A contract for a conveyor system supporting a new mining area at Barrick’s Lumwana copper mine in northwestern Zambia has been awarded to Bateman Engineered Technologies, a member of the Bateman Engineering NV group.
The project’s scope of work covers design, supply, delivery, erection and commissioning of the conveyor system and includes all mechanical and structural equipment. The order includes supply of a 118-m-long (387-ft) sacrificial and 3,640-m-long (12,000-ft) overland conveyor for an additional primary crusher, and a 502-m-long (1,647-ft) stockpile feed conveyor feeding the existing stockpile. The conveyors have a design capacity of 5,140 mt/h.
The system will transport copper ore over a distance of approximately 4 km (2.5 miles) from the run-of-mine (ROM) tip to a stockpile which feeds the processing plant. The ground profile over which the overland conveyor will traverse necessitated special design features, including flywheels on the drive side and a brake on the tail side to maintain belt tensions, preventing the belt from collapsing when the conveyor is stopped.
The mine’s new Chimiwungo pit is being developed to supplement ore feed to the process plant as production from the existing Malundwe pit tapers off.
