Innovative solutions at Kroondal

October 2004 News Information Security Products & Solutions

In-house expertise at B&W Instrumentation and Electrical has resulted in the design and manufacture of innovative, purpose-built equipment to streamline operations on the company's 18-month electrical contract at AQP (SA)'s Kroondal Platinum Mine near Rustenburg.

To surmount the challenges at Kroondal, veteran director, Tom Lombaard, designed an industry-first electric cable winch and also conceived specifications for the complete rebuilding of secondhand 4x4 vehicles for use underground.

The contract at Kroondal Platinum mine includes the underground installation of conveyors, ventilation fans, lighting, substations, gully rigs and a ring main feeder, and involves many hundreds of metres of electrical cabling. The new winch enables the lowering of cables down boreholes up to 250 m deep instead of the conventional time-consuming and often dangerous practice of raising cables from underneath using turfors.

The winch has been tested and certified by Acoustosonics as compliant with the Occupational Health and Safety Act and capable of lowering up to 36 tons of cabling. It is fitted with two mechanical brakes on the drum and an hydraulic brake on the motor and gearbox.

Low-slung vehicles

B&W's new mine vehicles, formerly a Toyota Hilux 4x4 Diesel bakkie and a Toyota Land Cruiser, were rebuilt at the company's workshop in Alberton to a height of 1,2 m and 1,4 m respectively. The available height in the mine's decline shafts is about 1,7 m. The rebuilding of the vehicles included the removal and repositioning of the suspension, engine and driveshaft and fitting a new body, lower roll bar and mine-spec dead man's brakes. The vehicles are designed with a flat load bin for the transport of equipment and have been resprayed with mine-spec stonechip paint and rubberised inside. The pictures show the bakkie before and after the rebuild.

The Kroondal contract was awarded to B&W by Dowding, Reynard and Associates (DRA) and forms part of the Pooling & Sharing (PSA) Project at the mine.

For more information contact Ken Nel, B&W Instrumentation and Electrical, 011 907 1663, [email protected]

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