Tag Archives: SME 2019

Herrenknecht brings boxhole backreaming to shaft sinking market

Explosives and blasting, Mine shafts and equipment, Mining equipment, Mining events, Mining safety, Mining services, Mining techniques, , , , , , ,

Herrenknecht expects to install one of its new boxhole backreaming machines in a mine in Asia later this year, one of the company’s Mining Project Managers, Alexander Frey, told attendees at an SME technical presentation, in Denver, Colorado, last week.

Looking to produce a system able to develop ore passes with simultaneous drilling and lining, the company has adapted boxhole boring machines it has been working on for the past nine years – which use an adapted form of the pipe jacking method – and come up with the boxhole backreaming machine.

This new machine can stabilise the shaft with thrust pipes and a steel liner, which avoids collapses of the shaft or a rework, while reducing the amount of activities in the upper level during mine development.

Herrenknecht has already built one machine and tested it at a mine in the Black Forest of Germany, Frey said. This testing saw the company sink an ore pass with a 2.8 m diameter and 22 m length at an angle of 19°. During this test work in 150 MPa Gneiss rock, Herrenknecht achieved reaming rates of up to 1.3 m/h, Frey said. According to Frey, the machine, which is equipped with a cutterhead like those employed on raiseborers, can cut really hard rock.

He added that the machines would likely be used for safely and efficiently sinking ore passes with a maximum 70 m shaft length and 3 m diameter, but it could also find other industry applications.

FLSmidth’s Lindholm says miner investment in remote operations centre paying off

Base metals, Communications in mining, Equipment maintenance, IoT, Mineral processing, Mining equipment, Mining maintenance, Mining services, Mining software, , , , , , ,

In a wide-ranging talk on digitisation at the 2019 SME Annual Conference & Expo in Denver, Colorado, Mikael Lindholm, Chief Digital Officer of FLSmidth, said the use of remote operations centres was providing returns to those mining companies employing them.

Lindholm said FLSmidth had seen an influx of remote operations centres “popping up” across the industry, he told delegates during his keynote presentation.

“It is unhealthy to go up in the mountains or in the pits in the mines,” he said. “Being in a city is much safer. The less people you have in the mine, the less injuries you will see.”

He added: “Most mines, today, have a central control unit, but we now see to a greater extent remote control centres outside of the mines.”

Referencing a recent visit to Codelco and its remote operations centre in Santiago, Lindholm said the state-owned copper miner was running two operations remotely from this location.

The centre had allowed Codelco to attract personnel in the Chile capital, in addition to being able to coordinate all activities from one location, he said.

“From there, they manage everything happening in the pit, to the process plant to the logistics,” he said.

By coordinating these activities and having all the people in the same room, Codelco is making significant savings, Lindholm said. “They are making savings of around $50 million annually from this – purely from coordinating activities.”

This evolution is part of a wider move in the industry to improve productivity, maintenance and safety.

Lindholm, quoting statistics from McKinsey, said by 2025, there will be yearly savings of around $250 billion around operations management – “to do with process optimisation and coordination” – $100 billion/y on equipment maintenance – “thanks to condition monitoring, predictive and prescriptive maintenance” – and $10 billon/y on safety.