June 28, 2016
"Previously, it took a crew of skilled drillers four minutes to drill 48 holes. Today, with the new rock drills, the same crew does the same number of holes in two and a half minutes. This means we are now drilling a face in about two and half hours, which is fantastic."
Besides this exchange program, the team found that the under-performing rock drills were also affected by the reliability and availability of the fleet’s hydraulic hoses which were being changed too often, adding even more to the cost of maintenance. As a result, all the hoses were also upgraded. These initiatives proved to be the catalyst for a dramatic improvement. Prior to 2014, the availability rating for drilling equipment was 60%. Today, it is 90%.
Raul Fara Engber, Head of Maintenance at El Sauce, says the benefits are easy to see in terms of productivity.
“Previously, it took a crew of skilled drillers four minutes to drill 48 holes,” he says. “Today, with the new rock drills, the same crew does the same number of holes in two and a half minutes. This means we are now drilling a face in about two and half hours, which is fantastic.”
Replacing the rock drill stock also revealed a surprising bonus. Tests conducted with the COP 1838HD+ showed that these models are multipurpose despite being designed for face drilling. Mounted on the fleet’s Simba rigs, they could be used for long hole ring drilling with equal efficiency and zero failures. It was also found that the new COP 1435 was sufficiently powerful and robust to install 2.5 m long rock bolts, a task that could not be achieved before the renewal.
Read the full story at Mining & Construction online.
