It recently grasped the opportunity to branch out into the quarrying side of the industry. In 2008 SEE Civil formed Quarry Solutions as a fully owned subsidiary that produces materials for many major clients such as Abigroup, RMS, TMR, Pacifico and a Leighton Fulton Hogan joint venture.
{{image2-a:r-w:300}}SEE Civil saw the need for a cost-effective process for transporting, screening and scalping materials. It designed and manufactured a mobile processing plant capable of receiving large volumes of bulk material that can be sorted and distributed in a high production plant package directly from 100-tonne dump trucks.
“It was designed to process 1200 tonnes per hour, but we have achieved output of up to 2000 tonnes an hour, which is remarkable,” said Brian Turner, SEE Civil director and the brains behind the design and manufacture of the mega-trommel.
The trommel’s high production scalping process can produce in excess of 1500 tonnes per hour and can process sticky feed material and handle up to 1200mm lump size. This allows SEE Civil to produce larger quantities in shorter periods, which is more cost-effective for its clients.
SEE Civil can customise any configuration for its clients’ processing needs, with additional processing equipment such as conveyors, jaw crushers, screening plants and cone crushers. This allows further processing of materials that would previously have been an end product requiring further handling and processing.
The trommel has been upgraded, and SEE Civil has installed a programmable logic controller (PLC) – an industrial computer control system that continuously monitors the state of input devices and makes decisions based on a custom program to control the state of output devices. The trommel has also been upgraded to further increase efficiency. It was originally powered by a diesel-driven hydraulic system, but this has been changed o an electric-driven hydraulic system, enabling the plant to run on mains or generator power.
Delivered directly to the client, SEE Civil’s mobile trommel plant can be installed and commissioned within two days of initial site earthworks. The standard configuration incorporates a large capacity hopper bin and heavy-duty apron feeder to supply material to the three-metre diameter trommel.
ON LAWN HILL
The trommel has been commissioned at the MMG Century Mine at Lawn Hill, 250km north- west of Mount Isa. Century Mine is Australia’s largest open-cut zinc mine and 2015 is its final year of production, processing and shipping.
Century’s senior closure engineer Pascal Defferrard described “the trommel sourced from SEE Civil… [as] well suited to the task”.
“The high production trommel is ideal for our closure strategy, as it can cost-effectively produce three products at the same time during the scalping process,” Defferrard said.
The cost-effective on-site screening of bulk, stockpiled non-acid forming dolomite is essential to support MMG Century’s waste rock dump closure strategy.
When the trommel has completed its work at MMG Century, it will be transported to northern New South Wales.
Source: SEE Civil.