DRILL & BLAST
one month through to a year and a half ahead. “Before Rhino, we couldn’t imagine blasting 145 stopes a year. Without it, we surely wouldn’t be that happy about the idea of mining more than 15 stopes a month at times.” T e raise boring tools consist of a
standard 11-inch pilot bit and two standard raise boring cutters installed on a reaming head made out of forged and accurately machined high-alloy tool steel. T e tools’ dimensions and accurate gripping surfaces are specifi cally designed for compatibility with the grippers of the manipulators used for handling the reaming head and drill rods. “T ey have a very good service life
of tools,” says Göran Strand, product line manager for raise boring at Sandvik, confi rming the high standard of maintenance achieved by Agnico Eagle Kittilä. T e Rhino’s drilling capacity amounts to seven to 20 metres per shift depending on the type of rock. Drilling accuracy is ensured by replaceable welded support plates on the bit body and wear pads on the stem. T e cutters, including cemented carbide buttons, are designed to have a high rate of penetration and long service life.
Easy-to-use design For rig operator Jorma Kinnunen, the Rhino is like a hard-working colleague. Once he hooked the rig up with the power and water supply and started the drilling operation, the bulk of the work is carried out by Rhino 100HM’s automation system. Outside of loading new drill rods, he doesn’t need to intervene much in the regular operation of the machine. “It’s a good machine and runs well,” Kinnunen says. He says the planned changeover time of one to two hours leaves a fairly generous leeway for transfers and
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It was of utmost importance to Agnico Eagle Kittilä that this rig would be ‘plug and play’ as opposed to conventional raise borer systems that require extensive set-up times
We now need only two blasts
even for those 40-metre stopes, and we have eliminated the need to open up the drop raise in fi ve-metre breaks
routine maintenance, since the actual set-up normally takes no more than half an hour. Using long-hole drilling for the
drop raises made it necessary to blast the drop raise in fi ve-metre breaks, which requires a lot of space and involves signifi cantly more work stages. Now, with a raise borer, all of this could be replaced with a single machine and a single operator. As Jarko Salo points out, operator commitment is of particular importance in slot hole boring, where drill tailings are fl ushed down on the
rig and need to be properly managed to prevent the muck from damaging vulnerable components. Salo stresses the close partnership and common vision in tailoring Rhino 100HM to Agnico Eagle Kittilä’s unique needs. “Any improvements have quickly been engineered, implemented and put straight into action,” he says. “T is has very much been a partner relationship, and we have also received excellent ideas from the Kittilä mine staff .” Future steps in the development of the Rhino 100HM concept have already been introduced. T e next generation includes more capabilities, smaller dimensions and easier maintenance. T e upgraded version will provide even higher productivity, with actual results available by the end of 2016.
Turkka Kulmala is with Sandvik. Find the original version of his article at
www.minestories.com
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