Assessing the Truckless Conveying Option in Mines

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DÜPERTHAL Sicherheitstechnik GmbH & Co. KG

Irregular bench shapes can be caused by local terrain or areas that cannot be mined for environmental reasons for example. These then cause a problem with straight face conveyors. The face conveyor can obviously not be curved to match dramatic face changes so a gap is created between the conveyor and operating face. A proven solution to this problem is the use of intermediate ‘modular’ conveyors that can be piggybacked to link the conveyor and mining face.

This system has been used successfully at Ulan (New South Wales) and is similar to those sometimes employed in heap leach pad construction.

The IPCC System and You – An Ideal Match?

The suitability of an IPCC system for given operation is dependent on a range of factors. The design of the system must consider site specific operating, economic and technical issues as well as equally important social issues such as acceptance of the system by operating teams.

This is an area that is attracting increasing levels of attention from operations and vendors. Care must be taken when assessing proposed systems to ensure that site specific factors are adequately catered for. Attempting to apply an existing design of sizer or transfer conveyor to a new operation without considering all relevant issues is unlikely to provide the best solution.

* This is a condensed version of Timothy Atchison and David Morrison’s paper In-Pit Crushing and Conveying Bench Operations, delivered at the AusIMM Iron Ore Conference 2011 in Perth.

* Timothy Atchison is Project Engineer at Sinclair Knight Merz

* David Morrison is Manager Integrated Mining at Sinclair Knight Merz

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