Mining Magazine > Panorama > B&W Mechanical Handling feeder installation for Xstrata

Canadian miner Xstrata-Nickel has installed two heavy-duty sub-surface B&W Samson feeders to intake mine tailings at its Nickel Rim South mine site in the Sudbury Basin located in northern Ontario. This is the first Canadian installation for the UK based B&W Mechanical Handling. The sub-surface concept has been extensively developed for under rail applications and designated type SUR.

Classified tailings are brought from the Strathcona mill, 85km away or legacy tailings from the nearby Nickel Rim North site in various tipping and self-discharging 36t capacity trucks to the new processing plant which is part of Xstrata’s ongoing sustainability initiatives. The tailings are screened and processed for backfill into the mine shafts representing an environmentally friendly solution to this age old issue of tailings disposal.

One of the specialised road trucks is fitted with a movable body for effective weight distribution over the eight carrying axles and a system to move the body to the end of the trailer for discharge. The vehicles feature a moving bulkhead within the tubular body which is forced back towards the end of the trailer to discharge the load. The vehicles are difficult to manoeuvre in a confined space thus Xstrata preferred the “drive-over-tip” intake arrangement.

 In this design the truck moves forward over the feeder such that only when the truck is in the discharge position is the feeder intake revealed. B&W offered this customised solution based on the drive-over-tip concept developed originally for the intake of fuels and clays in the cement industry.

For the Xstrata project two sub-floor feeders were supplied installed in parallel and each arranged to discharge to a separate belt conveyor. The SamsonTM 1600 series have an entry capacity of 30 cubic metres to receive the entire truck contents. Each SamsonTM is designed to handle a discharge rate of 200 cubic meters per hour.