New Sandvik loader contributes to record mine performance

The LH 517 was ordered by Lanfranchi Operations Manager, Simon Jessop, early in 2007.
Jessop was prepared to wait for the new upgraded loader with its superior performance and safety characteristics. Due to the long lead-time, Sandvik loaned a second-hand Toro 0010 loader to maintain production at Lanfranchi while the first LH 517 was being built and tested.
“The specification for the new LH 517 – which was to replace the 0010 – suggested that Sandvik had done a lot of homework since the 0010 originally came into service,” said Jessop.
“It ticks all the boxes, from safety, which is our top priority, through to speed, load torque and reliability, and it has really helped us to push up our productivity,” he said.
In the 2008/2009 financial year the Lanfranchi team mined 406,000 tonnes of ore, the best performance achieved at Lanfranchi in its 25-year history, surpassing the 370,000 tonnes record set by Western Mining prior to acquisition of the mine by Panoramic Resources late in 2004.
Jessop said the loader had played its part in achieving this result in the second half of the year.
“In the latter half of the year it bogged a significant percentage of our production, moving more tonnage from the face and loading the trucks more efficiently.
“Underground distances are an issue at Lanfranchi – the working area can be a long way from the truck loading access on the decline – so having the biggest, fastest loader that can fit in the drive is obviously going to pay dividends,” he said.
“The LH517 has proved to be fast and powerful and, importantly, it’s also very reliable. From a low base of 342 hours in its first month here, it has averaged 409 hours a month, and hit a peak of 452 hours in July.
At Lanfranchi, Australia’s first LH517 has proved to be a gutsy, efficient and very reliable loader.
It is safe and comfortable in operation, while new efficient hydraulics, load dependent cooling and the electric control system that enables easy diagnostics, all combine to set a new benchmark for load haul and dump machines

Note: The Lanfranchi mine is operated by Lanfranchi Nickel Mining Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Panoramic Resources Pty Ltd.

Further information email: rob.lackner@sandvik.com

Forming a winning team underground
When Panoramic Resources bought the Lanfranchi Nickel Mine, 42 km from Kambalda, in 2004, the team faced some key decisions on the way the mine should be operated.
“Basically, we weighed up all the normal options, from doing everything at the mine ourselves to putting all or parts of the operation out to contractors,” said the mine’s operations manager Simon Jessop.
“We were able to draw on the experience of our other nickel mine at Savannah, in the Kimberley, so we had a good indicator of likely operating costs and how maintenance contracts worked,” he said.
Tenders for the mining operations were sought from contractors, but came in higher than the company’s business plan required.
It was at a time when contractors’ rates were relatively high, due to the volume of work in the industry, and Lanfranchi itself had a number of variables in schedules.
“Lanfranchi is a difficult ore body to plan and mine. There are a lot of variables that would have been factored into a contract price, so that fact that the prices which came in were higher than we would have liked was both predictable and understandable,” said Jessop.
“It quickly became clear that this was an aspect of the operation that we would manage more efficiently and cost-effectively ourselves.
“At the same time, we wanted to concentrate our efforts on mining operations, so we looked at contracting out the maintenance of our equipment fleet,” he said.
In those early days the original “fleet” comprised of one jumbo, one loader and a 50-tonne underground truck, and as these had all been sourced from Sandvik, it made sense to approach that company first to explore the service contract option.
Sandvik’s contract team fast-tracked the estimating process, and by April 2005, five months after Panoramic took over the mine, a three-year service contract was in place.
“On the basis of our successful performance and the closeness of our relationship with Lanfranchi management the current contract has now been rolled over into a second contract.
The fleet covered by the contract is currently made up of 19 pieces of Sandvik equipment including drills, loaders and trucks, and 12 service vehicles.
The Sandvik equipment includes four TH660 60-tonne underground trucks and two new state-of-the-art LH517 loaders.

Note: The Lanfranchi mine is operated by Lanfranchi Nickel Mining Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Panoramic Resources Pty Ltd.

Further information email: rob.lackner@sandvik.com