UNDERGROUND LOAD & HAUL
built its first blasthole drill for surface mining to
compete with the Epiroc DM30 and Sandvik DK25
in SA – the DK25 for example can drill a 171 mm
hole, while the Rham drill of the same class can
reach 250 mm.
Paus’s PFL progress
The Paus LHDs PFL 8, PFL 10, PFL 20 and PFL 30 it
says are especially designed for the customer
needs in the toughest underground mining
operations. The company says its machines
“particularly convince the industry by their
reliability and power.” All the loaders are available
with various diesel or electric drives (battery,
cable). Furthermore the loaders can be controlled
via a radio remote control for safer operation
conditions.
All vehicles of the PFL series are equipped with
a driver's cabin with easy and ergonomic sideaccess.
“By this solution, the times in which the
operator had to access his workspace from the
articulated joint – exposing the operator to an
increased danger – are over. The ergonomic and
large operator's cabin not only fulfils ROPS/ FOPS
requirements, but can also be equipped with a
very large number of safety features such as
collision warning systems, fatigue warning
systems or 3P seat belts to protect the operator in
the best way possible. If the vehicle has to
operate in extremely unstable mine areas, all
loaders can be easily and quickly converted to a
radio remote controlled vehicle so that the
operator's health is not at risk at any time.”
The side arranged seat gives the driver an
excellent overview when loading and
manoeuvring, with a comfortable body posture.
“An air-suspended seat not only guarantees the
comfort of the operator, it also increases health
protection when loading in rough terrain. The
operator's platform is equipped with two
joysticks. One multifunction joystick for the
direction of travel and gear shifting and a second
joystick for the working hydraulics. All operating
elements are easily accessible from the driver's
seat and can be perfectly surveyed even in poor
light conditions. The large and clear display
provides information on all important vehicle data
at all times.”
The extremely compact loaders by Paus it says
have extremely high break out forces and
excellent loading efficiency. In addition, the
optimised vehicle widths and small turning radii
allow a fast hauling of the mineral being extracted.
For example, the PFL 8 - with a payload of 1.5 t the
smallest Paus loader - can already be used in
track widths of 2.2 m. The hydrostatic drive in
combination with a powerful and low-emission
engine offers a high productivity and a reduction
of the life cycle costs of the machines. The larger
Paus loaders - such as the PFL 20 with a payload
of 4 t and the PFL 30 with a payload of 6 t - are
The largest machine in the
Paus LHD range, the PFL-30
assembled with an optimised
hydrodynamic drive train for
very high penetration forces.
The loaders are equipped with
the most up-to-date engine
technology to guarantee
sustainable mining and low
ventilation volumes.
Paus machines support the operator with
intelligent vehicle and service solutions in order to
guarantee a high durability and low life cycle costs
among high safety standards. With the new Paus
Connect feature, machine operations can be
controlled and analysed. “With the support of the
Paus Diagnostic Display, which indicates
maintenance intervals or enables the operator to
simplify troubleshooting, the already high
durability of Paus machines can be increased even
more. It enables a fast parameterisation of the
machine to react to changing operating
conditions. Paus Connect can inform the mine
control room about the positioning and
productivity of the machine with appropriate data,
for example via LTE technology. With the
generated data, efficient maintenance jobs of the
service staff can be controlled exactly and
necessary maintenance times can be optimised.”
Additionally, the data can be transferred to Paus
for error analysis and/or remote maintenance, so
that necessary services can be handled in the
shortest possible amount time. All maintenance
points of the machine can be reached from the
ground, which means that components can be
changed quickly and easily. Lubrication points that
are difficult to access are automatically lubricated
by the optionally available central lubrication
system. And: the hydraulic and electrical systems
are easily accessible via flaps inside the
operator's platform for easy maintenance.
In order to promote sustainability in mining, to
guarantee the required amount of fresh air and to
enable ventilation costs when expanding existing
vehicle fleets, Paus also offers the PFL series as
cable or battery-powered versions. Already in the
early 1990s, Paus developed and built vehicles for
emission-sensitive areas with electric drives.
Today, Paus LHDs are offered with a modular
battery concept which allows both quick charging
and changing of battery packs. In addition, the
machines are equipped with "onboard charging"
systems and regenerative braking systems to
ensure high availability and short charging times.
“Of course, safety is also a priority in this drive
technology as Paus uses a modern, selfmonitoring
battery system with insulation
monitoring. The installed batteries meet the
highest safety standard ECE-R100.”
ARMZ Aramine collaboration bearing
fruit
ARMZ Mining Machinery says it has become the
first and only company in Russia and the CIS
producing lithium-ion battery-powered mining
equipment through a collaboration with France’s
Aramine. The company, part of ARMZ Uranium
Holding Co, has started producing the mining
equipment in Krasnokamensk, in the Trans-Baikal
Territory of Russia, at the site of Priargunsky
Industrial Mining and Chemical Union (PIMCU,
PJSC is a part of ARMZ Uranium Holding Co). The
project is being implemented under an industrial
partnership agreement ARMZ Uranium Holding Co
and Aramine, signed in April 2019. As part of this
pact, ARMZ Mining Machinery is the project
operator.
ARMZ said the production from Krasnokamensk
will cover the internal needs of ROSATOM State
Atomic Energy Corp (of which ARMZ is a part of),
and let the company enter foreign markets with
‘competitive products. The ARGO LHD 140B is
designed specifically for underground work in
narrow-vein deposits, according to ARMZ. Based
off the design of the Aramine miniLoader L140B, it
has a width of 1.1 m and a bucket carrying capacity
of 1.3 t. A 50 kW engine and a lithium-ion battery
pack provide high mobility and continuous
operation for up to four hours; at the same time,
offering low noise, minimal heat transfer and no
gas contamination in the mine. The machine
significantly outperforms the requirements of the
Russian standards in industrial safety, according
to ARMZ.
Ivan Kiselev, Director General of PIMCU, PJSC,
said: “New LHD machines will let us efficiently
and reliably carry out operations for the loading
and transportation of ore inside the stopes. The
transition to a new battery-powered narrow-vein
equipment is an economically viable solution
aimed at reducing operating costs and improving
the quality of ore mining.”
Igor Semenov, Executive Director of ARMZ
Mining Machinery, said the production of the
ARGO LHD 140B means ARMZ Mining Machinery
has become the first and only company in Russia
and the CIS producing lithium-ion batterypowered
mining equipment.
He explained: “We adapted the Aramine design
JUNE 2020 | International Mining 17