By David E. Pitchford, President, MMD Mineral Sizing (America)
Typical truck and shovel operations have “start/stop” operations; shovel loads a truck and then waits for the next truck to back into a loading position. This means that the mine production is totally dependent in terms of volume on the efficiency of that loading method. In-pit crushing and conveying (IPCC) systems that compete with tradition truck-shovel mining methods allow the shovel to continuously load and achieve its full potential.
MMD has in the past shown that loading haul trucks with a feeder greatly improves the utilization of the truck fleet. The company can now offer a system that can be loaded with a shovel and size material at the face, and then load trucks with a “Surge Feeder.” This system allows the shovel to load continuously; size the rock; feed the surge bunker; load the trucks to max capacity; eliminate trucks having to reverse into the loading position and achieves 20%-35% increase in terms of tons per hour by eliminating the waiting time experienced by traditional truck-shovel methods.