MINING ENGINES FUEL AND FLUIDS NARROW VEIN MINING

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Informed and in-depth editorial on the world mining industry
MINING
ENGINES
FUEL AND
FLUIDS
NARROW VEIN MINING
TAILINGS & WASTE
MANAGEMENT
MINING TYRES
OPERATION FOCUS: Kamoa
JULY 2016
NARROW VEIN MINING
Tier 3 compliant engine. Other engine options including water cooled
versions for high altitude applications will follow shortly. Despite its narrow
profile, the cabin GHH says features excellent ergonomics due to a large
footbox. GHH’s “bar-of-soap” design minimises impacts while the ultrahigh-cycle-fatigue steel frame design grants the longest possible service
life.
The company also now offers an innovative solution for driving (heading)
small tunnels. Doing this by conventional means in narrow vein mining
requires niches for material transfer as
well as passing of vehicles. Each
part of the drill and blast cycle
demands a different machine
with its own
The new LF-3 LHD from GHH
Fahrzeuge which is being
launched this year
carrier, which leads to a large fleet with high capital and operating cost.
Manoeuvering of equipment takes time and creates further inefficiencies.
This was the motivation to develop a highly efficient roadheading
excavator for small cross sections as little as 9 m2 in a joint project between
GHH Fahrzeuge and Hazemag Mining. Each of the sister companies
contributed with its long experience in their field of work. The machine is
designed for both mine development and tunneling (safety tunnels, hydro-
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power and irrigation projects) in small drift cross sections. The HRE
combines all the machines for the entire drill and blast cycle in one and is
thus capable of drilling, charging, loading, clearing and support work,
including shotcrete. All required tools, such as the drifter and bucket, are
September 26th - 28th, 2016
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carried on the machine. The innovative kinematic concept with a QDS
permits an efficient operation of all attachments. During loading, the bucket
pushes the material on an active apron, that quickly feeds a robust chain
conveyor, and finally dumps the material eg onto a MK-A20 dump truck.
“Consequently, the HRE reduces machinery and personnel in the
underground environment, costly niches for passing of vehicles, total energy
consumption as well as emissions due to its electric drive. At the same time
utilisation of machinery may be drastically increased. The result is a
substantially higher heading performance at lower cost.” An animation is
available on www.ghh-fahrzeuge.com that shows the entire HRE working cycle.
The MUKI narrow vein family
Peru’s RESEMIN introduced the MUKI Front Face in October 2014 to fulfil the
demands of narrow vein mines. As tunnels no longer have to be as large,
these MUKIs with a width of 1.05 m can play a key role in the modernisation
of old mines where manual drilling methods were the only option.
Now the MUKI family has increased to three models (see image) – the
MUKI FF, a front face drilling rig for sections from 2.0 m height x 1.5 m width
up to 3.0 x 3.0 m; the MUKI LHP, a production long-hole rig in a pendulum
style with transverse displacement; and the MUKI LHBP, also a production
long-hole rig but with a boom style.
The MUKI Front Face has permitted mechanisation in narrow tunnel
development and the cut and fill mining method with up holes. RESEMIN
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JULY 2016 | International Mining 35
NARROW VEIN MINING
Cahecomi and Pybar Mining, between
others, have MUKIs in their
operations.”
Narrow vein deposit
modelling
Graphic showing MUKI variants and overall
dimensions
CEO James Valenzuela told IM: “It’s worth
mentioning that the MUKI not only increases
productivity by drilling a 2.4 m hole in 40 seconds
as opposed to 7 minutes with traditional methods
but also improves safety as operators are well
protected under a ROPS and FOPS compliant
canopy; no longer being exposed to the common
hazards of falling or rocks, debris, etc.”
Both the MUKI LHP and MUKI LHBP are
intended for long hole production in narrow vein
mining with excavations as small as 2.5 x 2.5 m
by drilling parallel holes up to 12 m length, and
51 or 64 mm diameter. This is a common drilling
pattern for narrow vein mining between 0.3 and
1.5 m width.
“The key advantage of MUKI is that it can work
where others can’t do it due to its width of 1.05
m; this characteristic allows engineering
departments to develop many options to mechanise
narrow vein mining by looking always for a lower
production cost by increasing productivity. It is a
fact that MUKI is modifying the status quo in
narrow vein mining. Now there are MUKIs
working in Peru, Mexico, Bolivia, Colombia,
Guatemala, Brazil and Australia. Companies like
Endeavour Mining, Pan American Silver, Kappes
Associates, Kollpa, Cia de Minas Buenaventura,
The Maptek Vulcan toolbox has been
customised using Lava scripting to
create a short term modelling process
for narrow vein mining, freeing up
time for other work. A recent case
study by Maptek with input from
Anthony Bottrill, Senior Resource
Geologist with Klondex Mines
outlined this application in detail.
Klondex Mines specialises in
narrow vein gold and silver deposits. It operates
the Midas mine and an ongoing bulk sampling
program at the high grade Fire Creek project in
Nevada. Klondex recently purchased the Rice
Lake mine in Manitoba.
Maptek states: “In the highly dynamic
environment of narrow vein mining, vein
characteristics and grade can change rapidly.
Local resource models rapidly become outdated
as information is collected from drifting along
veins. Short term modelling requires vein models
to be rebuilt regularly. Monthly rebuilds fit the
reconciliation and short term planning cycles,
and lead to better quality resource models and
long term planning.”
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36 International Mining | JULY 2016