An African mine will be among the first adopters of innovative Rail-Running Conveyor (RRC) technology, commercialised by FLS in collaboration with Australia’s University of Newcastle
“Designed to dramatically reduce energy consumption, improve safety and cut capital and operating expenditure, Rail-Running Conveyors are a game changer for mines which must rely on extended conveying distances to move material,” said Martin Lurie, FLS global product line manager for RRC.
He said any mine that carries substantial tonnages over 500 metres to 1,000 metres can achieve higher efficiencies using the technology.
“The first full-scale operational system will be commissioned in southern Africa in mid-2025,” he said.
“It is designed to carry 5,000mtph of copper ore over a 3.25 km run, and is expected to save approximately US$1mn each year in power costs when compared to a conventional trough conveyor.”
Other mines around the globe are set to follow. A second system, destined for the same mining customer at a mine in the Americas, will carry around 13,000 mtph, delivering significant power savings and safety improvements, according to Lurie.
He said the energy losses incurred by an RRC can be anything between one-fifth to one-tenth of those experienced by traditional trough and pipe conveyor systems respectively.
“The friction losses on a conventional long-distance conveyor largely determine the power capacity that must be installed, the size of the structures required and the downtime incurred to maintain and replace pulleys and drives. Reducing these energy losses therefore has a positive knock-on effect on the costs of a range of other aspects.”
Customers achieve savings on the scope of the conveyor equipment itself, the cut-and-fill civils requirements, the volumes of concrete used, the strength of the belt and the number of drive stations necessary, he noted.
Due to the lower tension acting on the conveyor belt, a lower rating of belt is possible, while faster speeds and a deeper trough also mean that a narrower belt may suffice for the same throughput. Importantly, the rating of the drives does not need to be as high.
“Where a 6 MW drive may be specified for a conventional conveyor, for instance, this technology may allow a 2 MW drive to be installed,” he said. “This then has further positive impacts on the ratings required for motors, transformers, E-houses and power supply.”
The head and the tail of an RRC remain the same as in traditional systems, he added, with the rail-running section making up the bulk of the distance. The basic mode of transport is steel-wheel-on-steel-rail instead of a belt running over idlers. This fundamental difference is what cuts energy consumption so drastically.
The system uses small carriages to carry the belt and these are automatically exchanged at maintenance houses when required. Lurie said this removes the safety risks associated with personnel changing out idlers along the length of the conveyor. Having fewer transfer points also has a safety benefit as these can be sources of injury during maintenance as well as health threats from dust exposure.
The RRC system has been a decade in development, he added, drawing heavily on two established technologies — underground mining rail technology and overland conveyor systems.
The FLS and University of Newcastle developers believe the RRC innovation marks a paradigm shift for conveyor systems, not only in terms of energy saving and carbon footprint reduction but also in terms of the distance a conveyor can travel and the challenging terrain through which it can operate.
Thanks largely to the way the belt sits stationary in the cradle, an RRC can negotiate tighter curves and can also climb steeper angles without the material on the belt rolling back and spilling, Luried noted.
“Our straightforward calculations of the potential impact on existing mining operations shows unprecedented savings resulting from this system,” he said.
“One study, for instance, investigated the benefits for a customer who has to move material over 15 km between the pit and the plant. Where seven conveyors were currently required we could do the same job with three, while consuming only a quarter of the energy.”
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