Capital Equipment News September 2015

A 3 400 litre water tank feeds the dust suppression system comprising water jets around the aggregate spouts, plus a pair of powerful jets located at the rear.

A completed truck ready for delivery.

Aggregate being dispensed.

The trucks are manufactured to stringent standards.

BLASTING SOLUTION: a game changer for opencast mining

C ertain aspects of running business- es, such as operational efficiency, are universal. And efficiency in one area of expertise that has an exponential effect on the rest of the business is an elusive pot of gold for most. The open- cast mining sector – if approached with a solution that guarantees it massive sav- ings in time, money and material volumes – would be swift to implement it. This has been the case with stemming trucks supplied to the southern African market through a partnership between Scania South Africa and Cobra Petro Projects. An initial truck was manufac- tured and introduced to the market at last

year’s Electra Mining Africa exhibition. One of South Africa’s most established mining groups saw it and arranged a demonstra- tion review. The truck impressed the com- pany to the extent that it purchaced the demo model. Within a few months two oth- er units were purchased. Cobra Petro Proj- ects manufactures the units under license of Ausroads making use of Scania trucks. “The process of stemming in a local opencast mining context is traditional- ly archaic as the most common practice involves crudely modified front-end load- ers to backfill blast holes,” explains Chris Swanepoel from Scania South Africa’s mining division.

He points out that this method is ineffec- tive, labour intensive and results in incon- sistent blasting results. In addition, backfill material either consists of aggregate that needs to be transported to the blast site or of the rock displaced through the drilling of the blast hole. This means that the material is not graded and specific to the requirements of the blast – which affects efficiency. “Use of this new stemming truck technology eliminates all these variables and ensures the correct amount of precisely sized ag- gregate into blast holes in the most efficient way possible,” states Karel Steyn, technical

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