JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – South African original-equipment manufacturer Galison earlier this month completed the delivery of an automated underground freight wagons solution, comprising 40 underground wagons and two tipping stations, to Chinese State-owned copper mine Pulong, in Yunnan province, China, at a cost of about $5-million.
In an exclusive interview with Mining Weekly Online, Galison CEO Andrew Thorburn explained that the 20 m3 wagons are capable of carrying 40 t of rock each in trains of ten wagons, pulled by a 65 t locomotive along a 4-km-long stretch of rail.
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Further, the tipping solution is able to discharge about 200 000 t/m of rock, with a single train load of 400 t being discharged in an average of two minutes, significantly surpassing the local industry average of 30 minutes.
The completely automated system requires only one surface based operator to load, drive and tip each train and has a very low maintenance cost. Thorburn pointed out that there are no people operating on the haulage level at Pulong, highlighting the effectiveness of track-based systems as an automated solution.
Galison won the contract in June last year and started manufacturing at its facility in Welkom, Free State, during July. Delivery started in September, while installation of the solution kicked off in January, with final commissioning having taken place earlier this month.
