MINE HOISTS
anywhere else in the world.”
Related to both maintenance and safety, ABB in May 2026 established a strategic partnership with Point Laz, a leading developer of mine shaft monitoring technologies. Under the agreement, ABB intends to integrate the Lazaruss™ 3D scanner into its updated ABB Ability™ Smart Hoisting solution 4.0.
The laser scanning technology will help customers to complete mine hoist inspections in a safe environment, where the technology generates a digital copy of the shaft and provides a remote visualisation tool enabling automated mine shaft inspections. It will also provide information through regular scans that may support earlier identification of potential issues, enabling customers to take proactive action.
Manuell:“ Traditionally shaft scanning has been a very manual process. So it’ s sending people down the shaft in quite a dangerous environment. There have actually been a few recent accidents with shaft scanning. So it is definitely a place where there are better ways of doing it by using technology.”
Two more topics in the discussion were energy capture and storage from hoisting; plus alternative technologies to hoisting in vertical material transport.“ The energy part of hoisting is a big focus area for us. On one hand there’ s a peak demand reduction aspect to it, but also then as we have more renewable energy sources, an energy stability and resilience side to it. There are several ways that you can look at this- gravity storage is one, battery storage is another, and flywheels are a potential third option. So these are all things that we’ re considering.”
And there is real experience already in the market. At the Tanami gold mine in Australia, the personnel and production hoists for Tanami Expansion 2 were supplied by ABB- which operate alongside a regenerative energy storage solution. Instead of dissipating braking energy as heat, the kinetic energy is fed directly into the site’ s microgrid battery.
Finally, alternative methods – in 2024 ABB and EcoHoist executed a MoU to collaborate on the development of a vertical material transport solution for underground mines. The solution combines EcoHoist’ s technology with ABB’ s technical capability and experience in vertical ore haulage in mining. EcoHoist is an innovative, continuous bucket elevator designed to vertically transport ore out of underground mines. The bucket design enables a high throughput through small diameter mine shafts. The geometry enables them to be filled and emptied quickly so the system can operate in a continuous manner.
Manuell:“ We think there’ s some niche applications where it could make sense to look at conventional hoisting alternatives. With EcoHoist, the concept is to try to get the hoisting benefits into a scenario where the CAPEX cost for a traditional hoist might just be too high. It could work for some mining companies both in greenfield and existing mines that have lower production volumes or shallower deposits with a shorter mine life, without having to go through the complete process of having a full size shaft, as shaft sinking is quite an expensive activity.”
Strength of experience
IM also spoke with Francois Koekemoer, Business Development Manager at FLS for Mine Shaft Systems about the current market, and its key strengths which include leadership in supply of highly engineered Blair Multi-Rope( BMR) drum hoists; as well as hoisting system ancillary equipment such as its innovative Cage Guardian Safety Brake system.
Looking at market demand across the hoist business generally, Koekemoer commented:“ From our point of view, the strongest hoist demand activity continues to be in the brownfield market for mine expansions and refurbishments as well as brake upgrades. Some of these hoists were installed in the 1960s and 1970s. So, they have been neglected but have become a focus again, in some cases due to a rise in commodity prices. Our engineering teams do a trade-off study to determine if it is worthwhile refurbishing or if we would need to do a full replacement. Bear in mind that some of these machines only take care of basic services or in some cases even dewatering. So, in some cases there’ s no real justification for a new machine.”
FLS’ s largest market is in southern Africa, and Koekemoer said there is a lot of demand for this type of work not only in South Africa itself but also in other markets like the Zambian Copperbelt. While FLS is primarily involved in the mechanical side of hoist systems, it also works with electrical vendors and system integrators as part of an overall project that seems them offer electrical and other upgrades, with FLS often doing the brake or full mechanical upgrade.“ What we see is that on the electrical side, the lifespan of equipment before it becomes obsolete is typically in the order of about 10 to 12 years. These hoists are completely upgraded with modern technology both electrically and hydraulically.”
On hoist systems, Koekemoer told IM:“ We believe our BMR technology is the best on the market. We see a lot of open pit mines transitioning into vertical shaft mines. For that, we see BMR technology as offering the ultimate solution because of the shaft depth and production requirements. BMRs shine when you look at very high production outputs and the depth is exceeding the 1,500 m. If it’ s deeper than that and production output is high, the BMR is really the only design we would argue that is the correct solution in terms of rope life and safety factors, with all of the regulations that apply.”
A real flagship BMR project for FLS was at a copper mine in Zambia that spanned 2015 to 2017.“ We installed Production and Service BMRs at three different shafts. These BMR winders operate at depths of up to 2,000 m and produce approximately 3 Mt / y. The restricted 6 m raise-bored shaft diameter resulted in tight conveyance centres, making a conventional in-line double drum arrangement impractical. A Hooke’ s joint was therefore incorporated, allowing the two drums to remain mechanically connected while being inclined towards their respective conveyance centres, thereby satisfying the required rope fleeting angles. These machines run at 18 m a second. And with that sort of rope speed, you are not allowed to gamble with rope coiling. It has to be right and it has to work from day one.”
On digitalisation, while FLS’ s core expertise is in mechanical systems, almost all of its subsystems are equipped with sensors that support digital monitoring, diagnostics, and integration with the overall control system.“ When we work with the systems integrators or the electrical vendors, we do get heavily involved with that aspect of digitalisation. And for that reason, we know what the requirement is and we design for it. I would say that sub-Saharan market still relies on annual inspections but digital predictive maintenance is slowly making a mark. If we install a new brake control system, it will have all the proximity sensors, temperature sensors, level sensors, and even to some extent, condition monitoring of the oil is updated or fed into the hoist control system. The hoist maintenance team would be notified immediately if there are any alarms related to maintenance issues.”
Looking at conveyance safety brakes, FLS is also well known for having developed the Cage Guardian Brake System. Traditional wooden guides are subject to higher wear rates, moisture, damage and defect issues and they must be immediately replaced after every safety catch event. Add that to the fact that high-quality, consistent timber guides are becoming ever more difficult to obtain, and you’ re faced with some potentially dangerous and expensive problems. The patented Cage Guardian Safety Brake System uses engineered steel guides and a self-contained brake path. The end result is a reliable, reusable safety brake system.
The system uses a progressively increasing brake force with average deceleration rates of 9 to 20 m / s / s, meaning cage occupants are significantly less likely
22 International Mining | AUGUST 2026