Global manufacturer and equipment supplier FLSmidth, the mining industry’s undisputed leader in deep level hoisting, has initiated a five to seven year strategic business plan that will see its mine shaft systems business grow organically, fill gaps in the market and build the necessary skills and experience to become a one source solution in the mine shaft business worldwide, just as it is in the mineral processing and cement industries.

This follows a formal integration of the company’s mine shaft systems capabilities in South Africa and Canada in 2012 to form a dedicated business unit within FLSmidth. The mine shaft systems offering comprises two distinct product lines serving a common and unique sector of the mining industry — mine hoisting and mine shaft equipment technology. FLSmidth’s South African office is the global technology centre for hoist design while its office in Orillia, Canada, serves as the global mine shaft equipment technology centre.

“The new business unit jointly markets these complementary product lines which share the same primary customer base,” Wendy Norman, FLSmidth’s sales manager responsible for mine shaft systems, says. “This is already proving an effective consolidation of the strong Dorr-Oliver®, EIMCO® and Vecor® brands and technologies, with the combined scope of these product lines adding up to an extensive range of solutions for the global mining industry.

“Both these product lines have longstanding individual histories and robust track records dating back many decades - in fact, the combined operations have been in mine shaft systems for more than 100 years. FLSmidth has installed more than 90% of the world’s Blair hoists and has supplied numerous drum hoists larger than 4.27 metres in diameter.

“Since mine shaft systems was established as a business entity last year, we’ve started to see growth in our market share within our traditional market strongholds in North America and sub-Saharan Africa which is directly attributable to the cross selling of existing products by a dedicated team. 

“The mine shaft systems team has a depth of expertise that enables us to offer custom designed equipment for maximum output. Our people specialise in recommending improvements based on problem areas in existing equipment. While FLSmidth will never be a shaft sinker or a shaft equipper, we have every intention of growing our product lines to offer more of the infrastructure around the shaft. We believe there is major opportunity to grow in these areas worldwide.

“The real benefit is that we’re bringing a lot of engineering skills together to offer our customers a holistic solution,” Norman continues. “For shaft systems to work really effectively, a combination of the right components are needed — electric motors, mechanical hoists, conveyances, loading and discharge arrangements, and so on. Outside of rope selection, our team is able to check and verify the entire vertical transport system, making sure all elements are well coordinated.

“Another benefit is that from an aftermarket point of view, we offer routine hoist inspection services. With this safety-critical equipment, such inspections are essential, but owing to the skills shortage the number of mine personnel capable of doing this is dwindling.”

At present, FLSmidth is carrying out several hoist relocations from mines that have reached the end of their life to new mines, and also with a view to introducing product improvements to older technologies. Between 2000 and 2010 the company undertook nearly 30 product improvement projects, from complete relocations to technology upgrades.

As a “One Source” company, whose support and service extends to the complete lifecycle of a project, the lifecycle benefit FLSmidth offers is effectively extended into the mine shaft systems arena. Norman says the business of mine shaft systems is not just about selling a piece of capital equipment, but instead encompasses selling a technology that will deliver in a shaft for the next 20 years and be supported throughout its lifetime from a spares and site inspection point of view. Any subsequent advances in technology can be retrofitted to existing equipment, regardless of whether it was supplied by FLSmidth or by other suppliers.

The company’s global procurement strategy allows the mine shaft systems team to source its equipment from all over the world to secure the most competitive prices, while still delivering the quality products with which the company has come to be associated.

Recent projects
Earlier this year the mine shaft systems team began installing a Blair Multi-Rope (BMR) production hoist at Glencore’s Mopani copper project in Zambia. This 5.5 metre by 1.5 metre hoist incorporates four drums and is one of only about 50 BMR hoists of this kind in the world, of which more than 90% have been supplied by FLSmidth.

FLSmidth recently supplied two 6.5 metre diameter, tower-mounted, four-rope Koepe winders with deflection sheaves to Impala Platinum’s No 16 Shaft near Rustenburg — the first Koepe winders to be used within this mining company. The mechanically identical winders cater for payloads of 25 000 kg for the rock hoist and 22 500 kg for the personnel hoist.

In February 2012, FLSmidth received an order for a second hoist for Royal Bafokeng Platinum’s Styldrift operation in Rustenburg. This follows the successful commissioning of FLSmidth-designed winder for the mine’s main shaft in 2011. The 5.5 metre by 1.8 metre double drum production winder was installed early in 2013.