Engineering and Mining Journal - Whether the market is copper, gold, nickel, iron ore, lead/zinc, PGM, diamonds or other commodities, E&MJ takes the lead in projecting trends, following development and reporting on the most efficient operating pr
Issue link: https://emj.epubxp.com/i/271090
36 E&MJ; • MARCH 2014 www.e-mj.com N A R R O W V E I N M I N I N G In 2010, the Russian uranium produc- tion company, ARMZ, took delivery of a fleet of 11 L130D miniLoaders, sup- plied by the French company, Aramine. Designed specifically for narrow-vein applications, the machines are just 1,040 mm wide and have a 2,125 mm inside turning radius when equipped with a 0.6-m 3 (1.2 mt) rock bucket. Based on its output in 2012, ARMZ (Rosatom's mining division) is the world's third-largest uranium company, having produced 7,572 metric tons (mt) that year. It has underground and in- situ leach operations in Russia, as well as international interests through its subsidiary, Canada's Uranium One Inc. Its largest Russian operation, the Priargunsky Industry Mining and Chemical Union, produces uranium from underground mines at Kraznoka- mensk in the far southeast of the coun- try, working vein-type resources hosted in the Streltsovskoye caldera. Discovered in 1963, Streltsovskoye is believed to be the world's largest vol- canogenic uranium deposit. Recent estimates give a resource of some 280,000 mt of uranium—equivalent to 330,000 mt of U 3 O 8 , with reserves of 111,100 mt of uranium at the begin- ning of 2013. Lying only about 40 km from the Russian-Chinese border, and 110 km from the point where Russia, China and Mongolia meet, the Priargunsky opera- tion began in the late 1960s. Today it encompasses uranium production from four underground mines, with hydro- metallurgical and sulphuric acid plants, and other facilities. A fifth mine is now under development. It is also self-suffi- cient in power supplies, with its own lignite-mining operation. To place the operation in context, its output since 1968 has been more than 130,000 mt of uranium. No fewer than 19 separate uranium deposits have been identified within the Streltsovskoye caldera structure, with orebodies mainly occurring in steeply dipping fault zones. The ore field was originally explored for its near- surface fluorite resources, with the ura- nium mineralization subsequently being discovered below these. The two largest individual deposits are hosted in basement rocks, while the remainder occur in sedimentary and volcanogenic rocks within the caldera; reserves have been estimated only for the five largest, where mining or development is cur- rently under way. While past production from Priar- gunsky has been more than 3,500 mt/y, this has fallen back in recent years, with ARMZ now focusing on invest- ments aimed at maintaining output at 2,000 t/y from the mines. Major fac- tors in the downturn have been the exhaustion of the shallower, higher- grade deposits that were mined first, and the retirement of a significant proportion of the mining workforce, leaving the company with a major skills shortage. The upshot of the crisis-manage- ment plant now in operation was that the mines produced 2,120 mt of urani- um during 2012 from 1.8 million mt of ore, with some 1,600 new employees and apprentices being hired. Priargunsky's main mining method is cut-and-fill, with the company cur- rently evaluating the use of block in- situ leaching as well. The veins are typ- ically 1- to 1.5-m wide, carrying ore grading 0.13% uranium, with opera- tions at depths of between 900 m and 1,300 m (2,950 and 4,265 ft). The Aramine mini-loaders are used in Mines Nos. 1 and 2, and in the Glubokiy ("deep") mine, handling production ore. Typical haul distances range from Aramine Loaders Win Russian Uranium The L130D is small enough for cage transport. From Aramine's Perspective: E&MJ; asked Aramine's area sales manager for Priargunsky, Kirill Tolmatchev, why he thought that the L130 LHDs had proved to be successful in the difficult conditions under- ground there. "The loaders have proved to be very reliable," he said. "Indeed, during last year there were only two machine failures, and overall the loaders had three times the availability of competitive machines there. "The working conditions are very tough," he said. "The machines can be overloaded, and the roadway conditions can be both rough and muddy. It is also very humid underground. "The L130s are being used for both development and production," Tolmatchev explained. "One of the our big selling points is that they have a 20% bigger bucket than competitive machines, so are much more productive than other units of a similar width. They also have a more powerful engine." Asked about the challenges of supplying service to machines in such a remote location, Tolmatchev said the mine does its own maintenance with support from Aramine. "We have a dedicated spares stock specially for Priagunsky," he added, "which means that spares are available on site." With the mine developing new underground operations, Tolmatchev is confident of winning more orders for Aramine's LHDs. "We plan to have a long-term relationship with Priargunsky," he said. EMJ_pg28-37_EMJ_pg28-37 2/28/14 3:10 PM Page 36