If You Bought It...
....It Came On A Truck
One reason that trucking persists is the necessity to transport rock around the quarry floor.
Whatever the perceived fuel savings with conveyors these cannot be realised unless rock is presented to a conveyor of any kind. It becomes a balancing act where the essential floor feeding fleet requires to be supplemented by a full haulage fleet. The difference in fleet size can be compared to the cost of a conveyor. A full fleet will always win because:
feed is not interrupted by;
occasional truck breakdown: compared with, say, a belt snap;
relocation of operations;
OPEX profitability. Fuel costs are zero when the truck is not working and when it is working it is making money. OPEX saving is a very minor consideration against the cost of reliable and adaptable trucking.
The insignificance of OPEX saving in the face of full production was demonstrated to me at Palaborwa back in 70's. Haul trucks were powered by electricity from overhead wires and panto-graphs. Diesel was used to maneuver around the floor and any obstacles. A simple philosophy dictated that the line must not stop. If a truck broke down it could be bypassed and any obstacles that could be driven over...were simply driven over. You parked your vehicle at the camp and were assigned a serviceable but old, Peugot station wagon. If it broke down the vehicle was to be abandoned immediately because the line would not stop under any circumstances. Squashed cars were not to be seen so the rule worked!
CAPEX saving is sometimes dangerous. Many operators buy used equipment at knock down prices and when they try to use it they find it has cost more than buying the proper thing. Once they learn this they become very wary of trying anything different. To get them to step out into the unknown, to them, takes a lot of what used to be called 'the cost of sales'.
I was into high angle conveying around the same time as Joe worked at Dravo and I was at their UK licensee. Obviously I wish him well and would suggest, in hindsight, that any high angle conveyor needs to be extremely relocation-able (if that is in fact a word) so that such a conveyor can be compared like to like with trucks. ■
John Gateley johngateley@hotmail.com www.the-credible-bulk.com
Get the truck out! When will high angle conveying stop being ignored in IPCC?
At Dos Santos International, we have discussed extensively, what it's going to take to get the industry to recognize the incredible advantages of Sandwich belt high angle conveying in open pit mining applications over the expense of haul trucks and conventional conveying. Reduced energy consumption and environmental impact was already realized in the 1970's, yet for 35 years, mines seem to refuse to take advantage of what has been available to save them millions of dollars in their mining operation.
The most direct path out of the open pit is straight up. However, haulage continues to be limited to open trough conveyors with low angle spiral ramps and/or deep slots and/or tunnels through the pit high wall. And of course, there are the huge fleets of haul trucks.
In our latest talks with mining companies, we hear a lot about autonomous trucks. Driver or no driver, there is a large expense on design, building and maintaining the miles of haul road, not to mention the expense of wear and tear and fuel costs for these trucks. We have a more economical way!
We believe the new generation of mining engineers will be the ones who bring the awareness of Sandwich belt high angle conveying in IPCC. We have many college students tell us they are intrigued by our research in IPCC, and look forward to applying it in their professional careers.
We are happy to share with you, the evidence and research of these cost savings in IPCC.
http://dossantosintl.com/wpnews/?p=1064 ■