UNDERGROUND MINING RAIL
Paul Moore looks at
the interesting
development of
using electric
monorails in hard
rock metallic mining,
as well as reviewing
other advances in
mining rail
Keeping on track
hinking outside the box is very much part
of mining today, as companies look to get
a competitive advantage by introducing
technologies that are either completely new,
have been applied on a small scale before but
never perfected, or have been applied in a
particular niche in mining but have applicability
in other mining situations. And mining rail and
rail mounted transport is no exception.
In terms of new technology, one area where
there have been really interesting developments
is in the application of monorail systems to hard
rock metallic mining. In April, Torex Gold said
that field trials were underway for the first piece
of equipment for its proprietary Muckahi mining
system at its ELG gold mine in Mexico. The first
tunnelling blast of the field trials was taken on
March 26th. The round was
successfully drilled from a
monorail mounted
Muckahi jumbo drill. Two
additional blasts have
subsequently been
successfully completed.
The second piece of
equipment, the Muckahi
service platform, is
expected to be in service
in the second quarter.
The team is aiming at
completing the field trials in 2019. The goal is to
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22 International Mining | JUNE 2019
demonstrate the Muckahi mining system
capabilities over the full development cycle for
tunnelling, including on a minus 30-degree
gradient, and to demonstrate the capability of
the system to lower costs in long hole open
stope mining. For full production using Muckahi
Torex is looking approximately the second
quarter of 2023 for the completion of
development and testing.
Torex states that the proposed application of
a monorail system for underground
transportation for mine development and
production mining is unique to underground
hard rock mining, though there are existing
underground hard rock mines that use a
monorail system for transportation of
materials
Torex Gold said in April that field trials were
underway for the first piece of equipment for its
proprietary Muckahi mining system at its ELG
gold mine in Mexico
SMT Scharf says that its Electric Monorail
Transport System (EMTS) has wide application
in hard rock metallic mining both ultra deep
and shallow
and equipment. Muckahi is an alternative to
established underground mining processes and
uses a one-boom jumbo, service platform,
mucking machine and tramming conveyor, all on
monorail. The key expected benefits are
continuous muck handling system and the
elimination of re-handle and storage; all-electric
operation and significant reduction in
ventilation requirements; the ability to travel on
±30° (58%) slope and major reduction in both
permanent and
operating
development;
and the ability
for bi-direction
travel in 4m x
4m tunnel.
Moving on to operations in
metallic mining that have already used
monorails for materials transport, SMT Scharf’s
Electric Monorail Transport System (EMTS) has
already been deployed at AngloGold Ashanti’s
Mponeng gold mine in South Africa and at a
platinum operation, also in South Africa, where
four trains have been deployed in a twin incline
development over a total length of 2,600 m. Two
other declines on other shafts are also currently