POP 2010 at the Darkov Mine: World-Class Technology

DARKOV MINE – “It’s smarter than my old lady! And, my God, she can be smart!” was a joke of an engineer, as he was admiringly describing a new cutter-loader currently commissioned at the Darkov Mine. “It’s full of electronics and automatic gadgets, it’s computer-controlled, it can communicate with self-advancing roof on its own – it is a very intelligent technology indeed. It’s something exceptional, unique, and downright revolutionary in the history and conditions of our Darkov Mine!”

Technologies Worth Hundreds of Millions

What are we talking about? It is the technology deployed in Stope #40 203 of Plant #3 of the Darkov Mine, in particular the self-advancing roof, cutter-loader, bench conveyor, gathering conveyor, crusher … The technology worth hundreds of millions was delivered earlier this year in the framework of the Production Optimization Programme 2010 (POP 2010), which aims, inter alia, to introduce new generation tunneling and extraction technologies worth more than CZK 8 billion by 2010.

Unique Technologies Operated by the Darkov Mine

“We haven’t used anything as modern, powerful, big and robust in Darkov,” emphasizes Karel Majetny, Head of Mining Technical Operations. “For example, one section of the self-advancing roof weighs 10 tons, i.e. roughly a third, more than what we were accustomed to. In addition, it has a greater span; in other words, it is wider, heavier and more difficult to handle.” Getting the 36-ton colossus underground, putting it together and operating it is not an easy task. Especially if there are 113 sections like this.

Meticulous Preparations

When the decision to commission and operate the giant-sized plant was made, engineers and the shaft management were given a lot of food for thought. Early in 2008, Managing Director Boleslav Kowalczyk put together working teams comprising the most experienced employees. Their task was to carefully rig the stope for the deployment of the technology. Initially, the teams met once a month, later every week. They determined exact working procedures, timetables and sequences of operations. Shock prevention was another issue that was considered, including breakup-free blasting and other counter-shock measures.

Kilometers of Cabling

Electricians too had their hands full. Because of higher requirements of the new technologies for 3.3 kV voltage supply (which is not common) and a very high installed power of electrical equipment in the stope, they had to lay kilometers of new electric cables and set up new distribution networks. On the surface, a new control center was built, which receives and processes all information about the status of the technology used in Stope #40 203. The control center makes it possible to immediately respond to any situation in the stope.  

It Was Done by the Best!

Everything started on August 4^th, the plan being to rig the stop with everything that was needed by October 20^th. The race against time began! The race was dominated by two teams – the hundred-strong team of the Section of Services and Equipment No. 1, under the leadership of Jaroslav Biegun, and eighty people of the contractor, CZ Bastav 1, commanded by Petr Sklepek. Both teams are most experienced in their respective lines of business. In a four-shift working cycle, their members were working virtually continuously, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

They Had a Tough Time

Extraordinary circumstances gave the people a very tough time. It was obvious the stope would not be put into operation as planned. Now the question was how long the delay would be. And here the Darkov people indeed outperformed themselves. They got the giant-sized piece of machinery underground and put it together in a record time – three days earlier than expected. An extraordinary feat! Having been put through tests, the stope could commence full-scale operation on the Independence Day, October 28^th.

(Josef Lys)