JULY 2016

Informed and in-depth editorial on the world mining industry

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MININGENGINES

FUEL ANDFLUIDS

NARROW VEIN MINING

TAILINGS & WASTEMANAGEMENT

MINING TYRES

OPERATION FOCUS: Kamoa

IM COVER July 16_proof 21/06/2016 16:36 Page 1

34 International Mining | JULY 2016

PFL 10 as a size between the PFL 8 and the PFL 20.

The PFL 10 has a 2.5 t payload, 1.2 m3 bucket

capacity and a 90 kW BF6L914 Deutz engine, the

PFL 8 having a 69 kW Deutz BF4L914.

In terms of how it has adapted its machine

range to allow for operation in narrow vein

mining conditions, Managing Director Franz-Josef

Paus states: “Some of our vehicles for narrow

vein mining are equipped with a hydrostatic drive

and an articulated chassis for a safe driving at

small and rugged roads. And for a better operator

view Paus is using LED lightning systems. Of

course our standard safety features like

ROPS/FOPS cabins, fire-extinguisher systems etc

are included. Traditionally all our mining vehicles

are extremely robust for the special heavy duty

conditions found in underground mining. Another

issue in narrow veins is the critical mine

ventilation situation. Especially for this issue

Paus developed vehicles with hybrid or electric

drive trains with no or reduced exhausts. In

combination with the related heat and noise

reduction it improves the working conditions of

the miners and also operator safety and

performance.”

Sales Director Dieter Plagemann told IM that

for narrow vein applications, next to the Paus

LHDs PFL 8/PFL 8 E, PFL 10 and PFL 20 with

payloads between 1.5 and 4 t, an electric LHD PFL

15 E with a payload of 2.4 t is available. Also the

small Paus personnel carrier Minca 5.1 (<1.8 m)

for 5 persons or 1 t capacity was launched at the

Bauma show in Munich in April. The Minca 5.1 is

available with a diesel or hybrid or fully electric

drive train. Key users of Paus narrow vein

equipment include copper mines in Chile and

Peru as well as applications in Turkey.

Narrow vein in wider mine contextIt is also the case that most mines will utilise

several different mining methods at one site, of

which narrow vein is only one, with larger

equipment to carry out the development to get to

the narrow vein mining area in the first place.

The Yaramoko permit is owned by Roxgold Inc

and covers approximately 196 km2 in the Province

of Balé in southwestern Burkina Faso. The

property is located approximately 200 km

southwest from the capital city of Ouagadougou.

Yaramoko lies directly south of, and is contiguous

to, the Semafo Inc property hosting its flagship

Mana gold mine and lies within the Houndé

Greenstone Belt.

The mining work is being conducted by

contractor African Underground Mining Services

(AUMS) which is 50/50 owned by Barminco and

Ausdrill.

The underground mine is to be accessed by a

dual ramp system, via a single portal at the

bottom of a 23 m deep box cut. LHOS (including

up hole retreat in certain areas) is planned as the

main mining method, with a limited application

of cut and fill for the crown pillar mining. The

mine layout is based on 17 m sub-levels.

Standard longhole stopes two sub-levels in

height (34 m) and 25 m in strike length, will be

utilised to mine the narrow vein ore body. By

December 2018, AUMS says it will have delivered

17,100 m of jumbo development, 120,000 m of

specialised narrow-vein 64 mm longhole drilling,

and 460,000 t of ore. It is envisaged that

personnel on site will be increased to over 150 by

the end of this period.

The narrow vein work will use a Sandvik

DD311-30NV single boom jumbo for ore

development, plus a Sandvik LH307 LHD for

narrow vein haulage and a Sandvik DL311-5

longhole rig for blast hole boring up to 64 mm.

The main mining and development work aside

from narrow vein will use two Caterpillar R1700

LHDs and one Caterpillar R2900 LHD for

development and production loading, as well as

Atlas Copco MT6020 trucks for haulage; with a

Sandvik DD420-60 twin boom jumbo with 16/10

split feeds for the main development drilling.

New narrow vein solutions from GHHBy the end of 2016, GHH Fahrzeuge will release

the new LF-3 LHD with a payload of 3.5 t. The

machine is based on a well-proven design and

has now been updated to fulfil all the latest

standards. The machine is only 1.50 m wide and

is powered by a 70 kW Deutz air cooled D914L6

NARROW VEIN MINING

ISHIGAKI Company, Ltd. • Japan • www.ishigaki.co.jp • Tel. +81 (0) 3 3274 3518ISHIGAKI USA Ltd. • USA • Tel. +1 603 433 3334ISHIGAKI Europe GmbH • Germany • www.ishigaki.de • Tel. +49 (0) 911 3749 525ISHIGAKI Oceania Pty. Ltd. • Australia • www.ishigaki.com.au • Tel. +61 (0) 8 9248 4465

NARROW VEIN MINING_proof 21/06/2016 11:44 Page 3

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 ultra-

high-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

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-

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

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 familyPeru’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

The new LF-3 LHD from GHHFahrzeuge which is beinglaunched this year

NARROW VEIN MINING

JULY 2016 | International Mining 35

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36 International Mining | JULY 2016

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,

Cahecomi and Pybar Mining, between

others, have MUKIs in their

operations.”

Narrow vein depositmodellingThe 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.”

NARROW VEIN MINING

Graphic showing MUKI variants and overalldimensions

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