NARROW VEIN & LOW PROFILE MINING
Scotgold has added a second DUX DT-12N underground truck to its fleet as it looks to bolster production at its Cononish gold-silver mine in Scotland . The DT-12N is a narrow-vein version of the DT- 12 produced by DUX . This machine measures 1,625 mm wide , has an 11 t payload and a 6 cu . m capacity . The first DT-12N has been operating at the mine for some time . Explaining this fleet addition , Scotgold said : “ Having proved that the mine and processing plant can operate as designed , our focus is on reducing outages through more efficient management of spares and having further redundancy in our mining mobile fleet with the arrival of the second haulage DUX truck ”
galleries from 3 m up to 5.8 m in height . It is equipped with a mechanised bolting mast for nine bolts , 1.8 m in height . It is powered by a 120 kWh sodium-nickel battery , which can be recharged by an on-board charger that integrates with existing mine power networks in the 500-1,000 V range .
The FM1.7LE follows the same design blueprint as the RM1.8KE and , even with the
Built for the Toughest Mining Applications
• Designed for High Vibration
• 3.21MP SONY Starvis Sensor
• H . 265 Triple Streaming
• IP67 Water / Dust Resistant
www . opticomintl . com charger mounted on it , remains the lowest height rig in its class – with a tramming height of 1.65 m . It is adapted to heavy-duty mining in room and pillar mines that have slopes of up to 15 ° and can drill blast holes of 41-76 mm in diameter . As with the electric bolter , the battery installed on board can be recharged via 500- 1,000 V power networks , with the electric-drive technology ensuring significant noise and gas emission reductions to improve operator comfort and safety .
The telescopic boom ’ s design allows for the replacement of all wear slides in around 15 minutes without the need to disassemble the boom , significantly improving both maintenance times and machine uptime . More precise and , thus , effective drilling can be conducted with the Face Master 1.7LE via an optional drilling monitoring system or FGS . Both systems are well suited for drilling in a room and pillar setting , MM says .
To support the low-profile primary fleet of loaders and rigs , the UVB utility vehicle range of low-profile equipment includes general purpose vehicles , personnel carriers , scissor lifts , tyre handlers , bulk emulsion carriers , concrete remixers , supervision vehicles and multipurpose cassette carriers . The range of cassettes includes fuel and lubes , bulk emulsion , explosives , cable reel , pipe handling , maintenance , tools and spares , as well as customer-specific options . With over 350 units running in the field , the utility vehicle range boasts one of the largest , most comprehensive utility vehicle portfolios in this size class , UVB says .
GHH also has a partnership with Overprime in Peru through which it is able to offer 1 t and 2 t
narrow-vein loaders , as well as a 5 t truck . Leveraging experience from the design of other low-profile equipment , GHH has several narrow-vein loaders in its range to suit market needs .
The LF-3 comes with a 3 t payload and is used in both deep level gold mines in Australia and high altitude mines in Peru . The most recent addition to the family is the LF-7 , a 7 t payload LHD with a 3.6 cu . m bucket ( SAE heaped ) that is extremely competitive in its size class , GHH says .
“ The vehicle is only 8,900 mm long in driving position , 2,240 mm wide at the bucket and 2,200 mm high at the cab when loaded ,” the company says . “ With an operating weight of approximately 18 t , the LF-7 is powered by a 164 kW Cummins diesel engine , making it the most powerful in its class .” It complies with Tier 3 and Tier 4 Final , as well as EU Stage V , emissions standards , making it one of the “ cleanest ” vehicles around , according to GHH . It can cope with gradients of up to 28 % and reach speeds of up to 27 km / h .
The cab is ROPS / FOPS certified and offers a high level of safety and ergonomics with comfortable t-back seat , low whole-body vibration and noise levels , as well as ride control and great visibility , the company says . It has been designed as a perfect three-pass loading partner for the long-established MK-A20 dump truck .
GHH Group says : “ The confined spaces in some narrow-vein applications bring with them a lot of challenges for equipment suppliers , especially to provide reliable , safe and productive machines that fit within the constraints .”
For these applications , MM has developed a highly productive narrow-vein drill rig in the form of the Face Master 2.5 , which has recently been upgraded to suit even more challenging conditions in more confined spaces , according to the company .
Due to a very low height restriction within the “ mine cuttings ” section of one customer ’ s mine in Uzbekistan , the machine ’ s tramming height was recently reduced to 2.1 m from 2.5 m , bringing about the introduction of a new machine , the Face Master 2.1 ( FM2.1 ).
“ Due to limited space in production headings , the kinematics of the working unit has to be ready for face drilling as well as vertical longhole drilling with quick reset of the feeder position ,” MM explained . “ The FM 2.1 is equipped with a well proven , heavy duty , twoaxial rotary actuator design , where changing the position from horizontal to vertical is extremely easy in tight headings .” An additional dump cylinder offers correction options before and after movement during vertical drilling , matching
52 International Mining | JULY 2021