IRON ORE MINE UPGRADES
Krech Ojard & Associates has provided a engineering services for a iron ore mine and pellet plant operation in northern Minnesota.
The product is loaded out through two pockets into moving trains. Two types of cars are used to transport the pellets. Traditional ore cars are sized so they may be loaded visually to capacity without overloading. These cars move between the plant and Lake Superior for loading into lake vessels.
EXAMPLE PROJECTS AT THE MINE
Truck and Rail Dump Handling Upgrade
Krech Ojard provided engineering design services for the conversion of the raw ore crusher from rail delivery to truck delivery. This $4 million project was designed for 300 ton capability mine haul trucks. Tunnels and bridges were designed for one-million pound mine haul trucks.
KO also designed the limestone-handling train unloading facility. This facility handles both side and bottom dump cars, features a dust collection system, back-up hydraulic car dumper, underground conveyor and the system was design to feed into the existing crusher.
SAI Scales
The mining facility planned to ship 1,000,000 all rail tons of taconite during a specific January – March time period. For efficiency and safety, improved weighing at the mine loadout was needed to facilitate this ambitious all Rail schedule. KO was directed to investigate and provide a preliminary cost estimate for scale options that would (1) provide the client with certified weights of product loaded, (2) maximize loaded weight per car while preventing overloaded cars, (3) tie car and locomotive information during the loading process, and (4) develop a “fail safe” method that will prevent a collision between the loading chutes and a DP locomotive.
Limestone Material Handling Study
The mining facility’s product requires milled limestone in the agglomerator plant for the production of flux pellets.
KOA provided engineering services for a feasibility study of a new onsite limestone unloading system, storage facility, crusher facility and crushed limestone transfer system.
