Engineering & Mining Journal

APR 2013

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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SUPPLIERS REPORT Raise Boring Machines: Sizing the Rig to the Job Australia-based Terratec recently completed factory testing of this TR3000 raise boring machine and will deliver it to CAUSA, Mexico's largest raise boring contractor. The 69-daylong rescue of 33 workers trapped in the collapsed San José underground gold-copper mine during the late summer and autumn days of 2010 accomplished several matters of differing importance: Most importantly, the miners were rescued without further serious injury or loss of life. Millions of TV watchers came 142 E&MJ; • APRIL 2013 away with a better understanding of the toughness and ingenuity of underground miners, and the dark, unforgiving world in which they spend their working hours. The public was also given a brief but fascinating glimpse at the real-world difficulties associated with a seemingly simple task— drilling holes deep through the earth to reach a desired target hundreds or thousands of feet below the surface, usually within a tight time schedule. Although raise boring technology wasn't the final solution to the rescue attempt, it played a major role in the effort as one of three drill-based plans of attack the rescue crews employed to reach and extract the miners. Televised pictures of the 31-ton Strata 950 raise boring machine brought to the site gave viewers a striking visual lesson in the size, power and weight of machines built to bore through the earth. The San José rescue didn't quite make raise boring machines the rock stars of drilling, but it did call attention to the usefulness and efficiency of these machines— qualities that were already well known to the mining and underground construction industries and which continue to drive customer demands for even more powerful boring machines from the relatively small number of companies that build them, such as Atlas Copco Robbins, RUC Cementation, Aker Wirth, TUMI and others. And, to the extent that state-of-the-art engineering and manufacturing allows, the suppliers have answered the call. As our 2011 coverage of the sector explained, the limitations on raise boring machine power and capacity are mostly external factors such as drill string integrity, local ground conditions and the frequent requirement that these machines must be able to operate in confined spaces (See Speed and Safety: Raise Boring Provides the Solution, p. 32, April 2011). As an example, Australia-based raise boring and tunneling machine builder Terratec reported in early February that it had successfully completed the factory acceptance testing of its first raise boring machine, a model TR3000, sold for the Mexican market. The completion of testing was marked by a ceremony held in Tasmania, Australia, six months from receipt of order, according to the company. Terratec identified the client as Cau S.A. de C.V (CAUSA), founded in 1978 as a service company for development of mining and civil works. The company is regarded as the largest raise boring contractor in Mexico. In North America, Terratec currently has RBMs operating in the U.S. and www.e-mj.com

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