' s leading manufacturer of ropeways,” is currently constructing a RopeCon ® system which will transport up to 900 t / h over 4.9 km, with an overall vertical climb of 530 m.
This system is due to operate from 2019. As part of an additional expansion program, Booysendal, in October 2017, further contracted Doppelmayr to design and construct a second RopeCon ®, to tie in with the first system, allowing transport of ore from mining modules in the north of the concession. This RopeCon ® system will convey 400 t / h, over 2.8 km, with a vertical drop of 160 m and will operate from 2020.
Alternative technology
The Rail-Veyor ® is an alternative to either trucking or conveyors that is gathering interest. Its latest application is at the Deep 1 project at Agnico-Eagle ' s Goldex mine in Quebec. The operation declared commercial production in July 2017 and is progressing well. Employing long-
TNT overland conveyor at a mine in Arizona
hole stoping with cemented paste backfill, the same method used in the M and E zones, the mining rate for Deep 1 is some 6,000 t / d. Production from Deep 1 is expected to extend the Goldex mine life through 2025. In its latest report from October 2017, the company states that to date, two stopes have been mined with positive reconciliation to the block model. Mining activities in the Deep 1 area are expected to continue to ramp up through 2018. Given the successful start-up of Deep 1 and encouraging exploration results, the company is evaluating the potential to mine a portion of the Deep 2 Zone, which starts below the Deep 1 Zone at 1,200 m below surface.
Agnico Eagle has said because it is a low grade deposit, it had to come up with a new and cost effective way to transport the ore underground.“ That’ s when the engineers came up with the idea to bring in a technology called the Rail-Veyor.” Frederic Langevin said one of the reasons the mine chose Rail-Veyor is because unlike regular conveyors, the Rail-Veyor can easily negotiate turns.“ There are also other health and safety and industrial hygiene advantages. There are many other aspects, including operating costs that are lower than using trucks.” The company said a lot of effort was put into the project especially on the regulation side. Rail- Veyor offered an advantage in allowing use of the steep 17-20 % ramp that ascends about 500 m, from levels 1250 to 730( 520 m).
The Rail-Veyor has a series of two wheeled rail cars that form a continuous open trough to transport material. A series of dual-stationary drive stations located at intervals along the track provides the forward thrust or brake action. Material is dumped from the train by inverting the train in a vertical loop. The Goldex installation has 3 km of rail, with six trains of 160 m( 68 cars each), five by-passes and 91 drive stations with ore transported at 600 t / h. The system is remote controlled and electrically powered, essentially a light rail haulage solution. The conveyor is propelled by foam-filled tyres at the drive stations located at intervals along the track, which begins at the 1,250 m level below surface and ends at the 730 m level. The ore is dumped by Caterpillar trucks into a grizzly with openings of 457 by 457 mm and there’ s a rockbreaker chamber at the 1,150 m level to handle oversize. A vibrating feeder feeds the material to the Rail-Veyor cars, depositing the fines first to avoid damage to the troughs. IM
In a Rail-Veyor Dump Loop, to discharge materials, cars are inverted into a continuous loop that can be run 180 ° or 360 °, easily dumping into a stockpile, bin or crusher
FEBRUARY 2018 | International Mining 57