Engineering & Mining Journal

DEC 2012

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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O P E R AT I N G S T R AT E G I E S mine—a job handled by logistics firm Gallivare Frakt. To manage this task, the ̈ company bought 'Goliath,' a custom-built 540-hp Volvo model FH16 truck. Fully loaded, Goliath weighs 144 mt. Gallivare Frakt transports all the copper ̈ concentrate mined in Aitik, which means every day Goliath carries 500 mt along an 8-km route from the mill to the shipping terminal. In addition, the truck hauls about 25 mt of silver and 1.3 mt of gold annually. The driver, Gustav Nilsson, first weighs the empty vehicle then drives into a long, narrow corridor at the plant, where the copper concentrate is loaded. The hatches on the trailers are opened and concentrate flows into the truck from above. Controlling the truck remotely, he inches the vehicle to distribute the load evenly. Upon arrival at the terminal, he deploys outriggers and empties the load, first from the towed trailer and then the truck body. "We chose an engine with an output of 540 horsepower to match the design of the road," said Ingemar Nilsson, Gustav's father and a co-founder of the company. "The gradient is low from the dressing plant to the terminal, and we return with an empty truck." Things have changed since he started driving trucks at the mine in 1971. "When you get into this truck, you feel like you are floating on air compared with the first truck we drove," he said. "It's like changing from a wheelbarrow to sitting on a cloud. There have been major technical developments, and it's a question of making every ton cheaper." Tractomas Gains Traction in Mine-duty Haulage Heavy-load/special vehicle specialist Nicolas has developed the Tractomas heavy tractor unit, which the Auxerre, France-based company describes as a 'super truck'—and its vital statistics seem to back up the claim. Measuring more than 10 m long, 3.5 m wide, 4.6 m high and weighing 40 tons, the 1,000-hp Tractomas is a custom-built machine with only the operator's cab drawn from standard production-line assemblies, according to the company. Earlier this year, Nicolas delivered a Tractomas model to Australia's LCR Group, an industrial and mining services company providing 'lift and shift' services to domestic and international customers. LCR's services include bulk material handling, transport, mining and other related tasks. The Tractomas unit is assigned to transport coal-haulage trailers at an LCR-operated coal mine in Queensland. At this operation, the truck pulls trains of up to five 87-toncapacity, side-tipper trailers with a total weight of 535 tons. Haul distances range between 10 and 40 km and include gradients of up to 5%. According to Nicolas, Tractomas excels in this application; its 27-liter-displacement diesel engine enables it to reach speeds up to 10 km/h when fully loaded. On straight routes without climbs, a loaded Certified a few years ago by the Guiness Book of Records as "world's largest truck/tractor," the Nicolas Tractomas weighs in at 40 tons. truck can reach 50 km/h and up to 65 km/h when empty. However, even more power is available on the Tractomas, according to Nicolas. Its PowerBooster auxiliary drive system is designed to cut-in when a need for additional power is sensed. The PowerBooster feature also allows improved cooling performance, allowing reliable haulage even in extreme, desert-heat temperatures that can reach 50°C. Orders for additional Tractomas units have been placed with Nicolas following delivery of the first tractor to LCR. A version of the Tractomas that recently went into service at a Queensland coal mine routinely hauls trains of four or five coal trailers out of the pit, each trailer rated at 87-ton payload capacity. Haul distances range between 10 and 40 km and include gradients of up to 5%. www.e-mj.com DECEMBER 2012 • E&MJ; 83

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