New Concept Mining (NCM), which is part of Swedish-headquartered Epiroc, on September 13 launched its Hydraulic Rock Drill (HRD) manufacturing plant in Aeroton, Johannesburg.

Epiroc manufactures mining and infrastructure equipment.

NCM is a South African ground support solutions provider. It was acquired by Epiroc in 2019, and became New Concept Mining Powered by Epiroc, or NCM. This acquisition combined the specialised ground support solutions of NCM and the global reach of Epiroc.

HRDs were originally produced in Sweden, primarily for the South African market. Some of the components were produced in South Africa, shipped to Sweden for assembly, and then shipped back to the country.

The company realised that this process was inefficient, and therefore, at the start of last year, made the decision to convert this into a South African product and start production and assembly in the country, at this new plant, Epiroc Ground Support Product Development head Greig Knox explained, speaking to Engineering News and Mining Weekly on the sidelines of the launch.

“Moving it to South Africa means that we’re also able to support the product better, as the research and development engineers who will be developing the product portfolio going forward are based in Johannesburg.

“This gives them easy and quick access to the mine, understanding how the operators in the mine are using the equipment, and also gives us a better understanding of the way in which equipment’s being used and dealing with the faults when they’re found, so that we can continually improve the product,” Knox highlighted.

As part of the reallocation, South African production personnel travelled to Sweden to understand the production process and to decommission the production line in that country.

Production at the HRD plant in South Africa has already started, and NCM is targeting the manufacture of about 12 units a day; however, this is scalable to up to 100 units a day if required, Knox informed.

The HRDs are slated to be 100% ready for the South African market by next year.

NCM has upskilled and reallocated from its current workforce to work in the new plant.

The HRDs are expected to improve the speed and safety of drilling, thereby improving mining efficiencies.

Knox said there was a need to reduce the hard working conditions for rock drill operators, who were exposed to high noise and vibration levels.

“Part of the design criteria for the HRD was to reduce the vibration and reduce the period of exposure to vibration as well. This, along with removing the need to inject grease into the pneumatic supply line for lubrication of the drill means we’re reducing the amount of grease mist that operators are currently exposed to,” Knox pointed out.

Other benefits of HRD include a better penetration rate, durability, improved water consumption, support application, reduced infrastructure costs and lower energy consumption.

The company is also targeting further HRD product development.

Currently, Phase 1 entails local assembly and services of the product as is.

Phase 2 would entail eliminating compressions air dependency; and digitalisation. 

Phase 3 would entail battery development and efficiency improvements.

The HRD plant is housed in Epiroc’s Ground Support Facility, with the company’s other suite of buildings also located in the same block in Aeroton.

Knox highlighted that the plant was well positioned to receive steel for production. Moreover, it is close to Rustenburg, where a large number of the products are supplied to daily. It also provides quick and easy access to the Durban port for export of products, he added.

As a heavy energy user, Epiroc has implemented a 1.3 MW solar power system at its Aeroton facilities. This is the first phase of its sustainability journey, with the company working towards increasing its solar capacity and moving to a battery powered system as a backup, Knox informed.

The company also showcased its testing capabilities, located in the Ground Support Facility. 

Capabilities include quasi-static tensile and shear testing, as well as dynamic impact testing of ground support.

In 2017, NCM invested in testing facilities that would position it as a global player, Knox averred. Historically, the testing was done by flying samples and engineers through to Canada to run the tests.