TERRATEC’s TR3000 Raise Boring Machine has successfully completed two shafts in recent months in the copper mines in Sichuan Province in China. The two shafts completed so far were for ventilation purposes, and were 3.1 m in diameter. The rock encountered by the RBM in China on these projects has been of medium hardness, averaging 100 MPa of uniaxial simple compression.

The reaming work was completed in 28 days and the second one in 16 days, what represents a record in the China for this size of shaft. The Raise Borer, which is owned and operated by leading Chinese underground contractor JCHX, has now been moved to another mining region in the north of the country to bore a 300 m deep inclined shaft of 2.4 m in diameter.