Engineering & Mining Journal

DEC 2015

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

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52 E&MJ; • DECEMBER 2015 www.e-mj.com C R A N E S & R I G G I N G Look at the fleet list for a typical mine, and one will see trucks, excavators, dozers, wheel loaders and other produc- tion-orientated equipment. Underground, drill rigs, LHDs and mine trucks predominate. If they appear at all, cranes usual- ly only make a minor appearance, somewhere near the bot- tom of the list. The reason, of course, is that craneage is more often than not supplied by the rental market, and unless there are very sound economic reasons for doing so, individual mines rarely need to commit to owning their own cranes. It is usually more effective to hire in lifting capacity as and when it is needed, rather than having the commitment of maintaining machines that require regular safety certification yet may only be used infrequently. The exception here is in the use of small truck cranes, which typically provide fitters and electricians with lifting capacity in their day-to-day maintenance and installa- tion work. So what types of cranes are most likely to be of use on a mine? Working from the top, so to speak, tower cranes are rarely used outside of major construction projects. They have long-term lifting capacity, but do not have the level of flexi- bility that most mines need. Nonetheless, there are excep- tions, as the example from Syncrude given below illustrates. And it was particularly surprising for the author to see a tower Lifting Safety and Versatility Mining often requires heavy lifting capabilities for both construction and regular maintenance. Selecting the right crane for the job is key. By Simon Walker, European Editor The first Liebherr LTR 1220 telescopic crawler crane in Latin America, used by Joy Global for erecting mining shovels at Antamina.

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