NORDIC TECHNOLOGY
smarter products, using smarter materials,” says
Oliver Sabu, one of Taurus’s owners.
Taurus aims to increase customers’ production
rates, reducing overall operating costs and
improving safety. SSAB says it was natural that the
company as a result chose Hardox ® wear plate
and Strenx ® performance steel for its buckets.
“It was a good mix because our idea of coming
up with innovative products was to have lighter
and stronger parts that are hard-wearing,” Sabu
says.
The result is a mining bucket that weighs 1 t
and if it’s required, on the external of sidewalls
and cheeks.”
Some Strenx ® performance steel is also used in
the bucket, at high-stress points such as the hitch increased productivity, lower fuel use, and less
wear and tear on machines.”
As an example, a mine site in north
Queensland, Australia, is currently using a bucket
and the torque tube areas, to withstand the
weight of the bucket and the operational forces of
the machine. Taurus has also built liner-less
buckets, where the floor of the bucket itself is a and truck body combination that improves
productivity by 10-18%. “When designed right,
and processed right, and all the parameters are
liner plate. By reducing the number of separate
liner plates the bucket becomes much lighter. The
Taurus buckets are mainly used for loading and
maintained, the weldability of Hardox is
excellent,” Sabu says. “The strength of the
material is without comparison, and it’s always
consistent, which are the reason we use SSAB
transporting coal and dirt. The company’s biggest
bucket is for Hitachi EX5600 excavators, carrying
roughly 36 cubic metres of product.
When using a Taurus bucket, Sabu explains, the steel in our buckets.”
less compared to the previous model. This
translates into four loads to fill a mining tray
instead of the earlier five loads. It also means improved bucket life and decreased downtime.
For the bucket’s wearing areas, Taurus, a
Hardox ® In My Body customer program member,
mainly uses Hardox ® 450 steel. The sheet sizes forces are distributed better. “There is not much
drag in the bucket, so you extend the lifetime,” he
says. “Any extra extended hours of bucket use
translate into money, so essentially that’s a big Boliden has just entered into a new five-year
agreement with Forcit for the supply of explosives
services and materials for the period January 1,
vary. Sidewalls are usually around the 25 mm
range and the cheeks around 80 to 100 mm.
“On the internal, we use Hardox wear plate on
the floor and sidewalls,” explains Travis Van Rooy, cost saving for the customer.”
The minimum productivity gains that Taurus has
given customers for buckets and trays are
increased capacity of around 6 to 10%. “The fabrication and workshop leading hand at Taurus.
“On the external, we use them on the floor as well, buckets are about 10% lighter, so the machines
aren’t working so hard,” says Sabu. “The result is
Wärtsilä hybrid power solution for Ma'aden gold mine
Finnish technology group Wärtsilä will supply the engineering,
equipment, and technical advisory for a 44 MW power plant to be
installed at the Mansourah & Massarah gold project mine in Saudi Arabia.
It will be the first newbuild power project in the country to utilise a hybrid
concept, with engine technology and solar energy.
The order with Wärtsilä was placed in March by Larsen & Toubro Ltd,
the India-based main contractors for the project. The power plant will
comprise six Wärtsilä 32 engines, with five in operation and one on
constant stand-by. The built-in flexibility of the Wärtsilä engine
technology, which allows full power output to be reached within minutes
of being started, will allow the plant to efficiently utilise renewable solar
energy. Renewable source energy, such as solar and wind,
require the power plant to be able to respond
rapidly to an inherently fluctuating
supply to enable the load to
be effectively balanced.
“Wärtsilä is a global
energy solution provider
with a strong presence in
Saudi Arabia. Reliability is
key for any gold mine
for securing
uninterrupted operations and
targeted revenues in all occasions. The dedicated power plant
will ensure that the mine can operate on a reliable and economical supply
of electricity. In particular, we have selected the Wärtsilä technology
because of its capability to enable the integration of PV solar into the
system, which is important for this project,” commented Amit Swarnkar,
MENA BU Head, Metallurgical and Material Handling Division, Larsen &
Turbo Ltd.
“Maximising the use of renewable energy is central to Wärtsilä’s
approach to enabling sustainable energy supplies. We enhance this
energy transition by optimising energy systems for our customers, and
46 International Mining | MAY 2020
Forcit cements relationship with
Boliden
2021 to December 31, 2025. The agreement
applies to Boliden's mines in Sweden and
Boliden's Kevitsa mine in Finland.
“Extending the agreement is a clear expression
of trust from our customer and shows that we
have done the right things and also succeeded in
them,” says Tommi Halonen, Forcit Chief Operative
have extensive experience in providing power for mining operations, so
this project fits our capabilities perfectly,” said Alexandre Eykerman,
Energy Business Director, Middle East, Wärtsilä.
The Wärtsilä equipment will be delivered on a fast-track basis within
just 10 months from the contract signing. The plant is scheduled to be
commissioned by May 2021, with commercial operations beginning a year
later.
The Mansourah & Massarah gold project is being executed by a
consortium of Outotec and Larsen Toubro Ltd. While
Outotec remains the key technology provider
for this project, Larsen & Toubro’s
responsibility includes the entire
balance of plant activities, including
some critical process equipment, the
entire plant utilities, power
generation and distribution, as well as
the civil and structural works, together
with the complete plant installation
activities and commissioning support.
The Mansourah & Massarah project is
Saudi Arabian Mining Company’s
(Ma’aden) largest ever gold project,
estimated to produce an average of
250,000 ounces of gold per year
over the life of the mine. The on-site
processing plant will be capable of processing
up to 4 Mt/y of the complex refractory ores contained in the deposit – the
first time such ores have been mined and processed in the Middle East.
The project is commissioned, and the mine will be operated by Ma’aden
Gold and Base Metals Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ma’aden as
part of the Saudi Government’s Vision 2030 initiative to diversify the
national economy and promote the mining sector.
The Wärtsilä 32 engine is well established and proven in Saudi Arabia,
with more than 100 units already installed in 15 baseload power plants.