ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions, the engineering and construction specialist within the ThyssenKrupp Group, has won a contract from Southern Peru Copper Corporation to supply a primary crushing and overland conveying system. The new system will be installed at the Cuajone copper mine in Peru, which has been in operation since 1976, to transport ore from the open pit mine to the concentrator. It will replace the existing long railway haulage system and is expected to start operating in 2016.
The contract awarded to ThyssenKrupp includes engineering, procurement and construction supervision as well as commissioning support of the complete in-pit crushing and conveying (IPCC) system to process run of mine copper ore. Christof Brewka, Head of Operating Unit Mining, ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions: “The new crushing and conveying system will significantly reduce operating costs and energy consumption as well as emissions. This makes it a good example for our leading customised solutions for the mining industry which provide added value for our customers while at the same time helping to conserve natural resources.”
Zlatan Azinovic, CEO of ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions (Peru) said: “As part of our global growth strategy, we are further strengthening our footprint in South America. Our service center in Peru enables us to provide better and faster services to our customers in the local mining, minerals and cement industries. Only recently we have also invested into new service centres in Brazil and Chile.” As part of the new order, ThyssenKrupp is supplying a semi-mobile crushing plant with discharge, transfer and two overland conveyors with a capacity of 120,000 t/d of crushed ore transported to the existing coarse ore stockpile. The copper ore will be fed directly into a semi-mobile crushing plant located in the mine. Truck ramps made of sectional steel modules provide access for mine trucks with payload up to 360 t. The crushing plant’s main service and operating areas, including electrical infrastructure, will be physically separated and independent from the truck dumping level, which will significantly reduce vibration, dust and noise levels. The semi-mobile design is especially suitable for mine sites affected by frequent seismic activities.
The 63–114 heavy duty ThyssenKrupp gyratory crusher with its 1,200 kW direct drive takes the feed material from the feed hopper and reduces the run-of-mine copper ore to the required product size. The crushed ore is extracted from the surge bin underneath the crusher by means of a heavy duty low speed belt feeder. The 2,800 mm wide ST 1800 conveyor will run at a nominal speed of 1.5 m/sec and is powered by one 800 kW conventional drive and a variable-frequency drive (VFD). A 400 m long sacrificial conveyor carries the crushed ore from the semi-mobile crushing plant and crusher discharge conveyor to two overland conveyors spanning the 7.5 km distance to the coarse ore stockpile. The first of the two overland conveyors will be 1830 mm wide with ST 6800 belting and will run at 6.2 m/sec. It is powered by two 6,000 kW Siemens gearless drives. The largest of their kind in the world, these conveyor drives utilise Siemens Integrated Drive System technology to provide a high level of availability (exceeding 99%) by eliminating many of the traditional conveyor drive components such as reducers, couplings, and motor bearings and their associated maintenance times and costs.