MINE HOISTS
as more mines start to be managed from Integrated Remote Operations Centres , it will also streamline hoist management for global miners .”
On projects , ABB offers both mechanical and the electrical / automation control side of the business . ABB recently won a large order for its highest payload Koepe production hoist , associated infrastructure and safety systems from Australia-based mining company OZ Minerals . The contract will help to ensure efficient processing performance and a long service life as part of an ongoing $ 400 million expansion at the Prominent Hill mine in South Australia . The hoist , which will be designed and supplied by ABB , has a capacity of 39,400 kg and the strongest drivetrain that ABB has ever installed in Australia . ABB specialists will also supervise installation and commissioning . The hoisting shaft provides access to mineral resources outside the current trucking mine plan that would have been uneconomical via a trucking operation from around 2033 . Installing the Wira shaft will increase the annual underground mining rate , extend the mine life , reduce operating costs , lower emissions intensity , and reduce overall operational risk , according to OZ Minerals .
Once operational , the installation at Prominent Hill will have ABB Ability™ Safety Plus for hoists , a suite of mine hoist safety products that brings the highest level of personnel and equipment safety available to the mining industry , the company said . It is the first fully SIL 3 ( Safety Integrity Level ) certified suite of solutions for hoists , rigorously examined and certified by an independent global functional safety certifying body , and strictly developed in accordance with the International “ Safety of Machinery ” standard IEC62061 , the company said . The products include Safety Plus Hoist Monitor ( SPHM ), Safety Plus Hoist Protector ( SPHP ) and Safety Plus Brake System ( SPBS ) including Safety Brake Hydraulics ( SBH ).
Odyssey and Odysseus
Another major hoist project in development worldwide is at the new Odyssey Mine , located near the town of Malartic in the Abitibi- Témiscamingue region of northern Quebec , which will extract ore from an orebody that lies underneath the historical East Malartic Gold Mines . The mine is owned and will be operated by Canadian Malartic Partnership ( Yamana Gold 50 %/ Agnico Eagle 50 %). The production hoist will be a new Blair double drum Multi-Rope hoist which allows the operation of two 47.35 t skips . It will have four 63.5 mm ropes with two sets of compensating sheaves . The drum ’ s diameter will be 7.12 m and each drum is driven by 12,000 HP AC motors . The designed hoisting speed for the
Construction at Canadian Malartic ' s Odyssey gold mine in Quebec
production is 18 m / s . The supplier has yet to be specified , similarly not as yet for the service hoist which will consist of a single drum type to be used for two purposes during its operation . It will be used to hoist a cage-skip single deck with a capacity of 11.3 t or 36 workers and later on will be replaced with a double deck service cage for personnel and material . The service hoist is designed to operate at a speed of 8 m / s and will haul at maximum speed while hoisting material / waste but is limited at 8 m / s for personnel haulage . The 4,877 mm diameter drum is driven by a 4,000 HP motor . Finally , FLSmidth has already supplied and installed the auxiliary hoist , again a single drum type of hoist which will be used for hauling workers in a double-deck cage of nine workers per deck capacity . It has a 2,438 mm diameter drum driven by one 850 HP motor and is designed to operate at a speed of 8 m / s .
Over in Australia , in 2022 , the Cosmos Nickel Operation was acquired by IGO as part of the acquisition of Western Areas . IGO is currently developing the Odysseus Underground Mine at the Cosmos Nickel Operation . Once in production , Odysseus will deliver high quality nickel concentrates into the global nickel market which is growing rapidly driven by demand for nickel rich lithium-ion batteries . The primary ventilation shaft consists of a 5 m-wide and 1,000 m-deep intake shaft which will also serve as a production hoisting shaft and a partially reamed 5m exhaust raise . The hoisting shaft will be capable of accommodating up to 1.1 Mt of ore and waste a year and will be equipped with a mid‐shaft loading station ( MSLS ) and a bottom shaft loading station ( BSLS ). The hoist is a refurbished FLSmidth legacy brand hoist originally delivered for Impala Platinum ’ s Shaft 12 North in South Africa , which was shipped to Australia and is in the process of being installed .
From hoist supply to safety brakes
FLSmidth is one of the global leaders on the mechanical and hydraulics side of hoist supply including three kinds of hoisting systems : Koepe Hoists , Drum Hoists , and Blair Multi-Rope ( BMR ) Hoists . Its hoists can be made with drum
diameters less than 1 m and up to more than 6 m . This can be done with a double or single drum configuration . FLSmidth hoists can also have dual clutched drums . On electricals and control systems it works with whoever the customer or EPCM specifies . An example is a project working with ABB at Vale ’ s Copper Cliff South operation or with Actom using GE Power Conversion technology in Africa such as at Glencore Mopani Copper Mines in Zambia .
One of its recent innovations in mechanical hoist solutions is the Crank Type Dump Mechanism for skip unloading which replaces more expensive hydraulic units while optimising skip cycle times and reducing headframe height requirements in comparison to scroll-type discharge systems . IM spoke to one of the original developers , Francois Koekemoer , Mechanical Design Engineer - Mine Shaft Systems at FLSmidth : “ Its going well – as is typical in mining nobody wants to be first , however , we ’ ve seen great interest and have done some upfront CTDM engineering for some of our customers and where it is very likely to be installed in the medium term .”
FLSmidth also offers Brake Control Systems and its most recent innovation on that front is its patented Cage Guardian™ Safety Brake , developed out of its Orillia , Ontario office . Koekemoer says : “ It ’ s now been installed at mines in both Canada but also in Finland . In the Canadian market , safety brakes always need to be installed on the conveyances themselves and until now there was no steel guide system that met all the functional requirements .” For years , safety catches and timber guides have been the most relied-upon solution . But consistency amongst timber guides is difficult to achieve — wood is subject to moisture and defect issues , spare timber guides must be stored correctly and once a safety catch event occurs , the timber guide must be replaced . And , obtaining highquality timber guides is becoming more and more difficult . Offering increased durability and matchless dependability , the patent pending Cage Guardian Safety Brake forgoes conventional safety catches and timber guides , and instead uses engineered steel guides .
The patented FLSmidth Cage Guardian Safety Brake system uses engineered steel guides and a self contained brake path
22 International Mining | AUGUST 2022