DRILL & BLAST
Using long-hole drilling for the drop raises made it necessary to blast the drop raise in 5m breaks, which requires a lot of space and involves more work stages. Now, with a raise borer, all of this could be replaced with a single machine and a single operator
equipment, including drill rods and non-rotating stabilisers, a hydraulic crane for handling them, hydraulic power pack and pressure washer as well as the necessary power and water supply connections. TRB-Raise Borers CEO, Jarko
Salo, says that 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.
Rhino strength Rhino raise borers’ forte had always been good productivity, while
8
www.engineerlive.com
the mobility may sometimes have left some room for improvement. However, mobility was precisely what the Kittilä engineers expected for their new application: the capability to rapidly set up the machine at any given location within the mine, to drill the slot holes required for mine development eff ectively and productively, and to relocate and set
up again quickly, perhaps on the opposite side of the mine. It was of utmost importance to Agnico Eagle Kittilä that this rig would also be ‘plug and play’ as opposed to conventional raise borer systems that require extensive set-up times. “Otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to accelerate the process, and opening up a stope would
EAGLE FLIES HIGH A
gnico Eagle is an international gold
producer, with exploration and mining operations in Finland, Mexico and Canada, where it is headquartered. Its Kittilä goldmine is the largest operational gold mine in Europe, having started in 2008 with two open pits, Suurikuusikko
and Rouravaara. In 2010, underground operations began at Kittilä, and its known reserves are expected to last until 2037. Around 177,374 oz of gold were produced in 2015, and its 4000-tonne-per-day operation is expected to produce around 200,000 oz of gold in 2016.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52