• Sep 28, 2020

Queensland Mining Tools and Equipment

Australia is one of the world's leading producers and exporters of bauxite (aluminium ore), iron ore, lithium, gold, lead, diamonds, black coal, rare earth elements, uranium, and zinc. Australia also has large mineral sand deposits of ilmenite, zircon and rutile (titanium).

Queensland mineral mining is most often associated with tin, copper and gold; however, there are many other minerals mined such as arsenic, bauxite, bismuth, cinnabar (mercury), lead, magnesium, molybdenum, nickel, phosphorous, rutile, silver, uranium, wolfram (tungsten) and zinc. Queensland also hosts 35 major black coal mines. This requires the ability to aquire mining equipment and tools.

Mining Methods

The type of mining method used in the industry depends on the kind of resource that is being targeted for extraction; the deposit's location below or on the Earth's surface; and the capability of each method to profitably extract the resource.

There are four main methods of mining:

• Underground
• Surface
• Placer
• In-situ.

Underground mining is used to extract ore from below the surface of the earth as safely, economically and with as little waste as possible. The entry from the surface to an underground mine is through a horizontal or vertical tunnel, known as an adit, shaft or decline.

Surface mining, including strip mining, open-pit mining and mountaintop removal mining is a broad category of mining in which soil and rocks overlying the mineral deposit (overburden) are removed.

This distinguishes surface mining from underground mining which eaves the overlying soil and rocks in place and the mineral removed through shafts or tunnels (see above).

Placer mining is the mining of river or stream bed deposits (alluvial) for minerals. This may be done by open-pit (also called open-cast mining) or by surface excavating or tunnelling equipment.

Placer mining is an ancient method of using water to excavate, transport, concentrate and recover heavy minerals such as gold from alluvial or placer deposits. Placer mining can be done by a single prospector with a gold pan sifting through river gravel.

Placer mining takes advantage of gold's high density which causes it to sink more rapidly from moving water than the lighter siliceous materials that are often mixed with gold deposits.

In-situ mining, also called in-situ recovery, leaching or solution mining, involves pumping fluid underground to dissolve valuable minerals from the geology that hosts them. The fluid is then pumped to the surface for the minerals to be recovered.

This mining process is used to recover minerals such as copper and uranium through boreholes drilled into a mineral deposit by artificially dissolving minerals occurring naturally in a solid state. The fluid is a mix of water and chemicals that are added to accelerate the mining process

The remaining solution is then retreated and circulated back through the rock to recover more minerals. This process continues until the process no longer recovers a viable amount of minerals and supposedly the mine is rehabilitated and closed.

Depending on the properties of the mineral deposit, the fluid which will most effectively liberate the minerals may be either acidic or alkaline and includes chemicals such as hydrogen peroxide, sulphuric acid, baking soda, oxygen and carbon dioxide.

Mining Equipment

Each mining method requires the use of specific equipment. Across all mining sectors the following equipment can be found:

bulldozers, front-end loaders, excavators, draglines, drilling machines, hydraulic backhoes, roof bolters, continuous miners, long-wall miners, rock dusters, shuttle cars, scoops, power shovels, bucket wheel excavators, dredges, scrapers and off-road haulage trucks

Surface mining operations employ equipment similar to that used in the construction industry.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/dragline

Mining Safety

Safety around a mine site is important, whether the mine is open-cut or underground. Australia provides safety solutions across all these settings and throughout all stages of the mine life-cycle including construction, communication, extraction, processing and maintenance.

The mining industry has made significant improvements in health and safety over the last decade, reducing the incidence rates of both fatalities and serious injuries. However, the mining industry still has one of the highest rates of fatalities of any industry.

In the 12 years to 2015, the fatality rate in the mining industry decreased by 65% from 12.4 worker fatalities per 100 000 workers in 2003, to 4.4 in 2015. The Australian mining industry still has the third highest fatality rate of any industry with an average of 9 workers dying each year.

Inherent risks associated with working in the mining industry include:

Risks

1 body stressing, manual handling and musculoskeletal disorders

2 slips, trips and falls

3 being hit by moving objects or machinery

4 working with high risk plant

https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/industry_business/mining

The Mining Life Cycle

 

There are five stages in the mining life cycle

1 exploration

2 mine-site design and planning

3 construction

4 production

5 closure and reclamation

Australian firms provide mining equipment across many areas of mine development and operation, offering innovative and unique solutions to improve performance and productivity.

Although not involved in the design and manufacture of big capital items such as mining trucks, earthmovers and draglines, Australia has proven capabilities in engineering and the production of niche products for maintaining equipment and improving productivity.

Australia also produces:

• exploration equipment and consumables
• underground and above-ground mining equipment and vehicles
• rock bolting and strata reinforcing equipment
• drills and drilling supplies
• beneficiation equipment and supplies
• valves and fittings
• pumps
• pipes
• blasting products
• conveyor systems and components
• transportable buildings.

Australian firms have developed an innovative range of products and solutions and some of the highest occupational health and safety (OH&S) standards in the world. Australia places a strong emphasis on developing and promoting a safety culture.

Australian companies lead the world in mining technology, services and equipment because they spend so much of their time and effort in the area of innovation.

Alan Broome AM. Chairman Emeritus Austmine

(Australian Government - Australian Trade Commission. Mining Equipment, Technology and Services. March 2016)

RLM Distributing - Service Products

RLM Distributing P/L Queensland are a specialist supplier of tyre and wheel servicing products, tools and equipment to the automotive, transport, mining and retreading industries. They supply a comprehensive range of tools and equipment from leading manufacturers with over 3000 products stocked in their Brisbane warehouse.

RLM Distributing P/L have over 30 years experience in the direct importing of quality products from the world’s leading manufactures in automotive, motorcycle, heavy transport, mining and retreading sectors.

RLM Safety Innovations

RLM has its own range of innovations including certified tyre safety cages, filtered tyre pressure gauges, air spiders, tyre repair vulcanisers and tyre seal pumps.

In 1996, RLM Distributing were asked by industry peers to develop a Tyre Safety Inflation Cage, one that would meet with OH&S requirements, while being simple and practical to use.

After months of material research and design engineering, RLM's cage was carefully inspected, then blast tested by WorkCover NSW, resulting in Australia's only fully tested and certified tyre safety inflation cage.
RLM went onto develop several certified models, tailored to meet the different workshop requirements for general automotive, heavy transport, mining and earthmoving and aircraft tyres.
see: The Dukes of Hazard - Tyre Inflation Cages

Mining, Earthmoving and Heavy Transport

RLM are the Australian distributor for the ESCO range of products from the USA, and for PMM, the Italian manufacturer of Hydraulic Bead Breakers and Tools Pumps, High Pressure Hoses and Fittings.

Mining / Earthmoving

• LARGE AND SUPER LARGE BORE VALVES
• S.L.B FLEXIBLE EXTENSION
• FILTERED TYRE PRESSURE GAUGES
• O'RINGS, CAPS, CORES, VALVE TOOLS
• HYDRAULIC BEAD BREAKERS
• FOOT PUMPS - HOSE - FITTINGS
• RAMS - HIGH TONNAGE JACKS
• TRYDEL INDUSTRIAL TYRE SEALANT
• LARGE TYRE PATCHES AND REPAIR PLUGS
• IMPACT AND TORQUE WRENCHES, SOCKETS
• OTR WHEEL CHOCKS

In addition to their overseas suppliers, RLM supports local industries, such as Trydel, in their development of unique and innovative products for industrial grade Tyre Sealant & Coolants, and local manufacturers in the production of RLM designed products, such as Filtered Tyre Pressure Gauges and Certified Tyre Safety Inflation Cages.

Heavy Transport

• VALVES FOR STEEL AND ALLOYS WHEELS
• HIGH TEMP NYLON AND FLEXIBLE EXTENSIONS
• MICHELIN AND GAITHER TYRE LEVERS
• MANUAL / HYDRAULIC JACKS
• TYRE REGROOVERS AND BLADES
• BRANDING IRONS AND LETTERS
• BEAD LUBE: - GEL AND LIQUID
• POLYURETHANE AIR HOSE AND COUPLERS
• AIR-SPIDER - TRI AXLE TYRE INFLATION
• AIR BLAST INFLATION BEAD SEATING TANKS
• CERTIFIED, SAFETY INFLATION CAGES
• WHEEL CHOCKS AND SAFETY STANDS