Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal – 2008

BY HEIDI ULRICHSEN

What if a mine could transport ore underground quickly and inexpensively and, at the same time, reduce diesel emissions?

Starting in September 2008, Sudbury-based Rail-Veyor Technologies Inc. will demonstrate a novel conveyance system for Vale Inco on a piece of land it is leasing at the company’s Frood-Stobie Complex in Sudbury.

Vale Inco is considering implementing the conveyance system in at least two underground applications, said Fred Baker, project manager for Rail-Veyor.

“We think that once we’re able to show what happens with the demonstration plant, that it actually works, and we’re able to address some of the concerns they have, (the mining industry) will adopt the technology,” he said.

Rail-Veyor moves materials using a light rail track system with a series of two-wheeled, inter-connected cars that typify a long, open trough moving along the track.

Unlike traditional rail haulage systems which have to start and stop to load individual cars, Rail-Veyor can be loaded continuously.

Each car is connected to the car in front with a connection that allows articulated movement for curves and dumping.

Sealing of the gap between cars is maintained by the use of overlapping urethane flaps, which prevent leakage of the material and act as a discharge chute for dumping the load.

When the ore is dumped, the track turns upside down like a rollercoaster and the ore falls out in a controlled fashion. Return to the upright position is provided by a 180-degree twist.

“The system is designed so that it has no operator on the train. It’s all operated remotely with computers in a control room,”? said Baker.

Unlike traditional, diesel-powered underground rail haulage trains requiring heavy locomotives, Rail-Veyor uses a series of equally-spaced stationary drive stations to move the cars.

Electric motors turn horizontal, foam-filled tires against the side drive plates of the cars, providing forward thrust.

Because the technology is powered by electricity, it doesn’t release harmful fumes into the mine, reducing the need for ventilation.

The electricity it does use is minimal because only the drive stations in contact with the cars are in motion.

While Rail-Veyor is only slightly less expensive to purchase than traditional rail haulage systems, it is much less costly to operate because it doesn’t have to stop and start to load, and one operator can take care of multiple trains.

Invented several years ago by a U.S. inventor, Mike Dibble, the conveyance system moves quickly – at 10 metres per second while transporting ore, three metres per second while dumping and one metre per second while loading.

Risto Laamanen, CEO of Laamanen Construction, acquired the North American rights to the Rail-Veyor Transportation System and established Rail-Veyor Technologies Inc. about a year ago.

For now, the technology’s loading and dumping system will not be part of the demonstration plant at the Frood-Stobie Complex, said Baker.

These components of the Rail-Veyor system have been successfully demonstrated in Florida and at the Harmony Gold mine in South Africa.

Instead, it will focus on the technology’s ability to work on a 20 per cent incline, something that is not possible using traditional rail haulage systems.

“It will demonstrate that the conveyance system will go up and down the ramp and will start and stop,”? Baker said.

“Florida and South Africa also have extremely different weather than Sudbury. We want to see how it operates in the snow and freezing rain.”?

The loading and dumping system will eventually be added to the Sudbury demonstration plant because it will be used in the future to convince other mining companies in North America to purchase the technology, said Baker.

“We hope to keep this on site and operating for a couple of years. We certainly will be marketing this in North America with the expectation that seriously interested clients will come here and have a look at it.”?

Northern Ontario Business – Feb 2010

It only seems fitting that Greater Sudbury would be the testing site for a new underground mine technology that could change the face of deep mining forever. After all, it is one of the most prolific mineralized deposits in the world, with more than 100 years of mining in its history. The city, its residents and businesses have experienced many mine evolutions, but this one is sure to impact local and global mining in a monumental way.

By 2010, Kelly Lake may be the site of a brand new technologically-advanced Vale Inco mine where there will be no shafts, no head frame, no ropes, crushers, conveyor belts, no toggle replacements, no main ore passes, no haulage trucks, little diesel fumes and no drifts larger than 12 ” by ” 12 feet.

Welcome to the Rail-Veyor operated mine. In a city that has hauled ore from its belly for more than a century, change is coming. A second feasibility study on Kelly Lake is looking at an all Rail-Veyor option.

Rail-Veyor is similar to the boyhood toy called Hot Wheels Supercharger. It had a little house or station the tracks would run through and two rubber wheels that spun the car forward through loop-the-loops, hairpin turns and figure eights. This was back in the 1960s and truth be told, that was when Rail-Veyor was born in France. It works on the same principles. Instead of having four D-cell batteries and tiny motors, Rail-Veyor has two 100-horsepower motors with truck-sized tires at various distances that push the train forward on rails.

Rail-Veyor moves materials via a light track system with a chain of connected cars that look much like a long open trough moving along the track. Each car is connected to the one in front and a coupling system allows for articulated movement on curves and dumping. Sealing the gap between cars are overlapping flaps, which prevent material leakage and act as a discharge chute for dumping.

The unique feature of the system are the stationary drive stations. Gear reducers and AC motors turn horizontal tires against the side drive plates of the cars, providing forward thrust. Speed is controlled by an inverter, which allows operation in either forward or reverse directions with sufficient power to start a loaded train from any position on the track. The idea is when the train comes close to the loading point it slows down, gathers ore or muck without stopping, then takes off from the station fully loaded to transport the material to the mill.

This system, owned independently by Rail-Veyor Technologies of Sudbury, is being considered by Vale Inco for its Kelly Lake Deposit.

Part of the study is comparing a conventional mine layout versus the Rail-Veyor alternative. Although it is too early to make any final determinations the results so far are “extremely encouraging,” Peter Golde, chief mine engineer for Vale, says.

The new system would enable Vale Inco to utilize deep resources while reducing energy consumption by up to 40 and sometimes 50 per cent and that includes a reduction in ventilation energy consumption.

“Clearly that would improve the working environment and lessen our dependency on diesel equipment we have today,” Golde says.

It also means a lot of marginal mineralization can become economically viable.
“In Vale Inco’s view, this would reduce costs to a point that Sudbury would again become a low-cost producer and survive through any tough economic cycles.”

Golde is considering twin sets of drifts: one for the Rail-Veyor, and the other for rubber tire vehicles accessing the mine. He is also examining the loading process, attempting to move away from using large diesel vehicles as haulage mules. Traditionally, these vehicles would go hundreds or thousands of feet hauling the ore right from the drop point. With this new technology, mining houses can bring the rail system to the ore body and transfer ore in a single pass.

“We would like to see Rail-Veyor operating 24-7 while looking at best practice and inspection strategies that would maintain a very high level of availability of the system.”

Using the Rail-Veyor for your ore haulage could increase the return on capital investment (ROI) by 100 per cent from the typical returns Vale Inco has today, thereby making projects far more attractive, Golde says.

Mining below shaft bottom has posed numerous financial, safety and environmental challenges, Golde says. For productivity’s sake mining houses worldwide had to make larger openings for grander pieces of equipment and ventilation, all leading to more infrastructure, and higher energy costs.

Sooner, rather than later, Ontario mines will be forced to lower diesel particulates and reduce their carbon footprint. Rail-Veyor will help Vale Inco achieve some of those goals, Golde says.

Compared to large haulage trucks, Rail-Veyor uses less than a quarter of the energy and less than half of the energy for large conveyor belts.

“We are building it to work on standard 36-inch track using light-weight 40-pound rails.”

Train lengths can vary from 400 to 800 feet with each car’s length at eight feet, Golde says. Payloads with a 400-foot long train are approximately 50 to 60 tons, which translates into ton per car. The up-ramp speed with a 15 per cent grade is seven miles per hour.

“That is twice what a 40-ton diesel typically does.”

But the train is currently being tested on a 20 per cent grade at three miles per hour as a constant speed.

“That is something that is pretty tough to do even with haulage trucks.”

Adding more trains to the track is completely doable, said Golde, who will use the next few months to refine some last-minute alterations.

Before they dump muck in it, researchers want to stack two landscaping blocks into each car. The intention is to keep adding to the weight to determine how much the cars and rail system can withstand before being compromised.

“We don’t know what the maximum capacity is just yet. We want to explore what it does on the steep inclines. No one has ever done that in the world,” Golde says.

The team is meeting with the Ministry of Labour on a regular basis to achieve regulation standards.

“This patented system and Rail-Veyor Technologies has the marketing rights in North America and I think they are planning on going to other parts of the world,” Golde says.

This is a significant push to completely redefine the economics of mining.
“We need to have a simpler way of doing things,” he says.

Ninety-five per cent of the Rail-Veyor system has been manufactured in Sudbury with numerous mining suppliers helping in the project, says Al Ackerman, a former Vale Inco employee and now spokesperson for the Centre for Mining Excellence and Innovation (CEMI) where the Rail-Veyor made its public debut. He said there isn’t anything in the manufacturing end that Sudbury cannot supply.

Kris Laamanen, owner of Rail-Veyor Technologies, wants to keep the manufacturing end of it in the North. After all, it would have been what his father, the late Risto Laamanen, would have wanted.

However, it has to make economic sense, said Kris, who invested the upfront capital along with Vale Inco to research and develop this project near Stobie Mine. Their other family-run business, Laamanen Construction, was also part of the development.

Successful bidders will have to remain competitive, meet production demands, pay attention to quality of service and maintain high standards of workmanship, he said.

Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal

The mission to commercialize Rail-Veyor material handling technology has been cranked up a notch.

Peter Golde, Vale’s chief engineer, research and development, announced at the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy’s Maintenance Engineering and Mine Operators (MEMO) conference in Sudbury October 25th that the company will install a Rail-Veyor material handling system in 2011 at the 114 Orebody adjacent to its Copper Cliff Mine.

Rail-Veyor Technologies Global Inc., a spin-off of Sudbury-based Laamanen Construction Ltd., has acquired worldwide rights to the technology and has assembled a new, high-powered team led by former Xstrata Nickel executive Mike Romaniuk to further develop and commercialize it.

Drive stations

The Rail-Veyor is a cross between a railroad and a conveyor system that is propelled by foam-filled tires at drive stations located at intervals along the track. The tires provide the forward thrust by turning against the cars’ side plates.

“We’re going to go in with a twin ramp concept,” said Golde. “One ramp will be dedicated to the Rail-Veyor. The other will be used to bring in people, supplies and equipment.”

The installation will be used to demonstrate the technology in an underground environment and test an integrated loading system. The material will be transported to surface, dumped and trucked to the company’s Clarabelle Mill, but could also be transported directly to the mill via the Rail-Veyor at some point in the future, said Golde.

“Pending the outcome of that, we’ll decide whether or not to put it into full production. We’re still at a research stage until we’re satisfied that all the pieces work well together.”

Rail-Veyor Technologies has a 37.5-inch gauge test track at Vale’s Frood-Stobie site in Sudbury. It’s outfitted with a loading, dumping and reinversion loop to demonstrate the technology’s capabilities, “but that kind of structure would only be possible in a fairly fixed type of installation,” said Golde.

“We will need to load the Rail-Veyor when we’re doing development work and extending our ramp systems and production areas, so we’re looking at something that is portable, mobile and compact “in other words, a continuous loading system at the front end of the process that will grab the broken muck with some sort of conveyor system and feed the train.”

Sensors

Rail-Veyor drive stations are spaced at intervals along the track, depending on the train length and track grades. Sensors at each drive station detect the approach of the Rail-Veyor and power up. When the last car moves through a station, the power turns off.

The gaps between the cars are sealed by flexible flaps that prevent spillage and form a chute for dumping the material.

While proceeding up a 20-degree grade, the cars can come to a complete stop and resume progress even when fully loaded.

The Rail-Veyor is ideal for both underground and surface applications, said Patrick Fantin, Rail-Veyor Technologies’ vice-president, technical. In addition to applications in the mining industry, it can be used to haul iron ore, coal, wheat, corn and aggregate.

In fact, Vale’s interest in the Rail-Veyor at a corporate level indicates that it is being evaluated not only for applications in Sudbury, but also for application in other jurisdictions and for other commodities. According to Golde, “there’s a very real possibility that it could be used for surface mining applications,” though it would probably be scaled up and the cars designed to a width of 48 inches instead of the current 30-inch width.

The electrically powered Rail-Veyor is able to replace diesel-fueled haul trucks, requires smaller openings and can negotiate corners with a minimum 30-metre radius at speeds of up 32 kilometres per hour.

According to Fantin, an electrical engineer with 23 years of service at Falconbridge and Xstrata Nickel, the Rail-Veyor concept was developed in the ’60s in France, but was abandoned because of technological limitations at the time.

“Back then, the only way to control speed was with DC motors and they’re very expensive. What brought the Rail-Veyor forward today is that in the late ’90s, an American inventor, Mike Dibble was able to resolve a lot of the mechanical issues.”

Low horsepower AC motors with variable frequency drives, fibre optic networks, programmable logic controllers and human/machine interface technologies have come together to make Rail-Veyor technology possible, said Fantin.

The system is billed as being easy to install, move and reconfigure.

“The cars weigh about 1,500 pounds each and we’re loading roughly a tonne into them, so there’s less than three tonnes of weight in each car, and we’re putting it on 40 pound rail,” said Fantin. “Because the loading is so light, you don’t need to install wooden ties or concrete ties. A threaded rod every metre or so on the track holds it in place. To dismantle or reconfigure it, you just undo four bolts, lift up a section of track and carry it away. The surface preparation is a standard roadbed.”

The Rail-Veyor’s low headroom makes it easy to cross roads or waterways. Unlike heavy rail systems, there’s no need for large civil structures. “A culvert will suffice, with a road over top of it,” said Fantin.

The marketing effort has been limited so far to demonstrations at the test track and a few sales trips to the U.S., said Joe Einarson, Rail-Veyor Technologies’ general manager of sales.

“They all love the concept and think it’s going to be great,” said Einarson, but new technologies always take some time to win acceptance.

One challenge Rail-Veyor users in the mining industry will have to overcome is the handling of oversize material.

Vale is currently testing several loading and crushing technologies at the test track, including a crusher from New Dimension Technologies that fits into an excavator or loader bucket.

Such a crusher system would facilitate the loading of muck directly from the face into the Rail-Veyor cars, eliminating conventional crushers and ore pass infrastructure underground. The alternative would be to use the Rail-Veyor to move material after it has been dumped and crushed.

Vale hopes to minimize the amount of oversize material by controlling the fragmentation, but “there are other solutions, including rockbreakers and portable crushers that could be used,” said Golde.

The objective is to achieve a target level of five per cent of total material larger than 18 inches.

The 53-car Rail-Veyor at the test site has chalked up approximately 8,000 loops around the 750-metre track in Sudbury ”many of them fully loaded, so the Rail-Veyor concept has been proven,” said Fantin. “We know we can load, we know we can transport and we know we can dump. Now, it’s just a question of continuing to optimize our designs and add functionality to offer a broader suite to our clients.”

Further energy savings, for example, will be achieved by changes to the power system that will store and make use of energy generated by the Rail-Veyor when it’s going downhill.

Rail-Veyor Technologies test track at Vale’s Frood-Stobie Complex represents an investment of $10 to $12 million.

by William Gleason, Senior Editor

From a distance, the 0.75-km (0.5-mile) rail line that sits in the shadows of Vale-Inco’s Stobie Mine outside of Sudbury, Ontario could be mistaken for a standard conveyor belt hauling ore from the nearby mine. But with its large, yellow-painted loop and interconnected green rail cars that invert themselves on the loop before correcting with a smooth rollover further down the track, one might assume that this is some sort of test track for a new roller coaster. The fact of the matter is that it is the proving ground for Rail-Veyor technology, a technology that the company hopes will one day change the face of ore transportation in surface and underground mines around the world.

With a line of linked, low-profile rail cars that are capable of carrying up to 1 t (1.1 st) per car of ore by way of simple, above ground, lightweight rail track, the technology is not groundbreaking.

In fact, it was developed in the 1960s for the French State Railroad. A demonstration plant for the Florida Institute of Phosphate Research was installed in 2000 and the first commercial underground installation was in 2007 in South Africa at Harmony Gold’s Phakisa Mine. There, a 4.7-km- (2.9-mile-) long tram between two shafts operates three Rail-Veyor trains on a shared track. The difference is that the application that is being tested day-and-night in Sudbury is getting closer to wide production, thanks to the use of computer controlled automation that has helped turn an old idea into a cost-effective modern solution.

“We have a niche here,” explained Rail-Veyor President and Chief Executive Officer Mike Romaniuk. “We have a simple technology that can do a lot of things that traditional conveyors, trucks and trains cannot do. It has low maintenance costs, no on board driver or operator and requires little energy.”

The driving force to move the train consists of a series of equally spaced dual-stationary drive stations with motors and gear reducers that turn horizontal tires against the side drive plates of the cars, providing forward thrust.

These computer-automated drive motors are what separate this version of the technology from previous versions. With modern programming and sensors, speed is controlled with a variable frequency drive (VFD), which allows operation in either forward or reverse directions with sufficient power to start a loaded train from any position on the track.

The drive system has no integral drive unit on the train, so rail weight is only based on car and content weight, not engine weight typical of a conventional railroad operation. The trains being tested in Sudbury are capable of carrying 1 t (1.1 st), but Romaniuk said that larger cars can carry as much as 3 t (3.3 st) per car, and there is no limit on the number of cars that could be attached.

Drive stations are spaced based on train lengths and track grades. Additional energy savings are achieved by shutting down the drive stations when the drives are not in contact with the train. The drive stations are designed to provide sufficient power to operate the system on grades up to 20 percent and control the cars through curves with a minimum 30-m (100-ft) radius at relatively high speeds.

The design of the rail cars allows for operation in an inverted position by use of a double set of parallel rails. This feature allows controlled, nonstop dumping of the cars by turning through an outside loop.

The rail cars are connected with flexible flaps that prevent leakage, allow articulated movement and form a chute as the product is discharged to a crusher, grinder, mill, train, truck or ore pile.

This design allows the cars to be operated in the upright or inverted position. And, because of the design, the trains can be easily dumped and continuously loaded and unloaded using roller coaster technology.

The system has been undergoing testing in Sudbury since April and testing will continue as different weights, types of ore, turns and grades are tested. Romaniuk said that discussions are ongoing with many mining companies and that Rail-Veyor hopes to get tracks and cars out to mines soon.

“In terms of the future,” said Romaniuk, “we are limited only by our imagination. There are no theoretical limits for the system. The unit train lengths and number of trains on the system will directly influence capacity. The maximum operational speed has not been established, but based on torque, gear ratios and drive train diameters, speeds of up to 32 km/h (20 mph) are realistic.”

When Rail-Veyor begins landing in mines around the world, it will be a reflection of much of the innovative and crucial work that is being done on daily basis in northern Ontario, one of the most vibrant mining sectors in the world. From green field to reclamation Comprised of principal centers of Sudbury, North Bay, Timmins and Thunder Bay, northern Ontario’s mining supply service sector is a hotbed of activity, with about 500 companies employing approximately 23,000 people in every aspect of the industry.

TORONTO — Today, on behalf of Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, the Honourable Joe Oliver, Mark Adler, Member of Parliament for York Centre, and Ted Opitz, Member of Parliament for Etobicoke Centre, announced that the Government of Canada, through Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC), will invest $7 million for clean technology projects in Ontario.

These projects are among 17 new clean technology projects being supported today across Canada through an investment of $53 million from SDTC’s SD Tech Fund™. This fund is helping realize the commercialization of clean technology in many sectors of the economy including agriculture, transportation, mining and energy.

“Our Government is committed to supporting clean energy technology in Canada as an effective measure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and create high-quality jobs for Canadians,” said Minister Oliver. “The projects announced today demonstrate our leadership in driving clean energy technology innovation to help create a viable clean energy industry in Canada.”

“This investment is good news for the Province of Ontario, and the residents of York Centre, as we strive to advance Canada’s clean technology industry,” said MP Adler.

“New clean technology projects, like those announced today, stimulate our local economy while helping protect the environment,” said MP Opitz.

Today’s announcement includes investments of:
• $2 million to Solantro Semiconductor Corp. in Ottawa for a solar technology project;
• $1.6 million to Azule Fuel Inc. in Sarnia for a biodiesel technology project;
• $1.9 million to Paradigm Shift Technologies Inc. in Toronto for a surface coating project; and
• $1.5 million to Rail-Veyor Technologies Inc. in Lively for a rail haulage system.

“The benefits of clean technologies for Canadians are clear. However, the impact of innovation comes through commercialization: only when R&D reaches the market does it begin delivering results,” said Vicky Sharpe, President and CEO of SDTC. “By helping promising clean technologies reach the market faster, SDTC is ensuring that Canadians can enjoy their economic and environmental benefits sooner.”
Sustainable Development Technology Canada’s SD Tech Fund™ has supported more than 220 projects and allocated $548 million, generating more than $1.3 billion in leveraged funds.

View additional articles here:
Promising Green Technologies Get Government of Canada Support
Harper Government Announces Clean Technology Projects in Ontario

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Press Secretary
Office of the Minister
Natural Resources Canada
Ottawa
613-996-2007

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Media Relations
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613-992-4447
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Mike Romaniuk, president and CEO, Rail-Veyor Technologies (right) and Alex Henderson, Vale's General Manager, Mines Mill Technology, North Atlantic region, pose in front of a Rail-Veyor at the Vale site on Turner Road Sept. 16. Photo By Marg Seregelyi.

Vale will invest $49 million in a demonstration plant in Copper Cliff which will feature Rail-Veyor technology and offer opportunities to test safer and more efficient mining techniques and new, specialized equipment.

The project is expected to create roughly 100 jobs for the duration of the project. Completion is scheduled for the first quarter of 2013.

“The 114 Orebody Demonstration Plant is part of the $3.4 billion investment Vale announced for its Sudbury operations in November of last year,” said Alex Henderson, Vale’s general manager, mines and mill technology, North Atlantic region.

Rail-Veyor is an industrial material haulage system.

The electrically-powered Rail-Veyor system operates remotely through a control centre and incorporates a light-rail track with a series of interconnected two-wheel cars capable of continuous movement.

Rail-Veyor technology will be installed at the 114 Orebody Demonstration Plant later this year – the first installation of its kind at an underground mine in North America.

The technology is currently being tested at an above-ground site near Turner Road in Sudbury.

“Today is an important step in the commercialization of the Rail-Veyor technology”, Mike Romaniuk, president and CEO of Rail-Veyor Technologies said.

“With Vale’s support and commitment to install the Rail-Veyor technology in the 114 Orebody Demonstration Plant, we look forward to advancing the commercialization of the technology in underground mines on a global basis.”

“The City of Greater Sudbury is considered to be the mining industry capital of Canada and with projects like the Rail-Veyor; we will continue to bring innovation and technology to new heights,” Mayor Marianne Matichuk said.

“Vale continues to be a key contributor to the mining industry, not only here at home, but around the world. Technology of this magnitude means sustainable income in a city where growing the job market is of the highest importance.”

Download VALE Media Release

Rail-Veyor®

The electrically powered Rail-Veyor® system operates remotely through a control centre and incorporates a light rail track with a series of interconnected two-wheel cars capable of continuous movement. The Rail-Veyor® cars travel at speeds of up to 10m/s or 32km/h as they climb grades of twenty percent (20%) and negotiate complex turns within a 30 metres radius. The open trough formed by all the rail cars can load, unload and transport any type of industrial material including mineral ores, aggregate, coal, wood chips and more. The cars are connected to allow for articulated movement along curves and for continuous reloading.