School of rock

Continuous miners have been a feature of coal mining since the first of the baby boomers were born, but only now is it beginning to appear viable for hard-rock mining. Nadav Shemer talks to the OEMs at the forefront of these developments

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The Sandvik MN220 reef miner, currently being trialled for use in hard-rock mining

Mechanical cutting has been a regular feature of coal mining since Joy Global produced its first continuous miner in 1948, but to date such technology has generally eluded hard-rock miners.