Last week team members from mining contractor Byrnecut, its clients Gold Fields, 29Metals, and equipment OEM Sandvik joined forces for a comprehensive site risk assessment on Sandvik LH518iB units at Byrnecut’s head office at Perth Airport.
The autonomous-ready and battery electric loaders are destined for Gold Fields’ Invincible and 29Metals’ Golden Grove sites, marking Byrnecut says another step forward in innovation and operational excellence. Byrnecut stated: “By working together across organisations, we’re ensuring the seamless integration of cutting-edge technology into our projects while maintaining the highest safety and efficiency standards. A huge thank you to everyone involved in this collaboration, teamwork drives success.”
A delegation from Byrnecut had a hands on inspection of the LH518iB at Sandvik’s test mine in Tampere, Finland back in February 2024 following an earlier agreement to purchase six of the all new LH518iB machines with AutoMine for use in Australia. Sandvik is supporting Byrnecut and other key customers in Western Australia from its recently added purpose-built workshop and warehouse in Perth.
In 2017, Byrnecut commenced development of Gold Fields Australia’s Invincible gold mine in the centre of Lake Lefroy, a large salt lake complex south of Kambalda. At the mine Byrnecut has already been using a state of the art Sandvik AutoMine Lite system with a fleet of seven LH621i production loaders and three long hole drills. The contract scope includes decline, lateral development and production activities.
Byrnecut has also been at Golden Grove since 2017. Byrnecut was engaged by EMR to assist the transition from an owner-operator mine to a contractor model in 2017. Byrnecut took over the majority of the workforce and equipment fleet and has steadily upgraded plant items and implemented new technology under an extensive fleet replacement programme. In 2020, ownership of the Golden Grove transitioned from EMR to 29 Metals. The loader fleet today consists of nine Sandvik LH621i units.
The project lies 56 km south of the township of Yalgoo, 600 km north of Perth WA. The Scuddles and Gossan Hill mines produce zinc and copper concentrate from the treatment plant located at Scuddles mine site. Scuddles ore undergoes primary crushing underground before being hoisted to the surface for processing. Gossan Hill ore is trucked to the surface and crushed at the Gossan Hill ROM pad before being transported approximately 3km overland by conveyor to the treatment plant at Scuddles. Development ground support and rehab activities are extensive at the project. Sub-level stoping is the primary method used both mines. This method at times is combined with fill varieties including waste rock fill, cemented rock fill and paste fill. Golden Grove is accessed from Perth, with personnel flying directly to site on a FIFO basis.