This Metso project for Samarco is an important milestone in the truckless concept, not only for Metso but also for the industry because this is the first complete Lokotrack and Lokolink system supplied for metal mining. Also, an important paradigm was broken in this project: the mine is located in a mountain chain and is topographically difficult. This condition is considered very difficult for application of the LT+LL system. 
 
One of the LT+LL systems is working in the stock yard, reclaiming material from the stockpile formed by truck dumping. The other one is working at the mine in the true truckless concept. This sale also involved providing assurances of performance (2,000 t/h) and availability (minimum 90%).

To cope with a tough mining environment and specific Brazilian iron ore characteristics a totally customised design was developed through co-operation between Metso’s engineering and manufacturing teams in Finland and Brazil.

One factor which made the introduction of the LT+LL system easier was that Samarco already used a conveyor system in the mine. Instead of having primary crushing, it worked with a semi-mobile vibrating grizzly with wheel loaders. The oversized material had to be carried out of the mine and, because of the short economical travel distance of wheel loaders, the field conveyors had to be relocated quite often, increasing operating costs and downtime. 

At a recent workshop, José Raimundo from Samarco gave a presentation on the results of the operation of the LT+LL system working in the mine compared to truck haulage. According to his presentation, the cost of truck haulage was 48% higher than LT+LL and the conveying system, and the capacity and availability surpassed the assured values. Besides the reduction in direct costs, other important benefits in safety and environmental aspects were mentioned. 

Samarco is an iron ore mining company formed by a joint venture between two giants: Vale and BHP Billiton. The mine is located in the southeast of Brazil, in Minas Gerais State, approximately 600 km from São Paulo city. The forecast for ROM extraction for 2010 is about 40 Mt and 24 Mt of concentrate, 100% used to produce iron ore pellet. After the expansion in course, Samarco will be the world’s biggest iron-ore pellet producer.

Samarco is known as a company that is always looking for new technologies. Some of the innovations introduced by Samarco include the 400 km pipeline to transport pellet feed to the pelletising plant located on the coast, the use of Barmac VSI – vertical shaft impact crushers – (3 x B9100 and 3 x B9100E) to prepare ball mill feed and, more recently, the introduction of this Metso truckless system with Lokotrack LT140E and Lokolink LL12.