UNDERGROUND RAIL
cheap.” Clayton is still supporting locos it
delivered over 65 years ago.
In terms of projects, like NMT, Clayton is
making inroads into the Chinese market,
particularly where high performance, reliability
and automation are high on the client list of
requirements. In South America, in 2018, Clayton
sold a 12 t trolley locomotive solution in Peru for
the Santa Luisa mine with an unusually high
specification, including full condition monitoring.
Several 4.5 t battery locos were also recently
delivered to long established client MARSA in Peru
with the client also placing an order for five 5.5 t
battery locos to be delivered in July 2020. Clayton
is famous in Peru for its locos, and its units are
used throughout the country’s mines including
Yauricocha, Atacocha, Buenaventura, Casapalca,
Milpo, Morococha, Poderosa, Milpo, Santa Rita,
Volcan and a number of other smaller Peruvian
operations.
Clayton has also delivered locos to Argentina,
Bolivia, Brazil and in recent years to Chile, at El
Teniente mine. In Russia, Clayton has a new order
from PhosAgro’s Apatit operations near Kirovsk
covering four 30 t automation ready hybrid locos
to be delivered between 2021 and 2023. In Asia,
aside from China, Clayton has delivered loco
systems to the Philippines to a number of
underground gold mines.
MEL and Mühlhäuser
The innovative German manufacturer Mühlhäuser
was recently added to the Mining Equipment Ltd
family in the form of all its inventory, drawings, IP
etc. MEL stated: “This important acquisition
represents our first step into the European market,
and we are excited for the opportunity to do what
we do best: give contractors the best support in
the industry, one project at a time.” Mining
Equipment’s first European office, in Breuberg,
Germany, will coordinate the expanded supply of
locomotives, rolling stock, mine hoists, mine
winches, and ventilation equipment in the new
market. This offering will be enhanced by
Mühlhäuser’s designs, engineering depth, and
regional experience. Paul Zeder is heading up
operations at the new facility, and fellow
Mühlhäuser veteran Marco Langnickle is the
design engineer.
While Mühlhäuser has traditionally focussed on
the tunnelling market, it does have mining rail
loco designs and in the past has supplied
solutions to Russia and Indonesia. MEL is well
known as a mining rail solutions provider, usually
including third party brand locos from its vast
used equipment inventory in its overall system (it
is also the Trident dealer for North America) but
also has its own designs. MEL recently rebuilt the
fleet of 25 t locos at the Red Lake mining complex
in Canada, now operated by Evolution Mining. The
rail system connects the Cochenour mine to Red
Lake via a 5 km haulage
drift, with ore processed at
the Campbell mill. Another
new interesting project for
Mühlhäuser is a new
underground mine training
facility in Germany, which
will still produce lead zinc
ore at the same time, for
which ore cars and locos
etc are being supplied.
Becker Warkop’s
electric expertise
Becker Warkop Sp.z o.o. was founded in 1991 in
Poland, more specifically in Silesia – a region
inextricably linked to Polish mining. Becker
Warkop Sp. z o.o. is a leading manufacturer of
mining machinery and equipment including
electric driven transport systems. Implementation
of electric floor-mounted gear railways of type
KSZ-650/900/30/60-A (powered by electric wire)
in 1998 represented the first projects related to
electric drives and were assigned for transporting
powered roof support sections, elements of
heading machines and face conveyors during
reinforcing/decommissioning of longwalls. In the
following years the company introduced the
following transport systems with electric drives to
the market: electrohydraulic manoeuvring
locomotive CMEH-22 (in 2011); electrohydraulic
locomotive CEH-22 (in 2012, also that year a
project related to the feasibility of battery driven
suspended locomotives – monorails was done);
battery-powered manoeuvring haulage CMA-190
(in 2014); battery-powered locomotive LGA-190 (in
2016); suspended battery-powered locomotive CA-
190 (in 2017); battery-powered locomotive LGA-
190/22 (in 2018); battery-powered locomotive
LGA-190/44 (in 2018); suspended electric
locomotive KPE (in 2019) and testing of the
electric toothed drive NEZ powered by a threephase
overhead contact line (in 2020).
“The described locomotives can all be operated
remotely and are designed for transmission of
data to a control centre or any other place of
supervision and control. Status logs are registered
in so-called black boxes, what allows to
comprehend a course of events.” The company
cites the numerous advantages of electric driven
machines:
n No particulate matter emissions to
underground atmosphere, which improves
overall conditions for transported personnel,
machine operators and personnel working
underground,
n Electric driven machines also produce lesser
amounts of heat, which is very important in
underground mining, especially in excavations
ventilated with a ventilation pipe which
improves the working conditions of personnel,
Becker Warkop battery-powered locomotive LGA-
190
n Less exhaust and heat emissions allow for an
overall smaller ventilation design,
n Quieter operation of the drives compared to
common diesel drives, improves the work
comfort for machine operators, transported
personnel and personnel working nearby,
n Machine operation does not interrupt
measurements of firefighting safety systems
(like CO sensors),
n No expensive logistics and infrastructure for
refuelling with common diesel is not required,
which improves machines mobility
n Generally electric drives have a more suitable
torque curve for typical monorail applications,
especially for low speeds and high loads
Electric driven locomotives, especially those
with batteries have additional advantages:
n Lower operational costs compared with diesel
locomotives (cost of consumed fuel compared
to cost of consumed energy),
n Possibility of charging the battery in
excavations, where electrical devices of
explosion-proof construction can operate
(without a need of building additional chambers
for battery charging ventilated by independent
air flow),
n Work and security parameters control,
n Energy recovery when driving or braking on
downhill slope, which improves the overall
machine efficiency by increasing the operation
time between charging
Becker Warkop concludes: “Electric driven
transport systems have significant perspectives of
further development. This results from, inter alia,
the possibility of using batteries of higherperformance
and the use of innovative, effective
methods of supplying electricity to drives eg using
a three-phase overhead contact line.”
The Slovak Republic’s unique mining
loco history
A famous mining locomotive company “Pohronské
strojárne” was operating in what is now the Slovak
Republic since 1950. It manufactured locomotives
22 International Mining | JUNE 2020