News
December 2010
ThyssenKrupp to supply overland conveyor to Peruvian copper mine of Xstrata
ThyssenKrupp
Robins of Greenwood Village, Colorado, USA, has received the order to
deliver an overland conveyor system for the Antapaccay copper mine in
Peru. The end user is Xstrata Copper, a copper producer. ThyssenKrupp
commissioned the Siemens Industry Solutions Division for the supply of
the electrical drive system. This will be the first installation of a
conveyor system with gearless drives outside Germany. In comparison to
conventional drive solutions, these drives have not only a higher
efficiency, availability, and reliability, but also lower maintenance
requirements. The conveyor system is due to be commissioned in 2012. The
overland conveyor in Xstrata's Antapaccay copper mine will transport
ore over a distance of some 6.5 kilometers from the mine to the
processing plant. The belt will be 1,372 millimeters wide, travel at
6.2 meters per second, and is designed to transport approximately 5,260
tons of material per hour. The Siemens drive system for the overland
conveyor comprises of two slow- speed synchronous motors – each with a
total power of 3,800 kilowatts – and the associated Sinamics SL150
cycloconverters. Each motor is connected directly to the drive pulley. This
gearless drive solution has a number of advantages over the combination
of high speed motor and gearbox usually used on conveyor systems. The
size of the motor is not limited by the size of gearbox available, thus
eliminating the necessity to install multi-motor drives. The power
required to drive a belt can be provided by just one drive per belt
pulley. This enables the size of the electrical room to be reduced,
saving space and weight. The
elimination of a whole series of mechanical and electrical components
increases the reliability and efficiency of the overall system by
between three and four percent. The maintenance requirements of the
drive system are also substantially lower. Gearbox maintenance work
alone can amount to up to five percent of the original investment
volume – each year. Lubrication and gearbox cooling systems, together
with their maintenance, are also obsoleted for this solution. The
gearless drive system for the Overland Conveyor System in the
Antapaccay mine is the second of its type. The first conveyor system to
run with gearless drives was installed in 1986 by ThyssenKrupp
(formerly O&K) and Siemens in the Prosper-Haniel Mine belonging to
Deutsche Steinkohle AG, and it achieves an availability of over 98
percent. Xstrata
Copper, based in Brisbane, Australia, is part of Xstrata plc, and
operates mines and production plants in Argentina, Australia, Chile,
Canada and Peru. The company is the fourth largest copper producer in
the world, and has a production capacity of almost one million tons per
annum. The Antapaccay copper mine in the south of Peru is Xstrata's
latest project. As from 2012, it is scheduled to produce some 160,000
tons of copper concentrate per annum. ThyssenKrupp
Robins is the US subsidiary of ThyssenKrupp Fördertechnik. The company
spezializes in the design and supply of technologically advanced
conveyor applications.