Modern Mining July 2016

COVER STORY

dust from the drilling site required some care- ful engineering with meticulous record keeping and hundreds of different settings due to the sheer amount of dust generated,” Pule contin- ues. “It also requires operational technicians who had to be trained and stationed on site to ensure the optimal performance of the system. This was well managed by contract manager Stephanus Roodt, as well as the Sandvik team on site, who took ownership of the dust sup- pression system and ensured the mine’s four rigs are able to operate in a safe and dust free environment.”

relationship with Finsch Diamond Mine and that the mine enjoys a full maintenance contract with a full-time service crew of approximately 117, as well as auxiliary staff employed on the mine. This arrangement makes it more fea- sible to deploy new technology on site, as the OEM has the ability to monitor and apply best practices from around the world in order to optimise equipment and operations on site. This also allowed a more phased approach with the mine first making use of a Sandvik DS311 as a prototype unit. Although not con- figured for dry drilling, it served the purpose of providing operators with hands-on experience on a similar machine. By the time the four machines were

Petra Diamonds’ Finsch Diamond Mine in the Northern Cape.

One of Finsch Diamond Mine’s new Sandvik DS411 rock bolters in operation.

Experienced operators Pule notes that Sandvik has a long-standing

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