WORLD PROSPECTS
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motors with the necessary pressure and volumetric flow rate .
Caterpillar Inc ’ s executive office made this statement to IM : “ Caterpillar has entered into a preliminary agreement with Hauhinco to divest the longwall product line . Subject to the negotiation of a final agreement , the deal is expected to be completed in Q3 ( September quarter ) 2022 .
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Caterpillar and Hauhinco will work together to ensure a smooth transition to minimise any impacts to customers and dealers .”
On the reasoning behind the move , the company stated : “ To stay focused on Caterpillar core products and services , the company has made the decision to exit the longwall product line .”
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No further details were given but Caterpillar ’ s remaining longwall business includes hydraulic roof supports , high-horsepower shearers , automated plow systems and armoured face conveyors with intelligent drive technology controlled and supported by advanced longwall automation . www . cat . com / mining ; www . hauhinco . de |
Nussir and Epiroc partner on zero emissions primary fleet project
Undoubtedly one of Europe ’ s and the world ’ s most progressive mining projects – and a potential contender for the title of the world ’ s first truly all-electric mine – is Nussir ASA ’ s copper project in northern Norway ’ s Finnmark region . Nussir has received all its major permits and approvals from the Norwegian government and a positive feasibility study was recently completed by SRK Consulting . The mine is located on Repparfjord and is expected to begin construction this year . It has the potential to produce about 50 % of Norway ’ s consumption of copper . All Nussir ’ s electricity needs will be covered by renewable energy sources and it will use a 100 % battery-electric vehicle fleet of 47 machines , including the primary mining fleet plus utility vehicles .
Nussir CEO , Øystein Rushfeldt , gave an update on the project at The Electric Mine 2022 conference in Stockholm , Sweden , and announced at the event a new zero emissions partnership with Epiroc for its primary mine development and production fleets . Erik Kieding Presthus , Epiroc ’ s
Nussir ASA CEO Øystein Rushfeldt speaking at The Electric Mine 2022 conference in Stockholm
Regional General Manager for Norway , Finland and
the Baltics , told IM : “ Nussir ’ s planned fully electric copper mine in Norway is a very exciting project . We have worked closely with Nussir in the planning stage , and we are looking forward to play a key role in their journey with our top-modern battery-electric mining equipment . We have a broad leading offering of battery-electric equipment , and we see that Nussir and other
customers acknowledge this and want to go for zero-emission operations . The benefits of this for customers and society as a whole include zero emissions , a healthier work environment without fumes and with less noise , vibration and heat , and lower total cost of operations .”
The mine will use an innovative mining method with five mobile crushers , one on each ore pass , of which there will be one every 360 m . Trucks will be used mainly for development . The mine will have inclined ore drives so 14 t LHDs going downhill loaded to ore passes will benefit from battery regeneration . There will also be extensive use of underground conveyors . Norwegian contractor LNS will do all stope mining and development . The partnership with Epiroc includes both the ST14 Battery LHD and the MT42 Battery truck as well as drilling equipment . While being a highly sustainable and productive mine in its own right , Nussir will also act as a showcase mine for other operators worldwide wanting to see an all-electric mine in development and in production . https :// nussir . no ; www . epirocgroup . com
Becker Varis ’ s smartdetect brings new awareness options to surface mining
Anew technology offering from Becker Varis in Canada , part of Becker Mining , is a surface GPS-based collision avoidance system called smartdetect . In addition , the company says the CAS element is just one building block of a more integrated approach to the application of sensor-based technology on mining equipment .
Albert Bower , Becker Varis CEO told IM : “ Historically a big problem with mining vehicles and especially trucks was the cluttering of the driver cab with technology with separate fatigue , collision , TPMS and even a dispatch system all with different screens . All these visual devices actually make it much harder for the operator to be productive during their shift . At Becker we wanted to bring a solution where it wasn ’ t necessary to have all the building blocks ourselves , but where we could integrate different systems .”
Starting with smartdetect , the new CAS for surface , Bower adds : “ We ’ ve then got an RS485 Canbus connection to access on-board vehicle telemetry , a third party TPMS system and potentially many other systems including cameras where we have our own outdoor , IP69Krated camera but can also tie in to other camera systems . When the mining customer wants to add new elements to smartdetect they can just plug it in and upload the firmware . Its very modular .” Bower added that is is also in the process of incorporating fatigue monitoring and dispatch elements into smartdetect .
Custom designed software integrates the system ’ s hardware functionality into a modern and user-friendly interface that requires little to no training for operators . A controller is at the core of the system as it centralises the data from the various components of smartdetect and enables communication capabilities across them with its embedded I / O interfaces .
On the GPS system itself , Bower said this has specifically been designed for mining , whereas other systems in use in mining today were designed for maritime , microlight or other markets and then hardened for mining . Maritime was set-up to mainly be operating on one level 360 degree area most of the time – with mining you have pits with multiple different altitudes , so it is very hard for the technology to work correctly all the time . Also in mining you might have 20 or 30 vehicles as well as a number of people in the working part of the mine . “ We have
The Becker Varis smartdetect controller incorporated V2X technology into smartdetect as well – which is something that started in the automotive industry – it allows detection of multiple machines and people in close proximity . V2X can handle 400-500 or more GPS transponders . It is based on cellphone technology with a broad spectrum where the greater bandwidth allows for much more data transfer . Accuracy of the GPS receivers has also got much better .”
On the CAS EMESRT level – smartdetect is currently a Level 6 capable unit , which will shortly be certified at the University of Pretoria ’ s Vehicle Dynamics Group facility in South Africa , with the aim to then get it up to a Level 9 system with autonomous braking . https :// www . becker-mining . com
6 International Mining | MARCH 2022