Elevating underground mine sustainability with BHP

At BHP's Prominent Hill mine, ABB's mine hoist system plays a vital role in helping the company meet its sustainability targets for 2033. 

By installing a new hoist shaft and utilizing an ABB production hoist, BHP are able to extend the life of the mine by four years, increasing their production to 6.5 million tons per annum and lowering the emissions intensity of the site.

The BHP Prominent Hill mine is a major copper, silver, and gold mine in Australia. In April 2022, the mine announced its plan to install a new hoisting shaft with the objective to extend the mine life, reduce operational risks and costs and significantly lower the emissions intensity of the site compared with its trucking fleet.

ABB was selected to design and supply the production hoist – its highest payload Koepe hoist in Australia – which has the capacity to carry 39,400kg of ore to the surface and the largest drivetrain to be installed.

The hoisting shaft provides access to mineral reserves outside of the current trucking mine plan enabling the mine to increase its production from around 4.5 million tons to 6 million tons. Without the revised hoist design, the mine would have been unable via a trucking operation to meet its sustainability targets by 2033 or ensure competitiveness. Installing the hoist adds four years to the mine’s life and increases their production to 6.5 million tons per annum.

Notably, the hoist system will be among the safest in the world, employing the ABB Ability™ Safety Plus for hoists – which is a fully Safety Integrity Level (SIL) 3 certified suite of solutions for hoists.

This means the hoists have been rigorously examined and certified by an independent global functional safety certifying body, and strictly developed in accordance with the International “Safety of Machinery” standard IEC62061. It is composed of three solutions offering the highest level of safety available on the market:

• Safety Plus Hoist Monitor
  
• Safety Plus Brake System
  
• Safety Plus Hoist Protector

With over 130 years experience, we invented new technologies and improved them, every day. Because miners’ safety depends on them. ABB is today the market leader in the segment with over 1 000 hoisting solutions delivered worldwide.

ABB has the unique capability to design, supply, install and provide long-term service and support of entire mine hoist mechanical and electrical systems. We supply friction hoists as well as drum hoists of various types. We also supply the shaft equipment necessary for productive hoisting processes.

ABB mine hoist solutions provide low life cycle cost, high reliability and system availability, short project execution time and a single source of supply for the complete system, including service and spare parts.