Copper: Humanity’s first and most important future metal
Millions of feet of copper wiring will be required for strengthening the world’s power grids, and hundreds of thousands of tonnes more are needed to build wind and solar farms.
On November 29 last year Aker Wirth and Rio Tinto signed a contract for the delivery and testing of the first Tunnel Boring System (TBS), which has been developed for Rio’s Mine of the Future program. The TBS embodies Aker Wirth’s innovative Mobile Tunnel Miner concept and will be tested at Northparkes copper mine in Australia. This concept is based on Aker Wirth’s experience and competence in underground hard rock mining and tunnelling. It combines the flexibility of a roadheader operation with the robustness of a tunnel boring machine. It uses the learnings of a previous version that was developed and tested in the early 1990s. Using the undercutting technology at the core of the concept, the company says the machine ”is capable of meeting the challenges set out by Rio Tinto to improve the safety and speed of tunnel construction in underground mining.” The TBS is 64 m long, has a flexible boring diameter up to 6 m and has minimum tunnel dimensions of 5 m by 5 m. (more…)
