PRODUCT News
June 2014
MODERN MINING
49
Robust and powerful double-pass miners
from Sandvik Mining are reaching new
milestones in South Africa’s challenging
coalfields while pushing the boundaries
of production under difficult geological
conditions.
Last year the company’s heavyweight
MC470 double-pass miner set the pace for
the rest of industry to follow as the only
machine of this type in South Africa to
cross the magical one-million ton produc-
tion mark – a figure which it achieved in
just 11 months. Its success has prompted
Anglo American’s Coal business unit,
owner of the Greenside mine onWitbank’s
coal fields, to order yet another one of the
big machines to further boost production
on the mine.
According to Sandvik Mining’s Global
Product Manager, Continuous Miners,
David Hickson, the achievement of the
double-pass miner is remarkable consid-
ering the limitations of bord-and-pillar
type mining methods required to safely
mine coal in the area. While abundant
coal reserves still exist in the region, they
are deeper, narrower and are
becoming harder to reach
than ever before.
“As we reach in, we are left
with smaller coal panels which
require smaller machines.
These need to be able to cut
and turn in smaller spaces,
while still maintaining simi-
larly high production rates of
the comparatively cumber-
some single-pass miners,” he says.
In South Africa, Sandvik Mining was
quick to realise that a new breed of
machine would be required and intro-
duced an all new, heavier and more
powerful range of MC double-pass min-
ing machines that are capable of dealing
with tougher geological conditions, while
maintaining the highest possible produc-
tion rates.
“Typically South African mines have to
deal with more hard rock within the coal
panels and there is less room to manoeu-
vre. The only way to get the kind of
efficiency required is to cut faster and this
Sandvik double-pass miner is a record-breaker
Sandvik Mining’s heavyweight MC470 double-pass miner.
requires powerful machines that are heavy
enough to anchor the machine in the
upstroke and down stroke,” says Hickson.
“Our MC470 has unique bi-directional
cutting abilities which mean it advances
and cuts up and down in a single pass. As
a result, forward movement is seamless as
the machine also cuts the base (floor) cut
in its stroke. As it moves forward the head
is in the right position to immediately
begin cutting again once it is in position.”
The MC470 has a powerful 540 kW
motor that runs on 3,3 kV instead of the
usual 1 kV feed.
Sandvik Mining, tel (+27 11) 929-5300
