Assessing the Truckless Conveying Option in Mines

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DÜPERTHAL Sicherheitstechnik GmbH & Co. KG

Trucks are well suited to short hauls and selective mining and dumping. As haulage distances increase or required system capacities increase, conveyors and mobile mining/dumping machines start to offer cost efficiencies.

Skilled labour shortages and increasing concerns over greenhouse gas emissions also favour the latter techniques provided that suitable power is available. For the purposes of discussion, a model IPCC system will be presented and then discussed component by component (limited to the in-pit portion of the system). Before even reaching this stage, it is assumed that the owner has concluded the following:

The layout of the reserve and material type is suitable for strip-mining techniques favoured by in-pit conveying systems. Benches are predominantly regular and long.

A downstream system is available that is suited to receiving material from a conveying system. Dumps won’t require excessively difficult or expensive conveyor movements in order to be built.

A reliable and affordable power supply is available. If the project cannot pass these gates with confidence then the suitability of an IPCC system is under question from the start.

Once the initial criteria are satisfied, two main options are available for the basic layout of the in-pit system.

Mobile face operation: An excavation unit delivers material directly onto an in-pit conveying system for delivery out of pit. This type of system is used at Loy Yang for coal and overburden removal and is in development for Vale’s S11D iron ore operation (Fig. 2). In-pit dump to conveyor: Material is delivered to an in-pit dump hopper then onto the conveying system. Material delivery from the mining face can be by short-haul truck operation such as used for overburden at Clermont Coal mine in Queensland (Fig. 3), dozer push or even dragline such as Drummond’s Pribbenow mine in Columbia.

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