In late August, the Mincor team took the decision to bring forward Nickel production from the Miitel Mine in order to smooth out the yearly production profile.

In order to do this they had to re-design their escapeway system to account for two shorter than originally planned rises and organize for them to be mined and fitted out with new ladders.  The team at Mincor put the word out for quotes on ladderways and raisebore rigs with availability being the key criteria.

ARD were able to make a rig available at short notice with a 1.5m reamer.  The hole was bigger than required for the installation of Safescape Laddertube ladderways however the key criteria was still timeframe.  The project called for one 54m ladder and one 56m ladder to be installed at opposite ends of the Miitel mine.

ARD mobilized their rig and crew and started drilling in September.  Safescape arrived on site at the end of September and the first escapeway was commissioned in the first few days of October.  We came back to install the second ladderway after the second rise was complete and both ladderways were in place by the third week of October. 

The whole process from the decision, through design, mining and installation took 5 weeks for the first rise and 7 weeks in total for both.  An impressive feat considering it takes some businesses 6 weeks or more to process a capital requisition.

Rodney Goldsworthy, the OH & S Manager, Mincor Southern Operations, can be contacted on (08) 9020 8200 for feedback on the installation at Miitel.