Technology and innovation
Technology helps gold rush team compete
The conveyors have to efficiently transport up to 300tph of raw material for 12 hours per day at 2 – 2.3mps .
Photos by Martin Engineering
Gold Rush , a popular television series on the Discovery channel , follows the exploits of three competing mining teams , led by Todd Hoffman , Parker Schnabel , and Tony Beets , as they seek to extract the most placer gold from their operations .
While their operations may be small by commercial mining standards , the competition is fierce . The teams compete for 100 ounces of gold , which gets awarded to the team that mines most of the highly prized mineral .
All three teams try to squeeze the last ounce from their operations . Therefore , the conveyors play a key role . The conveyors have to efficiently transport up to 300 tons per hour ( tph ) of raw material for 12 hours per day at 2 – 2.3 metres per second ( mps ). Processing begins when dump trucks empty their loads into a hopper . Rocks larger than 6 ″ are scalped off , and the remaining load gets screened to separate the fines from the bulk . Fines are then run through a sluice box to wash out the gold particles .
“ In a highly competitive situation like this , we have to collect every fraction of an ounce from the source material ,” commented Trey Poulson . “ Our goal this season is 5 000 ounces , and we can ’ t afford to leave anything behind . So even a small amount of carryback or spillage from the conveyors is a serious issue for us . In these operations , we don ’ t have extra manpower , so any downtime for maintenance or repairs can be a disaster for us . We can ’ t afford to stop processing and shovel out spillage or make repairs during the 12-hour window that we ’ re permitted to operate each day .”
Poulson said his goal is to extract an ounce of gold for every 100 yards of material processed , which is about four truckloads dumping into the hopper . When the team first started the operation , they were using the existing belt scrapers on the conveyors to clean any fines that remained on the belts at the discharge points . “ The original belt cleaners weren ’ t as effective as we needed them to be ,” said Poulson . “ They were leaving some carryback on the belt , and we even had a couple of them cam over and jam up the conveyors . On one , it actually ripped the belt .”
That ’ s when a chance meeting at a trade show gave Poulson the opportunity to meet representatives from Martin Engineering , one of the innovators and premier suppliers of components to make bulk material handling cleaner , safer , and more productive . He stopped by the company ’ s exhibit at the event and started a conversation about some of the problems they were experiencing . The reps were confident that Martin components could resolve the issues and help the Hoffman team in its quest to outproduce the competition . Poulson gladly accepted the company ’ s offer to supply 316 Mining with high-efficiency belt cleaners .
“ Belt cleaning was one of our biggest obstacles at the time ,” he recalled . “ We were wasting both material and labour , and we couldn ’ t afford to give that advantage to the competition .”
Martin Engineering technicians travelled to the Colorado site and reviewed the entire conveyor network , recommending specific cleaner designs for each application . On one they recommended the company ’ s patented CleanScrape design , which is engineered to provide as much as four times the lifespan of conventional cleaners in difficult applications . “ When I first met with the Martin guys , I had trouble envisioning how it would work . It is unlike anything I have seen in my 20 years of mining . But it has been in service for six months without us having to touch it . And the cleaning performance is great .”
For the wet conveyor , the Martin technicians selected a heavy-duty primary belt cleaner that features unique technology to maintain the most efficient cleaning angle throughout its service life . Equally important given the time constraints of the competition , the blade features a no-tool replacement process that can be performed safely by one person in less than five minutes . For the secondary cleaner , a rugged design with individually cushioned tungsten carbide blades was installed to withstand the punishing conditions .
“ These conveyors experience all the same challenges faced by massive corporate mines ,” said Steve McKenna , territory manager at
[ 36 ] MINING MIRROR MAY 2018