Feasibility project for implementation of conveyor belts in an iron ore mine. Study case: Fabrica Mine in Minas Gerais State, Brazil

Abstract

This article objectifies the implementation of a conveyor belt in an iron ore mine. The mine operational costs of the company Vale S.A. have a tendency to increase in coming years. This increase is related to the rising price of labor, fuel, tires, maintenance costs and large transport distances. Meanwhile, environmental impacts also need to be reduced. The case study of the Fabrica mine operated by VALE in the city of Congonhas, in Minas Gerais State of Brazil, was chosen aiming for a comparative study between the employment of big trucks and the deployment of conveyor belts. The decision for the best alternative would be made by an economic analysis of the incremental cash flow. After the economic evaluation of the project, economic and environmental gains were expected for the alternative of conveyor belt deployment.

Reverse logistics system applied to the reuse of iron ore tailings

“…Lopes (2010) and Ribeiro et al (2016) compared the use of conveyor belts versus dump trucks in mining transport activities. According to these authors, the advantages regarding the conveyor belts are: low number of operators, since one or two are sufficient to monitor long stretches of belts in operation; transport is not interrupted due to rain and fog, ensuring the system feed rate; and the risk of accidents is reduced due to the low number of people and equipment involved.…”

“…Note that all parameters described in Table 2 use the normal probability distribution, where the averages were estimated based on the distances between the activities and on the time spent by the equipment to perform an activity. The value of 10% was assumed for the deviations, since the variability in this type of system is not high, as observed by Ribeiro et al (2016).…”

“…These tables summarise the costs and productivity rates of civil construction and geotechnical services in Brazil each month (Caixa Econômica Federal, 2019). Finally, the costs related to the acquisition and operation of the conveyor belts were obtained and adapted from the study of Ribeiro et al (2016).…”

Analysis of Conveyor Drive Power Requirements in the Mining Industry

“…Since mining activities are merely associated with bulk materials handling, conveyor drive turns out to be a widely accepted solution for the miner of the world from the 1800's [8,26]. Initially, the idea of conveyor was for the coal mining industry but now being used for all kinds of the mining industry and in modern manufacturing lines such as in an automobile, agricultural, electronic, food, process, pharmaceutical, chemical, packaging industries [27][28]. It helps to reduce the handling cost drastically and has gain popularity.…”

“…It helps to reduce the handling cost drastically and has gain popularity. In the modern iron ore mining industry conveyor systems are an integral part of the transportation system [27][28].…”