Typically requiring over a month to transport, Mammoet has set a new benchmark for dragline transportation by relocating BHP Mitsubishi Alliance’s (BMA) 3,100t Marion 8050 dragline from one end of the Peaks Down coal mine to other – 27km in just under 10 days.
Designed to operate on one mine site, with an inability to efficiently travel long distances under their own steam, these massive mining machines require a lot of ancillary transmission and generation equipment to move between dig sites.
With a deadline to achieve the relocation, it was sub-optimal to allow the dragline to travel under its own steam.
The solution? Jack up the dragline so it could be carried by Mammoet Self-Propelled Modular Transporters (SPMTs). SPMTs can travel up to 5km per hour. In comparison, a dragline can cover approximately 1km in 12 hours.
Eight JS500 towers were set up underneath the dragline for the jacking operation. Once it was elevated to 2.5 meters, a configuration of 5×28 lines of SPMT were positioned underneath the load to transport it.
While there were some nuances, the dragline was safely and efficiently lifted. Its weight was evenly distributed across 560 tires, resulting in a ground bearing pressure of less than 9t/m².
The team had a 72-hour window to cross a rail line. In that time they had to construct the temporary ramp over the track, make the crossing safely and return everything to its original state.
“One of the key reasons that BMA reached out to us was because the Aurizon rail crossing is a critical line – transporting coal from different mines in the region to the coast for exporting,” said Laura Ewen, Branch Manager at Mammoet.
“Peak Downs had competing projects in the area at the time, and the shutdown crossing window wouldn’t align again for another three months. The Dragline was required for coal extraction in the southern pits for production.”
Using SPMTs not only de-risked the project and got the dragline to site safely, on time and without incident, it also reduced wear and tear on the machine and its mechanical parts and significantly minimised downtime for the Marion 8050.
