Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
420
1980
1980
540
1990
1990
Skip hoisting
2000
2000 Sea level 740
775
2005
2005 Ore buffer
Skip hoisting pockets
Increasing outputs
From their control rooms, the LKAB ope-
rators run several drill rigs out in the pro-
duction areas via remote control. The
fans are drilled forwards, 10 degrees off
vertical, generally with a burden of 3 m,
although a 3.5 m burden is used in some
parts of the Malmberget mine. Pumped
emulsion and Nonel detonators are the
standard explosives.
Kiruna mine is aiming to achieve one
Simba W6 C drilling upholes at Kiruna mine. million metres of production drilling in
2007. Malmberget, on the other hand, is
LKAB performance, increasing output from its 2007 base of 16 million t to 17 going for 0.6 million metres. But both
by 40%. In 2007, Kiruna will extract million t in 2012. will need to increase their capacity in
around 27 million t of crude ore, with a order to maintain and increase the buffer
plan to increase to 30 million t in 2009. Optimizing ore recovery between production drilling and loading.
Malmberget’s plan is less ambitious, but It was in 2005 that LKAB took the
significant, in moving production up The Kiruna orebody is a single large decision to install three Simba W6 C
slice of magnetite about 4 km-long and units which are modified versions of the
Setting up a Simba W6 C for production drilling. 80 m-wide, extending to a depth of 2 km Simba L6 C. Two of these are designed
with a dip of around 60 degrees. Sub- for optimized production drilling at
level caving is used, drilling upward fans Kiruna Mine with the Wassara water
of 115 mm-diameter holes. The method hammer.
lends itself to a high degree of automa- The third, a Simba W6 C Slot, was
tion, resulting in high productivity. redesigned for optimized up-hole slot
LKAB is constantly striving to mini- drilling in the Malmberget mine. This
mize ore losses and waste dilution, rig has the ability to drill production
seeking the best combination to achieve holes around the slot, with the added
optimum results. benefit of drilling parallel rings from the
Under investigation are: analysis of same set-up with a burden of 500 mm.
the positive effects of accurate drilling The criteria from LKAB were high
on ore recovery rates, waste dilution and productivity, efficiency and accuracy.
fragmentation; the impact of alternative The rigs in the Kiruna mine will have
drill fan configurations and hole burdens to drill 60 m-long holes in order to meet
on mucking and operating costs; and future targets.
the optimum distance between levels. Such long holes have to be very
All agree on one thing: straight, ac- straight, and with the new rigs LKAB
curate holes which reach their preplan- has high expectations for both produc-
ned target points are vital, because hole tion rates and precision, with the flex-
deviation has a negative impact on all ibility of being able to run the rigs
aspects of the production operation. manually as well as automatically. The
Thanks to the improving ability to Wassara hammer has the advantage that
drill straight holes, LKAB has been it does not leak oil into the environment.
43
38
Groups of ore passes
1048 m
34
29
25
20
16
11
For each of the Simba W6 C rigs rate drops with hole depth, and the risk to an existing network system via LAN
LKAB has set targets of 80,000 drill- of deviation increases. or WLAN. RRA is used for remote su-
metres/year. Since October 2006, the All of the rigs have drill tube maga- pervision when drilling unmanned in full
two drill rigs at Kiruna have achieved zines which are sufficient for drilling the fan automation, as well as for transfer-
65,000 and just over 70,000 drillme- required hole lengths, thereby eliminat- ring drill plans and log files and hand-
tres/year respectively, with an average ing the need for manual addition of tu- ling messages from the rigs' control
monthly performance of 10,000 drill- bes. They are also equipped with a systems.
metres. PC-based Rig Control System (RCS) If manual operation is preferred, the
specially designed for ITH applications. rig cabin offers a good working environ-
Alternative configurations The new water pump system reduces ment with vibration damping and noise
water spillage and lowers the overall insulation.
The rigs drill alternative configurations cost. The pump pressure control has The LKAB rigs are working with
with holes 15-58 m long. The fans are been modified to optimize hammer ABC Total, the highest level of auto-
spaced at three metre intervals, and any efficiency. mation, facilitating drilling a full fan in
deviation of more than 2% might cause With increased automation and re- automatic mode with only some initial
the fans to overlap. The average pene- duced manning there is a growing need steps needed from the operator. Within
tration rate is 0.65 m/min over the entire for remote surveillance. Atlas Copco's the ABC Total package, there is also
hole, which can be compared to top- Rig Remote Access (RRA) interface the possibility to drill manually or with
hammer drilling where the penetration allows the user to connect the drill rig one-hole automatics if preferred. The
The Wassara W 100 hammer on the Simba W6 gives good penetration and, as it is water-powered, does not release any oil into the air.
automatic systems also enable the rigs to better fit in with LKAB schedules. problems. As a result Atlas Copco is
to run unmanned during shift changes, Another was to move the service centre seen by LKAB as safe and reliable.
lunch breaks and night shifts. for the team of 18 service and mainte-
nance staff from underground to sur- Acknowledgements
Service agreements face.
LKAB confirms that the improve- Atlas Copco is grateful to the manage-
Both LKAB mines have full service ments have had the desired effect, with ments of Kiruna and Malmberget mines
agreements with Atlas Copco, who pro- more consistent maintenance. Regular for their assistance in the production of
vide continuous preventive maintenance meetings, spontaneous as well as planned, this article.
for their fleet of 20 rigs. Under the terms ensure a more structured approach to
of the agreement, Atlas Copco runs a
thorough check on each rig at the rate of All on the same team: From the left, Robert Wetterborn, Construction Supervisor, Mining Dept. at LKAB, Patrik
one per week. The agreement, which is Kansa, Atlas Copco Service Manager and Roger Lärkmo, Production Manager, Production Drilling at LKAB.
based on the number of metres drilled,
also includes the supply of all spare
parts. Only genuine Atlas Copco parts
are used on contract maintenance, guar-
anteeing longer service life and greater
availability.
The availability target is 92%, and
penalties are payable on underper-
formance, with bonuses awarded if the
targets are exceeded. LKAB is pleased
with the agreements and the way they
have been designed, feeling they can
let go of the maintenance responsibility
and concentrate on drilling.
Many changes have been introduced
to ensure communication between mine
and manufacturer on a regular basis,
resulting in a mutual approach to prob-
lem solving with a focus on proactive
and preventive maintenance.
One of the most important changes
was to reorganize the service intervals