State-owned power utility Eskom’s Medupi power station comissioned a PA299-2100/50+50 spreader – the largest type in Southern Africa – from mining equipment manufacturer Sandvik earlier this month for the coal miner Exxaro-owned Grootegeluk Medupi Expansion Project (GMEP) to supply coal to the Medupi power station.
It currently forms part of one of the largest mining growth projects in Southern Africa and, on completion, Grootegeluk will be the largest coal operation in the world.
The spreader has an overall reach of 100 m and a spreading capacity of more than
6000 t/h. It will be required to keep up with the production rate of power station coal over a period of about 40 years.
Exxaro’s requirement was for a spreader that can deal with high volumes of discard material for backfill and reintegration into the mined pit. At full production, this discard rate is expected to reach up to 7 670 t/h, which requires a robust solution capable of dealing with such large volumes on a sustained basis over the extended life cycle of the mine.
“The mine’s decision to opt for in-pit crushing and conveying marks a deviation from its previous haul- and-dump-type operation. In this instance, in-pit crushing and conveying will considerably boost production and simplify the handling and conveying of materials to and from the main processing plant,” says Sandvik market development and sales manager Rudi Pieterse.
Despite the spreader’s massive work capacity, Sandvik Mining Systems has designed the overall system to incorporate further upgrades, should the need ever arise, with allowances made for additional trippers and spreaders.
“The spreader is the latest in spreading technology available from Sandvik. It is manoeuvrable and comparatively fast, which enables it to achieve the best possible spreading of material in the shortest time possible.
It is a massive structure comprising a tripper, which connects to the main in-pit discard conveyor, a 50-m-long bridge and a spreader with a 50-m-long boom. At the point where the tripper intersects the in-pit discard conveyor, the spreader can transport material through its bridge to the main boom.
“The boom can be luffed up or down when necessary and shifted to either side to effectively backfill material where required,” he explains.