NEWCREST Mining is using the Wearpact bucket edge system at its Ridgeway Gold mine at Orange in New South Wales.
The company says the Wearpact bucket edge system has given it increases in bucket availability, tonnage moved and a bankable reduction in cost-per-tonne expenses.The system is manufactured in Australia by G.E.T. specialists Keech Castings.
Newcrest Mining says the system has been fitted to selected underground buckets at Ridgeway by Newcastle-based process of improvement company WAMS (Wear Applications & Management Services) as part of a maintenance contract to lift bucket performance and reduce the mine’s cost-per-tonne ratio.
Wearpact provides condition monitoring services including weekly inspection and measurement of every underground LHD bucket at Ridgeway.Wearpact says the collated data gives mine management detailed information on current performance as well as forecast maintenance targets and costs per period.
Cast from wear and impact resistant steel, the Wearpact blades are fixed to the bucket with a wedge nut retaining device housed within the cast edge: a design feature which, according to the company, makes for a stronger blade/bucket combination and virtually eliminates teeth breaking off and being processed through downline crushers.
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