UNDERGROUND DRILLING
This year Mine Master has so far received an
order from KGHM for no less than seven
machines of the Face Master 1.7K type
hole drilling but added: “The IoT platform that
we integrated and enabled on the rig wasn’t part
of the original brief but we needed it for our own
use, so it came as an added bonus.”
The miner LKAB itself is using a variation of
conventional prospecting drilling to search for
new orebodies and secure reserves for the
future. Prospecting drilling will allow the iron ore
miner to gain more detailed knowledge of the
geometry and geochemistry of mineralisation,
but this process can often be expensive in both
man hours and euros.
That is why last year the company started
trials with crooked, or deviated, bore holes in
prospect drilling. Karin Lindgren, a geologist at
LKAB, explains: “We can already see several
advantages with crooked holes. Overall, the
number of drilling metres is reduced, and we do
not have to drive drifts at the outer edges of the
orebody to the same extent and can reach the
intended drilling locations with greater
precision.”
She continued: “With crooked drilling, we can
reach greater depth and access the ore from
different angles. The technique can be used to
reach the outer boundaries of the orebody and
gain a better understanding of its geometry.”
Today, two drill rigs are being used and a third
will soon be operational at the company’s
operations, LKAB said. The company is testing
the crooked-hole technique to first learn, and
then evaluate, the method, it said.
Anders Edlert, Project Manager for Prospecting
Drilling at LKAB, said: “We want to push the
boundaries and find out what can be done with
this technology in this type of rock and at what
cost.”
He does admit drilling deviated holes comes
with more friction, so drilling takes longer and
currently costs nearly three times as much as
conventional drilling. “We, therefore, have to
press the costs and compare them against the
time and resources that are needed for driving
new drifts for conventional drilling,” he
concluded.
Mine Master’s new low profile Face
Master
Mine Master has recently introduced a new low
profile drilling rig, the Face Master 1.7K. The rig
designed to work in galleries above 1.7 m height
has become a bestseller at KGHM’s copper mines
and is part of Mine Master’s continuous product
improvement cycle. The concept, based on 20
years of experience in the production of the rigs
with hydrostatic and hydrodynamic drive, the
company says is particularly well suited to low
profile room-and-pillar mining operations. It
combines the original proven concept of the Face
Master 1.7 with new technology and solutions
used on Face Master 1.7L.
One of the significant improvements on the
Face Master 1.7K is the operator’s cabin. The FM
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