Engineering & Mining Journal

FEB 2013

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FIRE SAFETY Flame Fighters New advances in firefighting technology give surface mine operators the capability to avoid getting burned—both physically and financially—by disastrous equipment fires By Russell A. Carter, Managing Editor Surface-mine fires are grim, expensive and sometimes terrifying reminders that no industrial enterprise employing huge mobile, rotary and fixed equipment that operates around the clock, involving constant maintenance activity and using a wide variety of flammable liquids and materials, can be complacent about safety in the workplace—whether that place is in a maintenance shop or in the cab of a haul truck, shovel or loader. The mining industry generally receives passing marks for being cognizant of fire-related risks, and for making employees aware of those hazards. Nevertheless, fires still occur at frequent intervals at mines and plants, and in an era of high production demands, increasingly larger equipment types and more remote mine locations, almost any conflagration has the potential to cause significant disruption—even if it doesn't involve worker injury or worse. Examples: • In late December 2012, Randgold Resources reported that production at its Tongon gold mine in Cote d'Ivoire had been affected by a fire at the processing plant. The fire started during a planned shutdown for repairs to a mill cyclone feed pipe, and spread to other areas within the plant. Although the 44 E&MJ; • FEBRUARY 2013 fire was extinguished without injuries to any workers, the plant's cyclone clusters, flotation cells and blowers, along with infrastructure for both milling circuits, suffered damage. CEO Mark Bristow said the company intended to have both milling circuits operational again within 10 days, with the damaged classification circuits operational within three to four weeks following receipt of spare parts. Repairs to the plant's flash flotation circuit repairs were dependent on the lead time for replacement blowers. On January 21, 2013, Randgold said the plant was still about two weeks away from full operational status. Due to the fire and other problems encountered earlier in the year, the company revised the mine's 2012 production estimate down, from 285,000 oz to between 208,000 and 210,000 oz. • In Alberta, Canada, one of the major oil sands producers experienced a rash of three fires in five months. A 2005 fire at another oil sands facility cut that producer's output by 50% for eight months. • In Victoria, Australia, the state's occupational health and safety agency reported in late 2012 that there had been 23 in- cidents involving fires on mobile equipment since January 2010. Although the larger portion of these events involved underground mining equipment, there was a string of common causes that ran through the entire assortment of instances, according to the report. These common factors included: •Failure to maintain integrity of pressurized hydraulic hoses, or keep hydraulic lines safely located away from heated surfaces; •Oil leaking onto hot engine components; •Failure to install hose types, transmission coolers, power train components and even tires that meet manufacturer's requirements; •Failure to isolate brake fluid lines from overheated brake friction material issues; •Build-up of material between hoses and heated surfaces, allowing thermal conduction and ignition; and •Frayed electrical connections. It's clear that faulty or postponed maintenance practices rank high on the list of potential causes of equipment and facility fires. As an additional example, another report from an Australian safety agency—this one from a New South Wales mine safety organization— www.e-mj.com

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