NORDIC TECHNOLOGY
Somincor, also a subsidiary of Lundin Mining.
The mine is situated in the Alentejo district in
southern Portugal and extracts material from
five major orebodies. The ore is processed on
site in one copper plant and one zinc plant.
In 2015, exploration work focused on
extending known orebodies and utilised
drilling from underground locations. The
drilling targeted four of the five orebodies.
This core drilling programme was completed
last year by Drillcon Iberia. This year, the
company is carrying out raiseboring for ore
passes, vent raises and service shafts, as
well as raise boring in the production zone to
open new slots. Drillcon has been providing
raise boring, core drilling, and other services
to Neves Corvo since 1993.
“We have a special relationship with
Drillcon,” says João Horta, Mining Engineer
at Somincor mine. “It’s more of a partnership
than a conventional formal relationship.
Drillcon in Portugal has their operations at our
site, with their own workshop and stock of spare
parts. We hire Drillcon over and over again
because we’re happy with both their service and
their prices,” says Horta. “We’ve tried other
companies, but Drillcon is the best. They can
handle the problems related to the difficult rocks
we have in the mine. The company’s
craftsmanship is very good. They are also capable
of working with advanced technology, like RVDS
as an aid for raiseboring with no deviation.
Drillcon has an exemplary safety record, with no
accidents in the past three years. As we are a zero
harm company, the safety records of our partners
are crucial when we have to decide who we want
to work with.”
João Horta also mentions that Drillcon is very
flexible when it comes to satisfying sudden
demands with a quick turnaround time and in its
ability to cooperate. ”When special services are
needed, these can often be fulfilled by a
cooperation between Drillcon, Bergteamet,
Deilmann Haniel and us,” says Horta.
Lastly, Dundee Precious Metals has extended
an ongoing framework agreement with Drillcon
Iberia regarding raiseboring at the Chelopech gold
mine in Bulgaria for another two years which
started in January 2020. "We are very pleased that
we have gained continued trust with an extended
agreement and see it as a receipt that Drillcon
delivers added value to Chelopech's production of
copper and gold,'' says Patrik Rylander.
Allu’s M Series
Finland-based Allu says its M Series Transformers
have found a real niche processing rocks and ores
for the global mining and power industries. They
are able to be fitted with different drum
configurations of 50 mm and 75 mm resulting in
differing fragment sizes being processed with high
44 International Mining | MAY 2020
Allu M-Series working at a nickel mine
productivity in ‘one step’. The entire process is
fully mobile and can replace conventional crushing
and screening plants in many cases. The Allu
Transformer M-Series has been designed to fit
excavators from 50 t to 200 t and wheel loaders
from 30 t to 100 t, benefitting miners’ from being
essentially a combined loading and processing
solution.
Allu gives three examples that is says perfectly
illustrate the effectiveness of the Allu Transformer
ranges operating within the mining industry.
Firstly, a Transformer was brought in to deal with a
problem at a Scandinavian phosphate mine. The
machine was put to highly effective use separating
waste rock from the phosphate ROM while loading
in one step prior to transportation out from the
mining cells for further refining. This was due to a
production problem, as large waste rock found in
the ROM was causing blockages at the dump truck
unloading stations, causing interruptions to the
flow of material. By separating the waste rock
already at the source, the problem was
eliminated.
Another Nordic mine also faced problems, as
the mined 0-8 mm crushed ore was creating
problems in the iron ore pelletising process, with
large saturated and frozen lumps being especially
problematic. This was exacerbated by the fact that
no pieces larger than 100 mm were allowed to
enter the production chain in order to assure a
free flow of material. Using the Transformer has
now radically transformed the processing and
handling of the ore and removed problematic
bottlenecks in the flow of material. Production is
now back up to over 1,000 t/h in order to meet the
required demand for full iron ore pellet
production. The ore is no longer ‘lumped’, but
rather loose and thus easily transported.
An area that has particularly seen the
benefits of the Allu Transformer range has
been surface mining operations in Latin
America. “One such application has seen the
Allu Transformer M-Series being used at a
nickel mine in Brazil, screening chalcedony
directly at the source in the mine, in order to
upgrade the nickel concentration of the
processed material. This particular model was
chosen due to its high mobility and
functionality in screening the material in-situ
while loading the dump trucks. This was
instead of only loading the ROM onto trucks,
then transporting the material to stationary
screening plant, and then re-loading the
material for further transportation to the
metallurgical factory. This has meant the
company has been able to replace its
stationary screening equipment, radically
reduce material double handling, and freeing
up resources as well as enjoying greater
flexibility in its operations.
“The Allu method has an additional benefit
which is very much appreciated in the surface
mining of soft rock, and open cast coal operations.
This is where the processing of the material by the
Allu Transformer enables contaminants to be
removed, thereby enabling a ‘pure’ mineral to be
loaded.”
Robit drill bits bound for Norilsk
Finland’s drilling consumables major Robit says it
has recently resigned a contract to supply drilling
tools to Norilsk Nickel, in Norilsk, Russia, with the
deliveries expected to take place during April and
May.
Norilsk is in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, and
located above the Arctic Circle. Since there are no
roadway or railway connections, all freight is
delivered by cargo ship via the Arctic Ocean to the
Port of Dudinka, in Murmansk, or by air. The Robit
drilling consumables are to be delivered by sea,
Robit said.
Norilsk Nickel is one of Russia’s leading metals
and mining company, a manufacturer of palladium
and refined nickel, and one of the biggest
platinum and copper producers in the world. The
company also produces cobalt, rhodium, silver,
gold, iridium, ruthenium, selenium, tellurium, and
sulphur.
Robit, meanwhile, provides drilling
consumables for applications in mining,
construction and contracting, tunnelling, and well
drilling. It has two product and service ranges: top
hammer and down-the-hole.
Last month, the company signed a two-year
contract to supply drilling tools to Al Masane Al
Kobra Mining Co, in Saudi Arabia, for underground
jumbo rigs at its Al Masane copper-zinc mine. The
tools are to be supplied by Robit’s distributor, Bin
Harkhil.