Canadian company Rail-Veyor Technologies Global Inc has announced the signing of a Purchase Agreement with Polymetal International PLC, the leading global producer of gold and silver with assets in Russia and Kazakhstan. This agreement is the first step towards the installation and operation of a new Rail-Veyor material haulage system at Varvarinskoye, a gold-producing surface mine situated in Northwest Kazakhstan.
Currently ore is mined at the Varvarinskoye mine via conventional open-pit truck-shovel and drill-and-blast methods. Polymetal International acquired the mine and completed a turnaround of the operations in 2010, leading to a substantial increase in productivity through the ongoing optimisation of systems and technology. The attached image shows the Varvarinskoye mine, with the below image an example of a surface Rail-Veyor installation handling petcoke in Venezuela. Rail-Veyor’s Executive Chairman Jim Fisk has previously told IM that Rail-Veyor can comfortably haul up to -36 in rock and easily deal with ramps having a 22% incline.
The implementation of the all-electric Rail-Veyor system forms a part of Polymetal’s overall goal to decarbonise material transport and decrease greenhouse gas emission intensity by at least 5% by 2023 compared to 2018. Additionally, the extreme Kazakh winter can pose challenges to traditional diesel-engine haulage solutions and ore sharpness lessens the lifespan of rubber tyres – both factors adding to operational expense.
The first stage of the Rail-Veyor system installation will implement an 887 m length of track connecting a load point to a discharge point via a single train, with capacity estimated at 145 t/h (1 Mt/y). The second stage of the installation will connect the original load point to a second discharge point and add a second train, bringing the total track length of the system to 1,535 m and increasing capacity to 430 t/h (3 Mt/y).
“We believe this is yet another perfect site where Rail-Veyor will show strong benefits to the end user and deliver on our promise of a clean, safe & profitable material haulage solution,” said Fisk. “We are proud to partner with Polymetal International, an industry leader whose commitment to innovation has already made a huge positive impact on the performance of the Varvarinskoye mine. We believe that this may be the first of many applications where Rail-Veyor may be a catalyst towards Polymetal’s continuing optimisation of their assets.”
The news follows a Russian development with the recent completion of an engineering design services project by Rail-Veyor in conjunction with a study by JSC Uralmekhanobr, the design institute of major mining group Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company (UMMC, in Russian UGMK), for the Tarnierskoe greenfield underground zinc operation, to be operated by UMMC subsidiary JSC Syvatogor.
Uralmekhanobr is a comprehensive research and design institute in the field of mining, benefication, metallurgy, chemistry, and standardisation. The Institute conducts integrated design and maintenance of facilities, from studying the material composition of raw materials and developing technology to detailed engineering and reaching the design parameters. Uralmekhanobr works with the largest mining and metallurgical and machine-building companies in Russia and CIS countries, as well as universities and industry research institutes.