IPCC DEVELOPMENTS
The road to IPCC
In advance of our 24-26 October IPCC event in Bali,
Paul Moore looks at a range of projects that are using or
looking at using these types of systems; as well as
reviewing some news from the major OEMs involved
number of projects worldwide at the
A feasibility or initial development stage
have factored in IPCC into their plans,
whether in terms of waste handling or ore
mining. This includes those being advanced by
juniors, but also some of the world’s largest
groups, including Goldcorp, Cerrejon and Vale
amongst others. The following gives an overview
of the progress and plans of some of the newer
projects as they relate to IPCC. Other companies
looking at IPCC include Stanmore Coal, which is
investigating its potential for waste transport;
Marengo Mining for its Yandera project in Papua
New Guinea, as part of an ongoing definitive
feasibility study; and Iron Road for its Central
Eyre iron ore project on the Eyre Peninsula of
South Australia.
In November 2011, Australia’a Carpentaria
Exploration announced a significant rise in the
estimated NPV of its flagship Hawsons iron ore
project to A$3.2 billion, based on lower
projected operating costs used in a recent
mining option study. The increased NPV
represented a rise of 14% from the pre-
feasibility study, and was based on modelling of
in-pit crushing and conveying by GHD with
significantly reduced mining cost estimates
compared to conventional truck haulage. The
definitive feasibility study is being completed in
2012.
Carpentaria's Executive Chairman, Nick
Sheard, said at the time: "In-pit crushing and
conveying is an established mining method and
well suited to the Hawsons deposit, importantly
it has not yet been optimised and further cost
18 International Mining | MAY 2012
reductions are possible.” The Hawsons iron ore
project is located 60 km southwest of Broken
Hill and includes an inferred magnetite resource
of 1.4 billion tonnes. A prefeasibility study
evaluating a 20 Mt/y concentrate production
option with a three year, 5 Mt/y start-up option
was completed in May 2011.
In established mines, developments include
the selection of IPCC by Goldcorp for the
Penasquito mine in Mexico. The Penasquito
mine has an average daily mining rate of
approximately 500,000 t throughout the 23-year
life of the project. Utilising Komatsu 930E haul
trucks requires an increase in haul trucks from
the current 57 operating trucks to 119 haul
trucks over the next 15 years. The current
operating fleet provides sufficient hauling
capacity until the end of 2012.
Studies confirmed the economic feasibility of
installing an IPCC system, which would lower
the truck fleet requirements. A crusher would be
located at a central, strategic location in the pit,
which would reduce the requirement to haul
waste material long distances to the waste
dumps.
With the growth in reserves on the site since
the initial feasibility study, additional land is
required for the disposal of overburden. Land
close to the pit which would be suitable for
truck haulage is known to be more expensive,
more difficult to purchase and would require the
relocation of approximately 140 home sites. A
cheaper alternative is available to the west of
the tailings dam, which would be suitable for
conveyor transportation.
Fully mobile ThyssenKrupp IPCC
systems during commissioning
IPCC has been shown to significantly reduce
capital and operating costs, decreasing manning
requirements, and reducing on-site emissions.
The proposal being considered would reduce
the peak number of trucks required to haul ore
and waste by 35. The median fuel consumption
for the Komatsu 930E haul truck at Penasquito
is 228 litres/h. This generates some 560 kg of
CO2e/h, or 3,700t CO2e per year. While the IPCC
option would require an increase in grid power,
it is estimated that over the life of the mine the
greenhouse gas emission savings would be in
the order of 2.2 Mt CO2e. The Penasquito IPCC is
now going ahead, with FLSmidth delivering the
semi-mobile sizer system.
Construction of the huge S11D project by Vale
is already well underway. Vale’s multi-billion
dollar S11D project is a world-class 90 Mt/y iron
ore processing facility located approximately
1,940 km north of Sao Paulo, part of the Carajas
mining complex. Snowden recently announced
that Vale has awarded a contract to Snowden
Brazil for the implementation of the long term
planning and implementation of the IPCC
solution. Snowden services will include, in a
first phase, the support of Vale in the
development of the long term mine plan
adopting an IPCC solution. Snowden has already
facilitated a workshop with the Vale's Long Term
Planning and Operational Readiness teams. The
IPCC system will be implemented in the Serra
Sul (S11D) block, a ridge of land 30 km long and
around 1.8 km wide. The core equipment is the
Sandvik PF200-9500 fully mobile IPCC system,
of which four will be employed at the mine. This
 IPCC DEVELOPMENTS
RCR is a leading Australian materials handling
equipment manufacturer. In the IPCC arena it
has developed the specialised Mobile Mining
and Process Plant (MUP), which uniquely
features combinations of feeding screening,
crushing and processing plant mounted on a
single self-propelled mobile platform
design is a variant of the PF300 and has the
same fundamental four crawler design.
Snowden has also conducted an IPCC versus
conventional truck and shovel mining study for
the Moatize coal operation in Mozambique. In
addition to Sandvik, ThyssenKrupp has secured
an IPCC order for handling the hardest rock at
the S11D project (see OEM section).
SKM is also a key players in the S11D project.
It has just announced that is has a new $76
million contract for the project, under which
SKM will provide engineering for the truckless
system, procurement support, project execution
planning and project management services in a
deal that it says will be the cornerstone of its
mining business in Brazil. "SKM continues to
build on its relationship with Vale, utilising our
global engineering and project execution
capabilities. The Carajas project is currently the
biggest private initiative in the world in the
development of iron ore mining. We are excited
to be chosen as partners in this important project,
and are committed to its successful delivery in
order to assist Vale in realising its business
objectives," SKM’s CEO Santo Rizzuto said.
Indonesia was selected as the location for our
forthcoming IPCC 2012 event, and with good
reason. In a February 28th analyst briefing,
Banpu-owned Indominco indicates that it is
looking at installing IPCC systems at both its
Indominco East Block and Bharinto coal mines.
The company states that installing an IPCC
system means: “it will be economic to go deeper
and mine more resources”, adding “IPCC
facilitates cheaper and quicker overburden
removal costs from deeper pits, enabling overall
overburden costs per bcm to remain
competitive.” Exploration work has boosted
reserves at Indominco’s East Block in 2011, and
the company states that further reserves
upgrades are planned based on additional
exploration and mining studies. At Bharinto,
engineering studies (including those on IPCC)
20 International Mining | MAY 2012
and further exploration drilling have boosted
reserves estimates.
Elsewhere, IPCC was factored into the
feasibility study for the 2.73 billion tonne East
Kutai Coal Project as an option to lower costs.
However, joint venture owners Churchill Mining
and Ridlatama may have their mining licences
revoked pending a decision in the Indonesia
Supreme Court.
In addition, IM has already highlighted
FLSmidth’s contract to supply Adaro Energy, one
of Indonesia’s leading thermal coal producers,
with an overburden handling solution to assist
with overburden removal at its Tutupan open pit
mine. The project is part of the continuous
expansion of Adaro’s mining operations, and is
Adaro’s first venture into mechanised mining
systems.
The current operation moves up to 1 Mbcm
per day, with plans to increase this in the future.
The proposed system, at a rated capacity of
12,000 t/h, will account for some 10% of total
overburden production. Adaro’s long-term
strategy is to increase the amount of overburden
moved by mechanised systems to 40% of the
total or higher. Supply includes FLSmidth
RAHCO overland conveyors (four each – total
length 10km – 12,000 t/h); FLSmidth RAHCO
mobile stacking conveyor: (one each – 411 m –
12,000 t/h); FLSmidth RAHCO spreading
conveyor: (one each – 50 m boom – 12,500 t/h);
two ABON 13/300 CCTD sizers with two 335 kW
drives – each 6,000 t/h; and two FLSmidth
apron feeders – each 6,000 t/h. The system
incorporates the dumping of overburden hauled
by trucks into crushers at the pit perimeter, and
conveying the overburden to a disposal area
some 6 km distant. This will significantly reduce
the overburden haulage requirements at the
mine, saving manpower and fuel, and reducing
truck fleet size. According to Garibaldi Boy
Thorir, President Director of PT Adaro Energy,
the Out of Pit Crusher and Conveyor (OPCC)
project will boost the efficiency by which the
large amount of overburden is transported.
However, in addition to all of this activity,
there can still be an inherent reluctance to
commit to IPCC. In the case of Australia, for
example, Scott McEwing, a mining engineer and
a Principal Consultant with SRK Consulting
comments: “As a result of the boom and bust
cycle in Australia’s mining industry, it has
traditionally had a truck and shovel mining fleet,
which has a high emphasis on short-term
flexibility as opposed to looking at a project’s
long term optimisation. A lot of mining
companies put in place a traditional operation
because they are looking for low risk, early
payback on their investment and to make hay
while the sun shines. One of the problems with
the Australian mining industry is that for too
long there has been a reluctance to put the right
amount of initial investment into a project so
that it is more financially stable. If you go to
other parts of the world, they’re not afraid to
heavily invest in the right infrastructure for the
long term. The benefit is that once they go into
production, their operating costs are low, so
they can keep mining, even when commodity
prices drop. The IPCC concept has been well
proven across the globe by many major mining
companies…studies have demonstrated that
operating costs can be significantly reduced
which shows that if you’re prepared to outlay
that extra money upfront, there is the potential
for large savings in the long run.” He adds:
“Back in the early days of FMG, we
recommended the use of a surface miner. It was
new technology for the iron ore industry,
everyone else was still focused on drill and
blast, truck and shovel. It was leading edge,
Fortescue implemented it and it worked. The
IPCC system isn’t leading edge, it’s well
established and should be considered.”
Exeter Resource – Caspiche
Exeter Resource announced in January this year
that the prefeasibility study for its Caspiche
project in northern Chile predicts an average
annual production over the 19 year mine life of
696,000 oz of gold, 244 Mlb of copper and
844,000 oz of silver. Overall copper recovery is
85.6% and gold recovery 67.6%. The study was
completed by Aker Solutions (now Jacobs
Engineering), and evaluated three mining and
processing options, all of which included an
open pit to mine the near surface heap
leachable ore. The preferred development
option is an open pit operation processing
150,000 t/d of sulphide ore and a heap leach
operation at an initial design production rate of
72,000 t/d. The study envisages that the heap
leach operation will start before the main
concentrator with the leachable ore being
removed as part of the pre-stripping operation.
Total proven and probable ore reserves,
generated from an updated resource estimate
for the Super Pit are 1.091 billion tonnes
containing 19.3 Moz of gold, 4.62 billion pounds
of copper, and 41.5 Moz of silver.
A key component is the inclusion of high
 IPCC DEVELOPMENTS

tonnage IPCC systems for the movement of

waste rock. This achieves greater efficiencies in
the movement of the pit overburden, not only to
address rising operating costs for mining waste,
but also the capital and operating costs involved
in the construction of tailings dam walls using
conventional methods.
The early implementation of IPCC allowed the
open pit development to be tailored to the
needs of the system and has resulted in
significant reduction in projected mining costs.
NCL acted as mining consultants to Exeter, and
estimated that the cost saving per tonne of total
material moved by using the IPCC system
instead of a large truck fleet is in the order of
$0.25 /t or approximately $0.80 /t of ore mined.
In addition to the operational savings, Exeter
estimates an initial and sustainable capital
saving of approximately $1 billion by building
the tailings dam wall largely from a conveyor-
stacker system rather than using conventional
truck haulage for material movement. The waste Star-Orion South diamond project footprint movement of waste rock. These include the
dump would form the backbone of an Collahuasi, Escondida and Chuquicamata mines.
engineered tailings dam face and provide a recognising early in the study process that the Exeter has relied on the experience of Sandvik
significant margin of safety in the event of an inclusion of in-pit crushing and conveying Mining and Construction, one of the leaders in
earthquake or other event. systems could provide significant reductions in IPCC technology to design a suitable system for
Exeter Chairman Yale Simpson stated: “We both capital and operating costs. In Caspiche. Sandvik recently installed two 8,000
are very pleased to have completed such a high implementing IPCC in the prefeasibility study, t/h systems in Boliden’s Atik mine and two
quality study within a relatively short timeframe. Exeter is following the lead of several copper 10,000 t/h units in Vale’s Carajas mine in Brazil.
The study benefited markedly by us having an operations in Chile and Peru which are utilising With the PFS to hand we will now proceed with a
excellent engineering team capable of or developing high tonnage IPCC systems for the stand-alone heap leach project feasibility study,

MAY 2012 | International Mining 21

 IPCC DEVELOPMENTS
A semi-mobile in-pit crushing solution from
Takraf with external surge bin
hydrological mapping and geotechnical
evaluations, an Environmental Impact Study
submission, and metallurgical and process
optimisation studies. The Company treasury is
more than adequate for the continued
advancement of the project.”
KGHM Ajax
The Ajax project is a proposed open-pit copper-
gold mine located near and partly within the city
limits of Kamloops, British Columbia. KGHM is a
joint venture between Vancouver-based Abacus
Mining (49%) and KGHM Polska Miedz (51%),
the leading Polish copper and silver producer
through its three flagship mines – Lubin, Rudna
and Polkowice-Sierszowice. According to the
KGHM Ajax 2011 feasibility study carried out by
Knight Piesold, the Ajax mine is expected to
produce 109 Mlb of copper and 99,000 oz of
gold annually over its 23-year mine life.
IPCC is an important part of the mine’s plan
as outlined in the study. Following the
prefeasibility study, IPCC was identified as a
potential cost reduction implementation for the
Ajax project when compared with a truck-haul
option only. At the time, the mine plan was
completed using conventional truck-haul with
and without IPCC for comparison.
The feasibility study envisages a combined
IPCC system with out-pit gyratory primary
crushing system. Two potential locations for the
IPCC system were assessed, on the north wall,
and on the south wall; and the south wall site
was selected. In general, the IPCC system will
consist of three semi-mobile crushing plants
and corresponding belt conveyors. The crushers
will be mounted on concrete pontoons and can
be relocated from time to time according to the
mine development schedule. In the ore handling
system, the ore will be crushed to the size which
meets the process requirements. The crushed
22 International Mining | MAY 2012
ore will be transferred to the coarse ore
stockpile by the belt conveyors. In the waste
rock handling system, the rock will need to be
crushed so that it can be handled by the down-
stream belt conveyors and stacking system.
The crusher installation will be divided into
three phases. In Phase 1, a crusher will be
constructed on the exit point of the ultimate pit
design (out-pit crusher). This particular crusher
will initially be used as an ore crusher and can
be switched to be waste or ore crusher when the
in-pit crushing system is in place. The crusher
will remain on its location until the end of mine
life. During Phase 2, two in-pit crushers will be
constructed at the 796 m elevation early in Year
7 and will be ready to be operated in the middle
of Year 7. The two crushers will handle ore and
waste material. During Phase 3, the two in-pit
crushers will be relocated from the 796 m
elevation to the 700 m elevation. The relocation
of both in-pit crushers will be done in Year 13 so
that they can be used by the beginning of Year 14.
Conveyors will handle ore material from the
ore crushers to the plant, and the waste
material will be handled from the waste crusher
to the North Dump equipped with a stacking
system. Conventional conveyors were selected
for the IPCC system. The conveyors will be
constructed on the south and west side of the
ultimate pit limit. The conveyors will have to
cross a shallow portion of the lake on the west
side of the pit where a protection berm will be
constructed to help prevent water flow into the
pit. The overland conveyor on the west side will
utilise this protection berm for its foundation.
An overall availability of 70% was selected to
size equipment. For the crusher design capacity,
no design factor was considered. A design factor
of 1.15 was considered for the belt conveyor and
the stacking system design capacities to handle
possible higher crushing capacity due to finer
and softer ROM fed to the crusher. The crushing
plant will consist of a truck dump pocket,
gyratory crusher, surge pocket and belt feeder.
One waste rock crushing plant will be located
outside the pit and the two other crushing
plants will be located at the same truck pad
inside the pit (one for ore and one for waste).
However, each crushing plant can be used to
handle either ore or waste rock depending on
the operational requirements. It should be
noted that since the waste rock handling
capacity will be about 34% higher than ore
handling capacity, different main shafts will be
required for ore and waste rock application.
The waste rock stacking system will consist of
shiftable conveyors, travelling tripper and
spreader. A starter pile, which will be stacked by
truck and located in the east side of the North
Waste Rock Dump area, is proposed as the
starting point for the stacking system. To reduce
downtime due to equipment relocation, the
height of the starter pile will be the same as the
final dump height and stacking will be
developed using downcast mode. The selected
stacking mode will be carried out by radial
advance stacking by shifting the conveyor
around a pivot point.
Hancock Coal – Alpha
Hancock’s Alpha coal project is the most
advanced coal project in Australia’s Galilee
Basin. It has a JORC compliant resource of 3.6
billion tonnes, with 2 billion tonnes reserves in
the measured + indicated categories. The
completed bankable feasibility study outlines
the development of an open pit mine which will
produce over 30 Mt/y of high grade thermal coal
for export to markets within Asia. First coal
production is expected by the end of 2014. In
September 2011, Indian infrastructure major
GVK Power, part of the GVK Group, acquired
Hancock Coal for $1.26 billion, in one of the
largest overseas acquisitions by an Indian
company. GVK said the deal, which includes
acquiring majority holding in coal resources and
railway line and port infrastructure projects of
Hancock Coal, will offer the Hyderabad-based
company option for long term coal supply
contracts for the purchase of up to 20 Mt/y. This
can support around 7,500 MW of power
generating capacity.
SKM conducted a study for Hancock on the
potential application of IPCC systems for the
Alpha project bankable feasibility study. The
Alpha project involves a significant amount of
overburden removal – with an IPCC system set
to be installed to remove the upper overburden
bench. This will operate in front of a dragline
operation followed by actual coal removal.
Initially the IPCC systems will convey the
overburden out of the pit to dump areas but
later in the mine life it with be dumped in-pit.
Two IPCC systems will be operated at the mine –
system 1 in mining pits 2 and 3 South. System 2
 IPCC DEVELOPMENTS
MMD has a long and successful working
relationship with Pinghsuo, dating back to the
installation of two 4,000 t/h plus sizing stations
in 1992 at the An Tai Bao mine
will operate in 3 North and 4. Overall, the Alpha
mine has six separate pits that will run north to
south, each separated by bridge and truck
ramps. The overburden horizons in question are
15-30 m deep, generally uniform and
geometrically simple.
The two IPCC systems will be identical in
terms of equipment and function. Each will
utilise an electric rope shovel, Caterpillar D11
dozer and mobile sizer rig with twin roll sizer.
The dozer and shovel will be used to mine the
upper overburden layer, with the dozer pushing
material to the shovel that will feed the mobile
sizing rig, which will reduce the lump size and
feed a face conveyor. Nominally, the shovel will
remove an 18 m bench with the dozer pushing
an extra 12 m of material to the shovel, allowing
an overall 30 m high bench to be removed.
There will be two face conveyors for each mining
system, with the system moving between face
conveyors as the mine advances to the north.
The face conveyors will feed cross-pit conveyors
and finally the dump conveyors. All will be
relocatable.
Nevada Copper – Pumpkin Hollow
The open-pit mine is planned as a 60,000 t/d of
ore open-pit truck and shovel operation. The
open-pit mining method considers the use of
electric blast hole drills, large haul trucks, both
cable and hydraulic shovels, and in-pit ore
crushing and conveying capabilities “to achieve
the most reasonable cost benefits and
selectivity for this type of deposit.” The mine
phases were designed with a series of in-pit ore
crusher locations over the life of the mine. All
mined ore is hauled by truck to the in-pit
crusher, crushed, and transported out of the pit
24 International Mining | MAY 2012
via a conveyor system. All waste material is
hauled by truck out of the pit and directly to the
waste dump (mine rock storage facility or
MRSF).
Pit slope configurations used in designing the
Pumpkin Hollow pits were based on information
contained in a report from Golder Associates.
Recommended slopes considered the drill core
data, analysis of structural data, and point load
testing. The ultimate pit design utilises
switchbacks to maintain the road and ramp
system on the north side of the North Pit while
the South Pit maintains the haul road system on
the south side of the pit. This allows for better
traffic flow between pit phases and allows the
IPCC system to be installed in the inactive or
less active portions of the pits with no haul
road/conveyor crossing areas. The pit designs
were created to use a 40-ft single bench and 80-
ft double bench designs.
Near the start of the feasibility study, Nevada
Copper requested a trade-off study which
compared cost differences for various methods
of material transport from the surface mine pits
at the proposed Pumpkin Hollow Project. The
study focused on costs related to the use of a
truck fleet and/or in IPCC of mined material to
its final ex-pit destination. Different
combinations of truck and/or belt transport
were explored for the study. The study
conclusions showed that the parameters which
had the greatest impact on the relative NPV in
this trade off study were that a reduced truck
fleet for ore transport, combined with a mid-
cash flow capital expense of an IPCC system,
generated increased value for the project.
Additionally, the study showed that value was
not added by utilising the IPCC to transport
waste and ore; the highest value was obtained
by utilising the IPCC to haul ore only.
Project time constraints did not allow for a
detailed and comprehensive in-pit crusher
study; rather, a currently available
crusher/feeder system (60 x 89 in gyratory)
capable of handling the projected material size
and tonnage rate (4,000 t/h) was used as an
example and quotes were requested for systems
of similar capabilities. The example system was
used to determine the dimensions of the
crusher pocket needed and the feed and
dumping area needed by the ore truck fleet.
Conetic Resources was asked by Tetra Tech to
evaluate the conveyor requirements for the
Pumpkin Hollow Project.
The initial development of the in-pit
conveying system is the construction of the
plant ore stacker conveyor. It rises to a height of
105 ft above the 120,000 t plant ore stockpile
and would be there for the duration of the North
and the South Pit mining operations. The plant
ore reclaim system is part of the mill processing
system and is discussed in that area of the
report. The North Pit conveyors are developed in
three distinct phases as the mining progresses
into the open pit. The first phase of conveyor
development includes the plant ore stacker and
the North Pit Phase 1 conveyor, which connects
the In-pit crushing system with the plant ore
stacker. The North Pit Phase 1 conveyor is on the
North Pit crest surface as the open pit is
developed. North Pit Phase 2 conveyor
operations include the addition of new
conveyors to link together in a saw tooth
fashion to remove the crushed ore from the pit
economically and avoid steeper inclines. The
final phase of the North Pit operations is called
Phase 3 and Ultimate. This operation requires
the construction of five conveyors for ore
haulage from the in-pit crushing system to the
plant ore stacker conveyor.
The conveyor alignments in the South Pit for
Phase 1 have two conveyors. Conveyor 1 would
be in place for the life of the South Pit Mining
operation. Conveyor 2 would be the only
conveyor purchased in the Phase 1 operation.
This allows the mining operations to open the
pit. The South Pit Phase 2 conveying system is
intended to be constructed from the conveyors
previously used in the North Pit and the South
Pit.
A stockpile of ore uncovered and removed
during the initial pre-stripping period of waste
movement from the North Pit area would be
located near the coarse ore stockpile. This pile
would initially contain approximately 1.3 Mt of
above cut-off ore material hauled directly from
the mining areas by truck. Approximately 1 Mt of
this material would be fed into the processing
plant as part of the initial mill production. The
remainder would be used as a “surge pile” to
smooth out small production bumps during
regular production periods of the open pit mine.
Blasthole drilling for both ore and waste
 IPCC DEVELOPMENTS
MMD’s initial entry into IPCC was an
installation at the Meirama operation in Spain,
that was acquired to complement a gyratory
crusher which it eventually replaced
material is expected to utilise Caterpillar 6540
electric drills. Primary mine waste production is
achieved using Caterpillar 7495 electric rope
shovels loading Caterpillar 795 haul trucks.
Primary ore movement will be with Caterpillar
6060 hydraulic excavators loading 795 haul
trucks which haul the ore to the in-pit crushing
and conveying system, for which no equipment
selection was indicated in the study.
Shore Gold – Star-Orion South
This represents a large accessible diamond
resource in central Saskatchewan, Canada for
which the feasibility Study was completed in
August 2011 that envisages a 20 year mine life
producing 34.4 Mct from a reserve of 279 Mt of
kimberlite, with a production cost of $242/ct.
The open pit mining will employ three methods:
a conventional truck and shovel for removal of
overlying sand and clay, in preparation for an
IPCC system; the IPCC system with a large
capacity overland conveyor for the majority of
overburden and in-pit waste; and a hybrid truck
and shovel with IPCC for ore haulage to the
process plant. The mining rate is expected to be
14.3 Mt/y with an overall strip ratio of 6.35:1
waste to ore. The current mine plan exposes 2
years of ore in the beginning phases for Star
and Orion South, prior to processing first ore.
The proposed IPCC system will be used to
excavate, size, convey and stack the overburden
in the designated overburden stockpile. A
20,000 t/h capacity IPCC system will be used to
strip the till and underlying Colorado shale and
occasional siltstone, sandstone and clay
materials.
The IPCC system will be operated and
maintained by Shore with the assistance of a
maintenance contractor. Operations will be
supported by drilling and blasting equipment,
bulldozers and wheel dozers, the surficial sand
26 International Mining | MAY 2012
and clay pre-stripping
excavators and haul
trucks, road graders,
and field maintenance
and service vehicles
including all-terrain
cranes. The proposed
IPCC stripping system
is a waste excavation
/ conveying / stacking
system. It will initially
include three
electrically-powered
shovels, each having a
fully-mobile sizer and
a fully-mobile transfer
conveyor; two semi-mobile across-bench
conveyor assemblies; twin inclined conveyors on
the Star Phase 1a pit access ramp; an overland
conveyor with conveyors and a waste stacker at
the overburden stockpile; and an auxiliary waste
stacker. The IPCC system will be progressively
expanded as the pit is developed. IPCC in-pit
equipment will move between the Star and
Orion South pits as required by the mine
schedule. The overland conveyor between the
Star pit and the overburden stockpile will be
relocated to serve the Orion South pit. It is
assumed that the tills to be excavated by the
system will be free-digging material. The IPCC
system will commence operations in the Star
Phase 1a pit and will then be relocated to the
Star Phase 1b pit. The IPCC system will be used
to sequentially strip Star pit phases 1a to 3 and
Orion South pit phases 1a to 2. The IPCC system
has a capacity of 117 Mwt/y. Three Takraf TMCS
8400 (8,400 t/h) mobile sizer are being
considered as the core machine along with three
Komatsu electric PC8000 hydraulic excavators,
six 8,400 t/h capacity conveying bridge
conveyors; two 8,400 t/h capacity inclined
conveying bridge conveyors and two 16,800 t/h
capacity shiftable in-pit conveyors. Each
shiftable conveyor will be equipped with two
hopper cars to enable one or two fully mobile
sizers to discharge to an in-pit shiftable
conveyor. The in-pit
shiftable conveyors
will discharge to the
up-ramp conveyor
feeding the overland
waste conveyor.
System provider
updates
The key OEMs
providing IPCC
solutions continue to
refine designs and Waste stacking, in this case a
work towards solution from Sandvik, remains
a key part of the IPCC market
delivering contracts.
All of these key groups continue to highlight the
economic benefits of IPCC in the form of higher
production performance with reduced capital
costs (particularly when compared to
discontinuous truck operations), but also its
huge potential for reducing operations related
CO2 emissions, thus providing a greener
footprint as continuous mining equipment is
powered exclusively by electricity. All of these
areas will again be addressed in the IPCC 2012
event in Bali from 24-26 October.
One of the leading players, ThyssenKrupp has
developed a modular series of devices which
run in single and multiple bench operation. The
company states: “This array of products allows
the company to create individual solutions to
every customer request.”
The group’s first fully mobile crushing system
of its new design was delivered to the YiminHe
coal mine in China in 2007. The crushing plant
processes ROM coal at a design rate of 3,500
t/h. ThyssenKrupp adds: “This successful
operation in YiminHe led to a further order for
four fully mobile crushing systems for the
Baiyinhua coal field in China. Three of the four
systems will be used to remove overburden,
each having a design capacity of 6,900 t/h. One
3,500 t/h system will be used for coal
processing.”
In 2010 ThyssenKrupp states that it received
another order for two fully mobile crushing
systems for overburden handling in an iron ore
open pit mine in Brazil. Each crushing plant is
equipped with a double-roll crusher and
operates in the mine together with a shovel
crushing overburden at a rate of up to 3,900 t/h.
A particular challenge here was the planning
and realisation of such a system for a mine type
which typically extend downwards with fairly
steep pit walls, in comparison to coal mines,
which typically have relatively wide benches.
This was followed in the summer of 2011 by a
delivery contract with Inner Mongolia Datang
International Xilinhot Mining for three fully
mobile crushing systems for their Shengli East
No 2 open pit coal mine in China. ThyssenKrupp
 IPCC DEVELOPMENTS
states: “These plants will be the first of its kind
in fact they are equipped with an patent
pending integrated conveyor bridge to forward
the material directly from the crushing system
to the shiftable face conveyor. The three fully
mobile double roll crusher plants will be used
to remove overburden, each having a design
throughput of 10,000 t/h.”
ThyssenKrupp highlights one of its latest
innovations in the in-pit crushing area as what
is states as the first fully mobile crushing rig
equipped with a large jaw crusher, in this case
a type EB 20 x 15. The company told IM: “This
newly developed design enables the
employment of fully mobile crushing
equipment in open pit mines where material
with highly compressive strength up to 250
MPa can be handled. This was an important
step for ThyssenKrupp to extend the field of
operation of its fully mobile equipment.”
An order for this design was received in
January 2012 from Vale for the already
discussed S11D project in Brazil. This consists
of three crushing plants, each with a design
capacity of 2,500 t/h; each plant will working in
combination with two mobile conveyor modules
mounted on wheels.
MMD’s initial entry into the IPCC market was
in Spain with a ground-breaking semi-mobile
sizer unit that introduced the in-ground hopper
to the industry, installed in 1989. It was acquired
to complement a gyratory crusher, which it
ended up replacing once it proved capable of
handling up to 4,000 t/h of a mixed overburden
containing significant quantities of both clay
and granite. The MMD unit’s ability to handle
high volumes of difficult material, together with
its capability of being re-located quickly and
easily have remained key attributes of the
group’s delivered machines and updated
designs ever since. Another example of MMD
success with IPCC innovation were the initial
three semi-mobile installations at the Mae Moh
lignite mine in Thailand that were delivered in
1993, whose performance led to a subsequent
order for a further set of four similar updated
units in 2001, all of which are still operating.
The company points to synergies developed
between MMD and its customers, epitomised by
events at China’s Pingshou Coal, which is
awaiting delivery of MMD’s latest contribution
to the development of IPCC, the fully mobile
MMD LPMS unit, which is currently under
construction in China (along with three 9,000
t/h semi mobile IPCC rigs for Datang) and due to
go into operation later this year. However, what
is generally not known is that MMD’s receipt of
the order was not simply due to Pingshou’s
seeking to install a fully mobile IPCC system,
but represents the culmination of a long and
successful relationship with MMD going back
28 International Mining | MAY 2012
The RTB Bor Majdanpek high angle conveyor
more than 20 years. The first MMD IPCC units
supplied to Pingshou were two 4,000 t/h plus
sizing stations delivered to their An Tai Bao mine
in 1992. The results achieved with these units;
which were later relocated, led the company to
place a number of subsequent orders for a
series of semi-mobile units; the most recent
having been delivered in 2011.
FLSmidth says it is “continuing to lead the
industry with innovative technologies and
solutions for in-pit crushing and conveying.”
The large FLSmidth ABON 16/350 CCTD low
speed sizer in the Takraf fully mobile IPCC
system is entering its third year of successful
operation at the Rio Tinto Clermont coal mine in
Australia and according to the company “has
proven itself to be more than capable of
crushing both extremely hard competent ores as
well as sticky difficult to handle ores at high
throughputs.” As stated earlier, FLSmidth is also
currently busy shipping the major components
of what it believes will be the world's largest
sizer station to date, at Goldcorp's Penasquito
mine in Mexico. This semi-mobile sizer station
will also incorporate an ABON 16/350 CCTD low
speed sizer as well as a 3.15 m-wide D11 low
angle apron feeder capable of delivering up to
12,500 t/h throughput. FLSmdith is also
manufacturing one of the world's largest
gyratory crushers for a new copper mine in Peru.
The counterbalanced and compact design of the
new 63 in x 118 in flagship top service gyratory
crusher is “ideal for installation in one of our
semi-mobile crushing stations”, says FLSmidth.
On the fully mobile front, FLSmidth is
developing new hydraulic excavator based
undercarriage designs for its sizer stations that
offer extreme robustness and manoeuverability
as well as spare part commonality with end-
users' mobile mining equipment. Finally, the
company reports that industry interest in the
FLSmidth Dual Truck Sizer Station has been
extremely positive and several major global
resource companies have expressed interest in
trialling the technology for use in future
projects.
High angle conveying
While crushing/sizing technology is a core part
of the IPCC equation, some would argue that
advanced conveying technologies which could
greatly benefit IPCC solutions, especially in
hard rock open pits, have been overlooked.
One solution to optimising IPCC systems in
steeper pits is employing high capacity, high
angle conveying to take overburden or ore
directly out of the open pit. But though there
have been examples of steep conveyor flights
in the industry such as at Chuquicamata,
Cananea, Majdanpek and Kovdor, this method
on the whole remains underutilised. Companies
offering steep and/or high-angled conveying
solutions include P&H MinePro’s (former
Continental Conveyor) HAC solution, FLSmidth,
Takraf, ThyssenKrupp, Sandvik and others such
as Dos Santos International with its high-angle
sandwich conveyors.
With their high efficiency and low
maintenance costs, steeper belt conveyors can
yield substantial benefits and open up the
possibility of IPCC utilisation in deeper pits. Dos
Santos for its part believes that its high
capacity, sandwich belt-type high angle
conveyors facilitate a direct high angle path to
the surface, along the mine wall, without
additional unproductive excavation. The
company tells IM: “Many portable and mobile
conveyor systems become cumbersome when
attempting to elevate the material along the low
conventional angles. The compact, high angle
conveyor is to solution to the interferences
posed by conventional systems. This affords
not only an economic benefit, but an
environmental one as well. The high angle
conveyor has a small footprint, both physically
and environmentally.” Its early 1990s
installation at RTB Bor’s Majdanpek copper mine
in Serbia displaced 12 200 t trucks. This
extended the mine life as the space of the final
pit would not accommodate the truck-only
traffic. Designed to elevate 250 mm minus
copper ore at 4,000 t/h, the 2,000 mm wide
sandwich belt high angle conveyor lifted the
material 93.5 m to the pit perimeter along the
35.5° pit wall during ten years of service. IM