Modern Mining July 2015

COVER STORY

Sandvik forges ahead with dry

Sandvik Mining has successfully partnered with the Petra Diamonds Group to introduce state-of-the-art dust suppression technology on the Sandvik DD210L low-profile single-boom electro-hydraulic drill rigs it has supplied for dry drilling operations. Petra’s Cullinan mine in Gauteng has five of the units operating.

T he Sandvik DD210L is designed to work in excavations with head- room as low as 1,7 m. The robust universal boom has a large opti- mum shaped coverage, 360-degree rotation and full automatic parallelism for fast and easy face drilling. The boom can also be used for cross-cutting, with a hose layout spe- cifically designed to maximise protection in low headings. The exceptional ‘V‘-shape lay- out is designed for good visibility and balance, while a powerful four-wheel-drive articulated carrier ensures fast and safe manoeuvring, even in low headroom conditions. The high performance drilling system allows high drilling performance with good drill steel economy and high machine reliability. The operator environment and added automatic functions allow the operator to concentrate on safe, fast and accurate drilling. All the ser- vice points are well protected, but within easy access. Dry drilling is the method of choice in many local underground rock drilling applications in kimberlitic ground, compared to the use of water in the drilling process. This is because water degrades the composition of kimberlite ore, causing it to swell and potentially destabilising working conditions. However, stringent health and safety legislation demands the proper con- trol of the dust generated during dry drilling, creating an increasing demand for efficient dust collector systems for underground use. “We originally introduced ILMEG dust sup- pression technology mounted on our DD210L mobile drill rigs as a trial at just one of Petra Diamond Group’s mines and, based on its suc- cess, we later introduced more units,” says Saltiel Pule, Sandvik Mining Business Line Manager for Underground Drills. “Our partner- ship with ILMEG has led to a complete solution for customers drilling kimberlite rock and positioned us as a market leader in terms of com- mercialising this combination of technologies. “Petra Diamonds has been very supportive

“Petra Diamonds has been very supportive in trialling and implementing this technology and we made sure that we had a deep understanding of the customer’s challenges.”

The Sandvik DD210L is designed to work in excavations with headroom as low as 1,7 m.

in trialling and implementing this technology and we made sure that we had a deep under- standing of the customer’s challenges. As a result, we’ve been able to meet their needs very well and have recorded excellent results, notably advancing between 80 m and 100 m in the first month of operation. This has led to repeat orders and, having proved the combined technology at these mines, we expect a knock- on effect from the rest of the diamond mining industry.” The ILMEG dust control system is based on the company’s well known X-series dust collectors and features a newly developed cut- tings collector which is mounted in front of the drill feed. This system was specifically devel- oped for the rock drilling industry and can be mounted on any rock drilling rig being used for dry drilling. Prior to the introduction of the Sandvik/

Saltiel Pule, Sandvik Mining

18  MODERN MINING  July 2015