In an unexpected move, Aker Solutions has agreed to sell its German Aker Wirth tunnel-boring (TBM) and shaft-boring technology to China Railway Tunnelling Equipment (CRTE), as part of a plan “to divest assets that don’t fit with its main offshore-services strategy.” A spokesperson, however, told International Mining today that the sale “only concerns the tunnel and shaft-boring technology and not the MTM or roadheader technology.”

Therefore it will not affect the MTM boring system for underground mining and tunnelling that Aker Wirth developed with Rio Tinto as part of Rio’s Mine of the Future programme. This clarification means the deal also does not include the Wirth roadheader product line (T1, T2 and T3 products). The vertical shaft sinking products include the range of raise boring machines (such as the record HG380) as well as blind shaft boring machines (VSB) and shaft reaming machines.

Aker Wirth and Codelco signed a contract at the end of 2012 for the delivery and testing of a Mobile Tunnel Miner (MTM). The machine is to be tested from mid-2014 in the Chuquicamata mine. At Rio Tinto Northparkes, a MTM was trialled in the first half of 2013 – the expected distance of the trial at Northparkes was 1,400 m.

CRTE will acquire technological intellectual property rights. It will also gain the right to use the Wirth brand name on TBM and shaft-boring products that are based on the acquired technology. The transaction does not involve the transfer of any Aker Solutions employees and the manufacturing facility in Erkelenz, Germany, will remain part of the company’s drilling technologies business. The parties agreed not to disclose the value of the transaction, which is set to be completed in December 2013.