The Macheng iron ore mine in Hebei Province in northern China, part of huge iron ore and steel company Shougang Group, through operating company Luannan Macheng Mining, is one of China’s largest new underground mines in development, and is adopting advanced and mature mining and processing production technology to build a leading advanced underground mine. It will produce 22 Mt/y of iron ore with an extensive underground transport system consisting of a tracked transport system for the ore transport phase and a trackless transport system for the mining phase.
Shougang owned Beijing Soly is the EPC for the underground mine automation system design and development – one of its project managers Tracy Guo told IM: “Each trackless mining stage is connected to each other mainly through the secondary shaft, the main ramp and the mining area ramp, while the trackless mining stage is connected to the tracked transport stage mainly through the secondary shaft. A total of two underground rail transport levels have been included for Macheng with electric locomotives pulling bottom unloading type mine cars.” It is understood the two rail systems will operate as loops.
UK-headquartered Clayton Equipment has secured the contract to supply a fleet of 12 hybrid battery trolley locomotives to Macheng. The contract covers the supply of seven 55 t (CBT55) and five 32 t (CBT32) hybrid locomotives for delivery in 2022-2023, using the latest hybrid technology enabling safe haulage in the non-electrified loading and unloading areas of the mine. The battery trolley locomotives supplied are automation compatible and Clayton will be partnering with Beijing Soly.
Each of the machines are equipped with a cloud-based system designed to allow remote monitoring of the performance of locomotives anywhere in the world, whether mainline or below ground, giving real-time performance data further enhancing production efficiency, maintenance and safety via remote access to the machines. This prevents unscheduled downtime, troubleshoots performance issues, investigates faults, installs software updates and customises the operating parameters to suit the mine operators.
Steve Gretton, CEO at Clayton Equipment said; “We are extremely pleased to supply 12 Clayton hybrid locomotives to be used in one of the largest Chinese iron ore mines, this contract was secured in a very competitive marketplace. A single order for 12 locomotives enhances Clayton’s worldwide reputation as a leading supplier of locomotives to the mining sector. The locomotives will provide sustainability and will be environmentally compliant to meet our customer’s commitments in investing in new technology and provide cost savings.”
North Bay, Ontario, Canada-based Nordic Minesteel Technologies Inc has the mining cars contract for the trains, with the first train of 12 NMT mining cars of 20 m3, two loading chutes and one unload station built in Canada and the rest of the contract being completed in China.
Epiroc recently stated it had won a large order for underground mining equipment for Macheng, with several dozen machines with automation features set to head to the new operation including Scooptram loaders, Simba production drilling rigs, Boomer face drilling rigs and Boltec rock reinforcement rigs. Some of the loaders are the electrically-powered Scooptram EST1030s (powered by cable), and all the machines have market-leading energy efficiency, Epiroc says.
Automation features for many of the machines include Epiroc’s Rig Control System, making them ready for automation and remote control, and ABC (Advanced Boom Control) Total, which enables drilling a sequence of holes (full round) automatically, the company explained. Epiroc says it will also provide rock drills and other consumables as well as on-site services. Beijing Soly’s Tracy Guo confirmed that it is also working with Epiroc on enabling the automation of the loaders and drills through the mine’s network.
