AD30 Archives - International Mining

Dingo Software is helping Eldorado Gold’s Lamaque mine in Quebec, Canada, optimise maintenance and reliability practices through leveraging the company’s predictive and condition-based maintenance solutions.

The Lamaque mine faced the dual challenge of controlling capital costs and lowering all-in sustaining costs while also navigating the complexities of the global supply chain. With a current life of mine of 10 years, the mine sought to address some of these persistent challenges.

Lamaque decided to first focus on limited access to personnel with reliability skillsets, underutilisation of some of the existing digital platforms and its exposure to the global parts shortage. The team sought solutions to help control and reduce costs, extend the lifespan of major asset components and build world-class reliability expertise, Dingo says.

The site team, in collaboration with Dingo, identified opportunities to enhance equipment maintenance and reliability key performance indicators (KPIs). The chosen strategy aimed to reduce unplanned breakdowns, extend component life cycles, increase equipment availability and mitigate the impact of the global parts shortage.

Martin Pichette, Mine Operations and Maintenance Director at Lamaque Mine, said: “Partnering with Dingo allows us to leverage remotely-located condition intelligence experts from the get-go for a fraction of the normal cost to the company. This allows our few reliability experts to focus on the top issues and make important decisions to ensure our fleet availability is where it needs to be instead of having them analysing data and looking for the issues.”

Dingo also helped Lamaque acquire new sources of business intelligence with a fully documented and centralised asset health database plus integration with the ERP/CMMS, ensuring a complete maintenance and reliability context is available to support all maintenance decisions, it said.

Phase 1 of the Dingo solution involved consolidating oil sample data into a single platform for the first time at the mine. Within a short timeframe after the go-live, critical issues were identified and shared with the site team.

In the first week after go-live, the Dingo Condition Intelligence team observed a 2% fuel dilution, decreased viscosity, increased wear metal values and combustion by-products on a Caterpillar AD30 underground truck with a C15 engine with only 1,391 operating hours.

In response, the Dingo team assigned a ‘Priority 1’ action, providing work-stop level recommendations and provided site with a troubleshooting guide from their library, including recommendations to check the fuel injectors.

Not long after, the local OEM (Toromont) supporting Lamaque identified five defective fuel injectors that required urgent replacement. However, due to the ongoing global parts shortage, the mine was left with no alternative but to perform an engine oil drain on a weekly basis until the necessary parts could be procured. Once available, the injectors were replaced under warranty. This preemptive action not only prevented potential engine failure on the Cat AD30 but also restored up to 90% of the engine’s at-risk lifespan, according to Dingo.

While this proactive intervention circumvented much larger production losses had the engine been lost, it also highlights the significant risk unplanned breakdowns can have on Mean Time in Repair and associated production losses.

Dingo said: “The joint effort between the Lamaque personnel, CAT Toromont and Dingo Condition Intelligence specialists not only averted a catastrophic breakdown but also showcased the effectiveness and rapid results achievable through Dingo’s predictive maintenance solutions. The successful identification and repair of the AD30 injectors resulted in significant cost savings for everyone. In a nutshell, such a breakdown, if it had not been prevented by the team, would have generated production losses of about $65,000 per day due to equipment downtime and significant corrective maintenance cost to the OEM under warranty.

“Beyond financial value capture, this case also aligns with Eldorado Gold’s vision of ‘breaking new ground’ by implementing innovative solutions and enhancing maintenance processes, thereby ensuring the continuous growth of their high-quality business.”

After the AD30 engine save, the Lamaque maintenance team have continued to leverage Dingo to save equipment. For example: three leaking fuel injectors were found on a 45 t haul truck and a transmission was saved on a 15 t LHD; two key prime movers that would have impeded the operation from monthly production targets. Overall, working together, Dingo and Lamaque have now secured three significant equipment ‘saves’ within the first four-month period, Dingo says.

Building on these early successes, Lamaque and Dingo plan to continue to extend the project to the entire fleet, according to Dingo. Next steps will include interfacing with the mine CMMS and leveraging Dingo’s global benchmark tool to help select best practices from similar mines worldwide and to help the mine evolve towards increasingly condition-based maintenance decision making.

Dingo concluded: “This success story exemplifies how proactive maintenance strategies, coupled with innovative partnerships, can not only address immediate challenges but also pave the way for a more efficient future in the mining industry.”

U.S. Gypsum’s (USG) Sperry mine in Iowa, USA, has added another large piece of Cat equipment to its underground loading and hauling fleet – this time a 30-t payload Cat AD30 underground truck.

Located 192 m below the surface and accessible only by a shaft measuring 1.5 m x 1.8 m, the only way to get the new equipment into the mine was to disassemble, lower and reassemble it underground.

USG has successfully commissioned three Cat® R1600 underground loaders over the last decade, relying on Altorfer Cat, the Cat dealer serving a three-state region that includes the Sperry location near Mediapolis, Iowa.

Several of the Altorfer team members responsible for the first mine transfer of the R1600s were also on hand for the AD30 transfer, including Sales Representative, Jeff Krug, and Field Technician, Chris Wolf.

“Altorfer and United States Gypsum have had a relationship for many years, starting with surface equipment,” Krug says. “When the opportunity to offer Cat mining solutions for their underground equipment materialised, the mine quickly realised there were many of the same components in the underground machines as on the surface. Parts availability and a strong service partnership made it much easier for them to switch to Cat machines.”

Since 1959, the underground Sperry operation has produced gypsum and now produces over 590,000 t/y of raw gypsum. Most of the mine’s gypsum is used in the on-site manufacturing plant, where USG makes Sheetrock® brand wallboard. Gypsum also has medicinal and agricultural uses.

The room and pillar mine has an average ceiling height of about 3 m. Gypsum is mined using the drill and blast method, then the rock is hauled to the mine’s crusher.

“The physical size of the mine has always been a limiting factor for selection of mobile equipment,” Dennis Hollingsworth, former Mine General Foreman, says. “When Cat started producing more underground equipment, it created a new choice for us – first with the R1600s, and now the AD30.”

After the successful implementation of Sperry’s R1600 fleet, Altorfer developed best practices for the mine transfer process that were shared with other dealers around the world. Taking advantage of those lessons learned, the Altorfer team spent several weeks planning and collaborating with the Sperry team before beginning the AD30 transfer.

First, the AD30 arrived at Altorfer’s Cedar Rapids, Iowa, facility, where it was adapted to the specific requirements of the mine. The bed was removed and modified so it could meet the 1.8-m height requirement for loading. In addition, tyres were replaced with a lower profile tyre to meet the maximum height requirement of the mine.

Finally, the machine arrived on the surface of the Sperry mine. Joining Wolf were two Sperry employees who also worked on the R1600 mine transfers: Mine Maintenance Supervisor, Doug Edle, and Technician, A.J. Kuisle.

“Taking the machine apart is the most important part of the process,” Wolf says. “You need to remove things in a precise order, be two to three steps ahead and have a plan for keeping track of everything.”

The team removed the rear axle and all the cooling lines and wiring harnesses from the rear frame, then separated the rear frame from the front frame. Then they tackled the front frame, removing the cab, engine transmission and front axle and lowering them into the mine. Next was the removal of the fire suppression system and wiring harnesses, as well as hoses and valves.

Once everything was removed from the front frame, the team welded on fixtures they would use to line up the frame pieces for reassembly. Then the cutting began, with oxyacetylene torches and an air arc being used to cut the frame into smaller pieces that would fit down the shaft.

Once all the pieces and parts were down the shaft, the AD30 was cleaned and the welding team put the frame back together. Then Wolf and Kuisle got busy reassembling the rest of the machine.

“It took about three weeks to get it back together and running,” Wolf said. “We were very particular to make sure that everything was assembled correctly, that there were no hoses or wires rubbing. Then we started it up and installed the bed and made sure everything was working correctly.”

Hollingsworth is proud of the teamwork involved in the machine transfer. “Getting new equipment underground has always been a challenge,” he says “Bringing a new piece of equipment underground and re-assembling it has always been a process that our mechanics take pride in being able to accomplish. Chris Wolf has a been a part of that process four times now, and I think, feels the same way. He has done a great job helping with the teardown and reassembly of all four Cat machines.”

Altorfer’s role in the life of the new AD30 didn’t stop once the machine was assembled underground. Before handing off the keys, the team took it for a test drive. When the testing was complete, Wolf provided training to the employees who would be operating the new truck.

“The training process went well,” Hollingsworth says. “Chris came in on both shifts and trained all of the operators. It’s something we’ve come to expect from Altorfer that we don’t typically get from other manufacturers.”

And finally, about four-and-a-half weeks after the mine transfer process began, the AD30 went to work.

Hollingsworth said the mine’s satisfaction with its Cat R1600s, the long life and rebuildability of Cat machines, and the quality of Altorfer’s service all contributed to the decision to purchase the AD30. “The AD30 has been a great addition to the mine fleet,” he says. “The truck is running great. The operators took to it quickly. They like the way it drives and performs.”

Just like Sperry mine’s other Cat equipment, the new machine will be supported throughout its life by Altorfer, with more new Cat machines continuing to join the mine’s fleet in the years to come.

Dingo predictive maintenance solution cuts equipment downtime at Eldorado Lamaque

U.S. Gypsum and Altorfer Cat overcome logistical hurdles in AD30 delivery to Sperry