Tag Archives: Saraji

Wolff Mining breaks monthly drilling record at BMA Saraji Mine

Automation, Coal technology, Explosives and blasting, Mine operation news, Mining equipment, Mining services, Steel and iron ore, , , , , , , , ,

Wolff Mining, part of the National Group, has been breaking records at BHP Mitsubishi Alliance’s (BMA) Saraji mine, having recently achieving a drilling milestone at the Queensland coal operation.

Wolff Mining is known for its heavy earthmoving capabilities, being a key supplier of heavy earthmoving equipment to the mining sector on a dry hire or wet hire basis, with drilling equipment and services also offered.

For the past 16 months, the company has been assisting BMA Saraji in a “sprint drilling capacity”, providing drilling equipment and full contract mining services.

It currently supplies BMA Saraji with a Cat MD6420B drill with GPS, and provides operational labour such as supervisors, drillers and fitters.

The MD6420B is one of Cat’s heavy-duty drills designed for open-pit mining, delivering reliable performance and operational safety. It is one of the favoured models by drillers around the world and encompasses leading features from the ultra-class to the mid-size rotary drill line, according to Wolff.

Some of the advanced features available include improved fuel efficiency, electro-hydraulic controls that provide increased operator safety and precision, computer-controlled drilling, enhanced diagnostics and autonomous ready functions, it said.

November drilling at BMA Saraji has been undertaken in 270 mm holes ranging in depth from 30-65+ m in tertiary material, according to Wolff.

The company recently achieved a milestone of 43,794 drilled metres (dm) for the month of November, beating the previous record of 41,500 dm at BMA Saraji.

“The performance of our Cat MD6420B drill has been exceptional,” notes Mark Ackroyd, National Group Managing Director. “It is very rare that a drilling company exceeds 40,000 dm a month, so breaking the site record of 41,500 dm at BMA Saraji, and setting a new record of 43,794 dm for the month of November, is a great achievement.”

He added: “To achieve a milestone such as this takes a highly skilled and motivated team and a high-quality piece of mining machinery such as the Cat MD6420B drill. I would like to congratulate the team here at Wolff Mining for their outstanding efforts and praise the performance of the Cat drill.”

Monadelphous expands BHP relationship with iron ore, coal, Olympic Dam work

Base metals, Coal technology, Mine operation news, Mining equipment, Mining maintenance, Mining services, Water management, , , , , , , , , , , ,

A month after securing several major contracts with BHP, Monadelphous Group has announced another series of works packages with the major miner that come with a combined value of around A$120 million ($87 million).

Two of the construction and maintenance contracts were awarded under its WAIO Asset Panel Framework Agreement with BHP.

This includes a contract to provide structural, mechanical and electrical upgrades at the Newman Hub site in the Pilbara of Western Australia, where work will commence immediately and is expected to be completed before the end of 2021.

The second agreement is at BHP’s Jimblebar iron ore mine site, in Newman, where the company will be dewatering surplus water from the operation.

In addition, Monadelphous has entered into the Olympic Dam Asset Projects Framework Agreement with BHP to provide multi-disciplinary construction services at the Olympic Dam copper mine, in South Australia (pictured). The first contract secured under this agreement is for the supply and construction of acid storage tanks and connection to the existing operating acid plant.

Finally, the company’s Maintenance and Industrial Services division has been awarded a contract to undertake a major dragline shutdown for BHP Mitsubishi Alliance at its Saraji coal mine, located near Dysart, Queensland. The work will be completed by the end of December 2020.

Last month, Monadelphous’ latest construction and maintenance contract awards from BHP included a contract for the supply and installation of the Jimblebar Transfer Station project, and a contract for the refurbishment of Car Dumper 3 at Nelson Point, Port Hedland.

BMA Saraji team awarded for mobile equipment transport solution

Coal technology, Equipment maintenance, Mining equipment, Mining maintenance, Mining safety, Mining services, Steel and iron ore, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Josh Leppard, an Overburden Supervisor at BHP Mitsubishi Alliance’s Saraji mine, has won plaudits for an alternative mobile equipment transport solution he and his team came up with at the Queensland coal mine.

Leppard was recently named the 2019 Innovation Award winner at the 2019 Queensland Mining Industry Safety and Health Conference for his and the team’s Synthetic Lightweight Couplings (SLC) development.

SLC is a clever alternative to the ~110 kg combined weight of a pull ring and metal shackles routinely used to pull mobile equipment across the mining industry, according to BMA.

Leppard, who worked on the project for the past six months, is a competitive sailor on his days off and used his knowledge of the marine industry to develop a practical solution to engineer out a manual handling risk, the company said.

“Being a yacht racer for many years, we moved away from using metal shackles four or five years ago and now only use synthetic couplings that are made specifically for marine purposes,” he said.

“These couplings are lightweight but provide exceptional strength as you would expect to be needed on offshore race yachts.”

Leppard and the team worked with the marine coupling manufacturer in New Zealand to “super-size” the technology to suit the mining industry and created Saraji’s ‘soft couplings’, BMA said.

The soft couplings weigh around 8 kg and are made of Dyneema, one of the world’s strongest and most reliable fibres available, BMA said. It is then braided with Technora, which gives it high heat and chemical resistance as well as protecting against chafe – the same product used for bullet proof vests and firefighting clothing.

“We hope that by creating the ‘soft couplings’ we’ll not only reduce the risks associated with heavy lifting and manual handling, but also remove the physical barriers that may prevent some men and women from completing the task,” Leppard said.

“I’m really proud that we were able to deliver this for not only Saraji and BMA, but also for the industry. By presenting at the Queensland Mining Industry Safety and Health Conference and now overseas in a few months, I hope that I’ll be able to share our learnings with others and make our industry safer.”

The team worked with independent testers to verify and strength test the shackles so they could be used on site. Saraji is now in the process of getting soft recovery shackles and soft recovery couplings certified so they can be used in lifting operations which will substitute the existing heavy weight lifting shackles. The team is also working though and obtaining a ‘FRAS’ rating so they can be used underground for longwall moves.

Hedweld’s Trilift TH15000 Workshop Tyre Handler ticks the boxes for BMA’s Saraji coal mine

Coal technology, Equipment maintenance, Mine operation news, Mining equipment, Steel and iron ore, , , , , , , , ,

BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA) has been on the lookout for a safer way of changing tyres at its Saraji coal mine in Queensland, Australia, and it thinks it has found a solution in the form of Hedweld’s Trilift® TH15000 Workshop Tyre Handler.

Across the mining industry, there have been many incidents, injuries and even fatalities when people handle heavy vehicle earth moving tyres, BMA says.

With tyre assemblies weighing up to 15 t, the team at BMA’s Saraji mine looked at ways to reduce the potential exposure and risk to tyre fitters when working in and around tyres.

Jarrod Layton, Superintendent Mods & Ops Projects in the Saraji Engineering team, said prior to a recent tyre replacement, a commitment was made to the site leadership team to challenge the existing mind set around tyre handlers for heavy earth moving equipment.

“A key part of this project was changing our way of thinking around tyre handling. We spent a lot of time engaging our teams and looking for opportunities to increase not only the safety and productivity of our processes, but also the culture that surrounds these types of activities,” Layton said.

“The team investigated a range of options and consulted the market, where they found Hedweld’s TH 15000 Tyre Handler – a device which removes tyre fitters from the direct line of fire and safely secures the tyre in place during changes,” BMA said. “The device also features a jib arm to support the weight of the rattle gun that is required to remove the wheel nuts.”

Using Bluetooth technology, the device is remote controlled to give the operator improved visibility when aligning the device with the tyre and removes the need for any manual handling of the product, according to BMA.

“As the size of mining equipment grows, traditional methods for handling tyres become more hazardous and time consuming,” Layton said.

“Traditionally, tyres are moved by equipment such as loaders and forklifts and requires at least two fitters to operate. These items however, have limitations due to their size, manoeuvrability and safety. A number of incidents occur within the mining industry every year involving tyre handling.”

The device also allows all bays in the workshop to be better used, as well as reducing the number of people required for tyre handling. In turn, this allows for a higher availability of the wheeled tyre fleets, BMA says.

Layton said: “While the safety and productivity benefits are clear, the cultural change has also been fantastic to see. The workforce can see that we’re investing in making their jobs safer and easier to do every day – they see that we’re willing to invest and try new equipment and train them in order to deliver safer results.”

Hedweld said the Trilift TH15000 Workshop Tyre Handler has been designed to provide a maintenance tool for the safe removal and installation of tyres from a range of earthmoving and plant equipment. It has been developed to be used in a workshop environment and its compact design poses minimal impact on the normal operations of a mining workshop, according to the company.

“This fully self-contained diesel/hydraulic powered, remote controlled unit will handle tyres and rims up to 15,000 kg. In addition the TH15000 can handle tyres ranging in size from 27.00 R49 to 59/80 R63,” Hedweld says.