New
Zealand Steel's Taharoa titano-magnetite mine, south of Auckland, set two
national load records when it transported around 2000 t of mining equipment
three kilometres overland on time, under budget and without safety incident. It
was the first time in New
Zealand that four platform trailers were
assembled end-to-end to transport a load. It was also the first time that a
single load of 1000 t was transported on platform trailers. The need for the
relocation of all equipment was realized five years ago. It took two years of
planning and specialist advice to relocate the mine's 250 t dredge, 500 t surge
bin, 1000 t concentrator plant and ancillary equipment from the Southern Mining
Region across a specially designed haul road to the Central Mining Region. The
project was carried out during a six-week shutdown in early 2001. Two dry docks
were constructed, one at each end of the relocation route. The equipment was
floated into a dismantling pond that was interconnected with the dry dock in the
Southern Region. Through pumping, the water levels were controlled to allow
transfer of the separated units from the dismantling pond into the dry dock.
Once drained, sets of self-elevating platform trailers were used to transport
the main units, one at a time, between the dry docks. Five prime movers were
used to pull the loads. At the receiving end, the units were off-loaded in a dry
dock interlinked with ,the first mining pond. The equipment was relocated
because the reserves in the Southern Mining Region were mined out. A natural
watercourse - the Wainui Stream - defines the northern boundary of the Southern
Region and the objective became to relocate the mining plant to the other side
of the stream and re-establish in the Central Region. The project team selected
the trailers as the most effective means of transporting the equipment,
particularly given the non-invasive means of crossing the Wainui Stream.
Negotiations with prime contractor Tranzcarr Heavy Haulage Ltd commenced in
mid-2000. The remainder of 2000 was spent in developing concepts with the
contractor, detailed designing, preparing the dry docks, haul road and initial
mine plan for the Central Region. These activities occurred with no conflict to
the normal site production.