Modern Mining May 2015

COVER STORY

Customised solution to power up

Barloworld Power has designed and assembled a customised start-up solution for Cat electric rope shovels and Cat electric rotary drills supplied by Barloworld Namibia to Swakop Uranium’s Husab mine in Namibia.

T he Husab project, located about 50 km to the east of Swakopmund, is regarded as the most important uranium discovery of recent years and will elevate Namibia to the third biggest uranium producer in the world. First production is expected towards the end of 2015. The solution comes in the form of two Cat C175 diesel engine motivators designed specifically to power up the three 7495 electric rope shovels supplied by Cat mining equip- ment dealer Barloworld Equipment and move them between pits. The motivators were cus- tom built and packaged by Barloworld Power in Boksburg for the specific application and are the largest single units ever assembled by Barlo­ world Power’s Customised Solution Centre. “In 2012 Barloworld Power received an enquiry to manufacture and assemble two 3 000 kVA, 6,6 kV trailer-mounted generator sets to power up the new Cat 7495 electric rope shovels and Cat MD6640 rotary drills that were being supplied to Husab,” explains project manager Andrew Richardt.

“The power requirement to start up the rope shovel in order to move it is more than 4 000 kVA. This means two motivators are needed running in parallel to perform the start-up. Once the shovel is running, however, one of the motivators can be shut down and the shovel can be walked to its new location powered by a single unit.” The generator model selected for this solu- tion was the Cat C175-16 rated for 3 000 kVA,

Centre: One of the motivators leaves Barloworld Power’s Boksburg facility bound for Husab uraniummine in Namibia.

The Cat C175 diesel engine motivator in the foreground was designed and built by Barloworld Power to power up the Cat 7495 electric rope shovel in the background for movement around the mine.

20  MODERN MINING  May 2015