PT Freeport Indonesia installed a Goodyear Flexsteel® Conveyor Belt at its Grasberg Mine, the world’s largest gold mine, more than a decade ago. Today,the Goodyear belt is still running, and reliably delivering the lowest cost-pertonne. The Grasberg Mine is the largest gold mine and the third largest copper mine in the world. It is located in the province of Papua in Indonesia, and has some 19,500 employees.
In 1997 PT Freeport Indonesia finalised plans to expand Grasberg’s large open pit mine. The project required a crushing and conveying Overburden Handling System, to ensure copper and gold ore mining would continue as the pit expanded. Today, the open pit mine forms a mile-wide crater at the surface, and produces more than 67 million tonnes of ore annually.
Remote location, high altitude and high rainfall: unique conditions require component reliability. The harsh environment in Papua includes high rainfall, high altitude and an extremely remote location, posing a challenge for PT Freeport. Freeport’s engineering teams at both New Orleans and Tembagapura conducted in-depth research into the site’s unique operational difficulties, and determined that equipment component reliability under the site’s extreme conditions would be key determinants of the project’s success. The major Overburden Handling System suppliers chosen by PT Freeport were selected on the basis of their proven reliability and on site service, included ThyssenKrupp, FMC, Falk, Dodge Reliance, Sandvik/Prok and Goodyear Engineered Products.
PT Freeport chooses Goodyear as its conveyor belt, splice kit and rip protection provider Goodyear Engineered Products was selected as the best provider to manufacture and supply all the conveyor belts, splice kits, splice supervision and belt rip protection for the new Overburden Handling System.
This included the incline C201 Conveyor, belted with 1600m self extinguishing Goodyear Flexsteel® steel cord belts 84” ST5400 3/4” x 3/8” ARMA SBR.
The C201 Conveyor key features include:
Design ThyssenKrupp Materials
Handling
Length 792 metres
Lift 139 metres
Speed 3.8m/sec
Motor Power 4 x 2100HP
Capacity 10,000 TPH
Veyance the worlds No 1 conveyor belt manufacturer, has manufacturing facilities in Australia, Brazil, South Africa, Canada and USA and its new world class conveyor belt facility in Shandong China. In the Asia Pacific region, Veyance
has 11 steel cord lines and soon will be commissioning the world’s largest Siempelkamp press, 1Q 2010. 110 million tonnes later, C201 makes way for C231, to save PT Freeport millions. PT Freeport’s effective safety and conveyor maintenance programs together with the high quality, abrasion resistant Goodyear ST5400ARMA SBR belt - protected by Sensor Guard™ belt rip protection which automatically stops the conveyor when a tear occurs, to limit the degree of damage - resulted in the belt having 9/16” top cover remaining in 2003. In 2003, after carrying some 110 million tonne as the initial Overburden Handling System was completed, Conveyor C201 was dismantled. The mine saved considerable expense by reinstalling the Goodyear Flexsteel ST5400 ARMA SBR belt from C201 on the new Overburden Handling System, OHS-3. PT Freeport C201 Conveyor During operation in 2002 Goodyear Preform Splice Technology
The 1600m conveyor belt removed from C201 was installed and spliced into 2100m of new Goodyear Flexsteel ST5400 9/16” x 3/8” ARMA SBR belt using Goodyear Preform splice technology on C231 Conveyor.
These are benefits of splicing with Goodyear Preform
• Improves Dynamic Splice Efficiency
• Better cord location uniformity
• Eliminates cement usage on cables
• Proven product used in over 150 splices
Flexsteel: still reliable after a decade of wear and tear In September 2009, the belt is still running, having conveyed a further 135 million tonne on C231
Conveyor.
Bill Dillon, from PT Freeport comments, “We have been pleasantly surprised by the long life of the Goodyear ST5400 belt over the past decade on the two overburden handling systems. We estimate that
the total savings have exceeded our expectations by a fair margin, conservatively more than a million dollars in the belt alone and much more in terms of continuity for both overburden removal and access to
the main ore body underneath.” The GOODYEAR (and Winged Foot Design) trademark is used by Veyance Technologies, Inc. under license from The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. Goodyear Engineered Products are manufactured and sourced exclusively by Veyance Technologies, Inc. or its affiliates. ©2009 Veyance Technologies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Veyance Belting is the exclusive supplier of Goodyear Engineered Products in Australia. The company has been manufacturing heavyweight and high performance conveyor belts here since 1965. www.goodyearep.com/