OPERATION FOCUS

Supporting
a remote
mining fleet
PT Freeport Indonesias (PT-FI) operations
in Irian Jaya have the support of many
manufacturers. Its team of just under
400 personnel, visited recently by
John Chadwick, is Sandvik's
biggest single mine complex
support team

T
he importance of the Sandvik operation
headquartered in the city of Timika on
the south coast of Papua (Irian Jaya),
Indonesia, is such that it is an incorporated
company, PT Sandvik SMC. This company was
established purely for the Freeport business,
which roughly splits 50/50 between
underground and surface equipment. Sandvik
has another, completely independent, business
entity based in Balikpapan for the rest of
Indonesia. The equipment it supports for the
Grasberg operations includes the biggest single
fleet of Sandvik blasthole drills anywhere in the
world, underground development and
production drills and bolting units (and
Commando drill rigs for secondary breaking), a
massive fleet of Getman utility vehicles,
hydraulic breakers for both open pit and
underground use (the most Sandvik units on
any one mining complex) and crushers and
conveyor components.
Before it is exhausted, PT-FIs Grasberg mine
will yield more gold than the entire California
gold rush. Some call it the most spectacular
mineral deposit ever found. The Ertsberg/
Grasberg mining complex took 20 years to
build up, at a cost of more than $3 billion. As
David Potter, PT-FIs VP Exploration says: The
best way to describe it when you go up
there, you are going to walk away with your
mouth open, youre going to be agog! People
are going to say, how in the world did you do
that? I can certainly agree with that!
Sandvik's rotary blasthole drill relationship
with Freeport goes back to the 1990s,
although the first cost per metre contract
wasn't formalised until 2002. According to
Sandvik, it is important to recognise that this
type of contract or relationship is not static.
The exact count and age of the fleet of D90KS
blasthole drills has varied as a result of the
production needs and long-term outlook for
the mine. Sandvik and Freeport have also
made adjustments along the way to account
for changes in the rock formations.
Fundamentally, says Sandviks VP continuous business and a high level of local
Marketing & Offering Development - Surface
Mining, Karl Ingmarsson, this type of
agreement offers benefits for both the mine
and the supplier. Drilling represents only a
small fraction of the capital and operating
budgets, but nevertheless represents a critical
phase of the process, which can have a
significant impact on the total mining cost. The
performance of the drilling operation, or more
precisely drilling and blasting, is further
enhanced by the fleet of Sandvik DI600 down-
the-hole pre-split units on site. With the pre-
split program designed to improve wall stability
and final blast results, the Sandvik drilling
offering adds even more value on site.
Outside Freeport and for other owners of
D90KS blasthole drills, the experience also
provides benefits in fully understanding the
total cost of ownership, the hands-on
experience of predictive maintenance, and
forecasting of spare- and maintenance items.
With Sandvik ensuring the availability of the
blasthole drills, Freeport has one less
management issue and can focus on its core
business. Ashley Cooper, President/Director
General of PT Sandvik SMC, explains its all
about service and maintenance. The contract
also ensures a controlled and predictable
operating cost, keeping budgeting simple and
taking some large pieces of equipment off the
balance sheet. The benefits to Sandvik are also
substantial, with an opportunity to build a
competence. After forming its own legal entity,
Sandvik has been able to grow its business
also in the underground mining operations as
well as the crushing plant, to become an even
more substantial business and partner with the
mine.
The Sandvik surface team won the Grasberg
Safety, Health and Environmental award for
May 2008, having achieved 749,392 working
man-hours without an LTA (Lost Time
Accident). In total the surface team numbers
140, with 106 of them dedicated to the
blasthole drill contract. There are 11 of the
D90KS drill rig, or 1190D as they are referred
to on site. These diesel powered machines will
drill 229-381 mm blastholes (311 mm
diameter at Grasberg) up to 85 m in depth
(18.5 m at Grasberg in a single pass) using
tricone bits. The 1190E offers a pulldown of
400 kN and a bit load of 525 kN. They are

12 International Mining AUGUST 2009

 OPERATION FOCUS
Wherever possible, the Sandvik
blasthole drills are moved on Towhaul
lowboys, for speed and to save wear of
the drills' crawler gear
working at a variety of elevations ranging from
3,340 m to about 4,285 m above sea level.
Until recently, there were 12 rigs but the
very first machine delivered has recently been
retired after 60,000 hours and will not be
replaced. The Sandvik teams recent focus has
been on getting all the necessary preventative
maintenance done and instilling discipline into
the operators and technicians getting them
to take a sense of pride in the machines, as
Bruce Feldmann, Sandvik Project Manager,
explains. The age of these drills varies from
10,000 to 50,000 hours and their availabilities
are in the range from 78-83%. The Sandvik
technicians are on two 12-hour shifts, giving
full time coverage. Freeport operators do all
the preshift checks and prepare a manual log
of the metres drilled all other
maintenance/service work is done by the
Sandvik team.
As much as possible work
While the mine has lost one drill from on the blasthole drills is
the fleet, it has enlarged the drill undertaken in the pit
patterns, with advice from the Sandvik
team. This has lead to increased
productivity. The Aquila system on the
rigs downloads the drill pattern and tells
the operator where to set up.
The blasthole drill team, which is in
constant communication with PT-FI
engineers and other personnel, has
offices in the main office/workshops
complex on the southern rim of the
Grasberg open pit. There is a dispatch
office, an electrical office, a safety office
and an operations office.
Sandvik undertakes a lot of predictive
replacement (PCR - Predicted
Component Rebuild) and Feldmann
explains: The smarter we get the
longer the parts last. He also notes
that oil samples are a good tool for
condition monitoring. The Operations
Dept looks after the bits, rods and
bushes for the drills, controlling stock
14 International Mining AUGUST 2009
levels. Technicians go into the pit at regular
intervals to replace bits and record data. The
bits are then recycled. Currently the team is
trialling a number of different bits. The
condition of the drill rods is continuously
monitored and they are service rotated to get
the maximum life out of each one.
The team has access to two Trakindo lube
trucks, based on Cat 740 ADTs, dispensing oil,
diesel and grease. There is also a boom truck
equipped with a Hiab crane to be used for
work on booms, rod replacement, etc. The
mast of each drill will be replaced once in its
life. Regular services at 250 and 500 hours
take 24 hours. The more major 1,000-h service
takes as long as it needs.
Every week there is a preventive
maintenance meeting between Sandvik and
PT-FI personnel. Any work that is required is
carried out in the pit whenever possible.
Where there is a known major problem, it may
be that the rig is brought into the workshops
on one of the mines Towhaul lowboys.
However, just bringing the rig in can take six
hours so the team only does this when it is
completely necessary, to avoid lost production
time.
Over and above the consumables, the
highest wear is suffered by the pulldown
pulling chains, followed by the crawler gear. To
reduce the latter, lowboys are used as much as
possible to move rigs around the pit. Each rig
is equipped with three hour meters, one for
engine hours, one for tramming hours and the
third measures rotary hours. Obviously these
help identify the productive drilling from all the
other tasks the drills have to undertake.
The D90KS drills are fitted with automated
onboard data capture systems from which the
data is generated into reports and graphs. The
teams main production indicators are the
metres drilled, mechanical availability of the
drill rigs, mean time between failure (MTBF),
and the mean time to repair (MTTR). For the
first quarter of 2009, the Sandvik Grasberg
workshop team achieved a first quarter
mechanical availability average of 78%, with a
best week of 86%. A MTBF of 17 hours
(which includes all stoppages, fuel, drill bits,
oils, breakdowns, planned maintenance, etc)
has been seen, along with a MTTR of about
three hours. Looking at metres drilled, the PT-FI
operators exceeded the first quarter
production target of 327,785 m.
In order to maintain and improve the
performance of the drill fleet, there is a
hard working behind the scenes
planning team. This comprises long term
logistic planners, medium and short term
planners, right down to a 24-hour
dispatch officer. This team is essential
because of the remoteness of the drill
site, lead times of replacement
components, the large volume of work
being performed and the 24-hour/seven-
day-a-week/365-day nature of the
mining operation.
The open pit also employs seven
Sandvik DI600 drills to drill presplit holes.
These are hydraulic, self-contained,
crawler-based DTH drill rig. However,
since they are similar to underground
tophammer machines they are looked
after by the Sandvik underground team
who have responsibility for similar drills
on underground rigs. The DI600s drill 30
m holes in the pit at an average incline
of 70 and a spacing of 1.5 m. These
DTH holes are 140 mm in diameter.
 OPERATION FOCUS

crew members that supported a range of

equipment from Getman utility vehicles to
Western Star cement trucks. The first Getman
unit was sold to Freeport in 1983 (an A64 Flat
Deck) and now there are a total of 106
vehicles.

Getman fleet at PT-FI

A64 scissor lift 23

1248-13 19
1248 remixer 19
A64 crane truck 12
A64 flat deck 9
ANFO charging vehicle 6
A64 mechanics vehicle 4
A64 PK9501A 2
Roadbuilder 1
A64 personnel carrier 1
440 DJC 1
Miscellaneous 9
One of the seven Sandvik
DI600 drills for presplit holes.
These are hydraulic, self- In 2002 Sandvik started the Oreflow MARC
contained, crawler-based (a cost per hour performance contract), and
DTH drill rigs received orders for five Rammer XM500HD
pedestal boom assemblies with E68 hammers,
PT-FI watched the new this order was the start of many orders to
team very closely and was come for Sandvik hydraulic breakers. PT-FI at
impressed with the on this time was also having problems with
and off site support. This blocked drawpoints in the underground block
gave PT-FI the cave. In a daring and innovative move, PT-FI
encouragement it needed purchased and flew in two Sandvik remote-
to purchase 22 new controlled Commando 110E drills. These
Sandvik LH (former EJC) Commandos performed better than expected
The pit consumes 100 t/d of Orica emulsion machines for the Oreflow and Underground and all drawpoints were cleared in less than
explosive. This is delivered by one of four groups. The order for the new equipment was two weeks.
emulsion trucks. placed in mid 1999 and all the new machines These Commando drills led to further orders
PTFI also consumes 26 t/d of ANFO explosive arrived in 2000. for Sandvik drills with PT-FI quick to order
and uses six trucks to deliver the explosive to By early 2000 Sandvik managed to win additional Commandos, a Robolt 7 and an
the field. another labour supply agreement with the U/G SBU. With the Sandvik drills entering the
Currently the pit is moving about 800,000 Construction group. This group consisted of 18 Underground group, the company won
t/d of material, of which some 140,000 t will
be ore. Just before IM visited blasthole drilling The latest of these Getman units, a
had established a new weekly record of rescue/fire truck, was commissioned
at the beginning of March
30,000 m drilled in the Grasberg pit.

Gone underground
Because it formed its own legal entity, Sandvik
has also been able to grow its business in the
underground mining operations as well as the
crushing plant, to become an even more
substantial business partner with the mine.
Prior to 1998, Sandvik only supplied one
product support expatriate to support the range
of underground machines. But that was the year
Sandviks first big break came, when the company
won a labour supply agreement with the PT-FI
Oreflow group. This project resulted in the rapid
sourcing of 40 new hires, tools and vehicles.

16 International Mining AUGUST 2009

 OPERATION FOCUS
another product support labour agreement
from PT-FI for six product support personnel.
By this stage the Sandvik underground group
had grown to 64 personnel (three expatriates
and 61 nationals). PT Sandvik keeps its
expatriate complement as low as possible,
preferring to train and employ local
personnel.
Today there are seven DC121R drills
(formerly the Tamrock Commando 120) and
one DC301R (Commando 300). The DC121R
features radio remote for boom and drilling
control/direct hydraulic drive for tramming. The
5.5 kW HEX 1 drill produces 22-45 mm
diameter holes with a 1.2 m3/min, 4-8 bar
18 International Mining AUGUST 2009
compressor and a 37 kW engine. These 2,800-
kg machines have proved their great benefit in
keeping drawpoints clear. The 120s are used to
drill oversize boulders in the drawpoints for
secondary breaking. The 300 is used to bring
down hang-ups. The use of DC121Rs for the
same drawpoint task has since been taken up
by Northparkes mine in Australia (IM, July
2009).
In 2003 PT-FI placed orders for four Axera 8
(now the Sandvik DD530) development drills
for the planned AB Tunnel project, and by
early 2004 the machines had arrived and
Sandvik won its second drill performance
contract (dollar per metre contract). The
performance contract comprised of 22 new
crew members, four new drills and 35 pieces
of auxiliary equipment.
The new underground drills performed
exceptionally well. PT-FI was impressed and
placed orders for four Axera 7 drills (now the
Sandvik DD420) for the DOZ development
project and by early 2005 the site received its
first of these drills.
Currently the Grasberg pit is
moving about 800,000 t/d of
material, of which some
140,000 t will be ore.
In 2006 Sandviks underground group
built a central office at the Amole shop (by
the adit access of the same name), and PT-
FI ordered more development drills and a
large number of Getman units. Over the
years the drill, hydraulic breaker and
Getman fleets have grown quite
considerably along with the support teams
and projects. Currently the underground
group consists of the following projects and
crew members:
U/G Amole shop product support team
= 75 personnel
AB Tunnel performance contract
= 36 personnel
Oreflow performance contract
= 16 personnel
Pre-split drill product support team
= 34 personnel
Total number of underground personnel
= 161 (six expatriates and 155 nationals).
Since 2000 Sandvik has received orders for
the following pieces of equipment from PT-FI
additional orders for 2009 and 2010 are in
parentheses (*2009 and ** 2010).
Drills = 44 (10**)
Hydraulic breaker pedestal boom assemblies
= 23 (5*) (5**)
Getman units = 59 (7*) (20**)
LHD/truck units = 22
Total units = 148 (Note: total underground
units at present = 205)
The 24 Sandvik jumbos will drill about 38
km of development this year, in cave
infrastructure and development of the AB
tunnels which is part of the CIP (Common
Infrastructure Project). These are twin drifts

extending from Ridge Camp to the Grasberg
block cave and other underground deposits
and will function primarily as man and
materials access using high speed rail
infrastructure. Total planned development is
over 18 km.
Sandvik provides all maintenance, except
daily checks, for the cave infrastructure
jumbos, and has MARC contracts on the AB
tunnel work. The primary jumbo fleet
comprises three Axera 8TCAD (Sandvik DD420)
three-boom units, five Axera 8 (Sandvik
DD530) two-boom machines and 16 Axera 7
(Axera DD410) two-boom machines. In
addition there are bolters a Robolt 7 (Sandvik
DS410) , a Robolt 5 (Sandvik DS310), and a
Cabolt 7 (Sandvik DS420) a Solo 7 (Sandvik
DL410) production rig, and an Axera 5
(Sandvik DD310) single boom jumbo.
Underground drill availability is 85-90% with
the development rigs drilling 45 mm holes and
the Solo drilling 102-mm holes. Daily services
are done underground, for weekly servicing
and anything more serious the rigs come out
to the Amole workshop.
The MARC contract for the AB Tunnel rigs
(Sandvik DD420) involves parts, consumables
and maintenance at a cost/metre price.
Another MARC contract for a fleet of
machines on the Ore Flow group involves
small, old EJC loaders and trucks. These
machines are primarily used to clean-up
around the conveyor belts.
With the Grasberg block cave coming on
line some time after 2015 there have been
A Getman machine and Sandvik jumbo in the Amole
work shop
discussions between PT-FI and Sandvik about
electric LHDs. PT-FI has also shown interest in
Getmans new Terrapro personnel carrier and
the Sandvik drill simulator. Deployment of both
is currently being explored.
Crushing and material
handling
There are Sandvik crushers in the North South
Crushing Plant. The eighth and final 600 kW
Sandvik CH870 EF hydrocone crusher was
commissioned March 2009, joining the rest of
these crushers installed in the tertiary crushing
plant area. The total daily average of product
throughput via the tertiary crushing plant to
the North South concentrator is approximately
51,000 t (wet). The total throughput of the
entire crushing circuit is 78,000 t including
two Metso Minerals Nordberg MP 1000 cone
OPERATION FOCUS
Sandvik Commando drills have proven to be very
effective for secondary blasting underground
crushers. The circuit is re-circulating so the
actual throughput is much higher.
The eight Sandvik hydrocones are averaging
over 95% for mechanical availability
including scheduled and unscheduled lost
maintenance hours. They are also averaging
over 88% mechanical availability including
lost hours for scheduled and unscheduled PT-FI
operational downtime. These crushers run 24
hours, seven-days-a-week.
The ASRi (Automatic Setting Regulation-
Intelligent) setting and regulation system runs
all eight crushers. ASRi 2.0 is used on CR3 and
CR9 while ASRi 1.3 regulates CR4, 5, 7, 8, 10
and 11. Sandvik offers technical support day to
day.
Into the future, Sandvik will take part in a
screening trial and PT-FI is also interested in
considering mobile crushers. Sandvik machines
are also being considered for the underground
expansion crushers, along with other
infrastructure such as conveyors, etc.
Approximately 180 conveyors run down the
mountain from Grasberg through to the
Portsite (this includes quarries for shotcrete
and other infrastructure raw materials, barges
and the power station). The widths of the belts
on these installations range from 762 to 2,438
mm about 120 of the installations are
concentrate conveyors. Of these, 85% have
Sandvik parts fitted and/or under consideration
to the end users for future change outs.
Of all the conveyors, 70% have Sandvik
pulleys (the balance is mostly in quarry and
barge applications). Sandvik belt scrapers are
also widely used at the Portsite. Trials are to be
undertaken with the 1,830-mm system 2BC300
and 2,134-mm 2BC401 conveyor scrapers.
AUGUST 2009 International Mining 19
 OPERATION FOCUS
Sandvik provides a lot of services and
maintenance for the conveyor systems. The
team is undertaking a documented survey of
all the conveyors which is on going and was
25% complete at the end of April this year. On
the KPI Marine barge, the concentrate (Ajkwa)
and coal (Pomoko) conveyors are maintained
under a service agreement. Sandvik undertakes
the rebuilding of conveyor pulleys on site
averaging four each week at its main
workshop in the Lowland Industrial Park (LIP).
LIP facility
There are 62 nationals employed at Sandviks
LIP workshop, 49 of whom are on the floor in
the areas of welding and fabrication,
component and machine rebuilds, materials
handling, light vehicle workshop and washing
and paint bays. The 13 welders in the
fabrication shop handle equipment rebuilds
together with modifications and repairs to
many components sent down from the open
pit and underground mines. In this regard,
there are technicians capable of milling and
lathe work in a small machine shop.
Nine mechanics work in the materials
handling section, overhauling pulleys and
crusher components. They also offer a field
service team to handle breakdowns at the port
and up at the mine/mill areas. Four mechanics
maintain and repair the PT Sandvik SMC fleet
of light vehicles. This fleet covers light four-
wheel-drive and two-wheel-drive vehicles,
One of the key changes to the way the LIP works has
been in the construction of the Sandvik hydraulic
breaker overhaul area. This area was designed to
smooth out the process of disassembly and assembly
of the hydraulic breakers and also to have all tooling,
cleaning, testing and work bench access easily
available. Turn around time of these items has been
improved as a result, Cooper explains
20 International Mining AUGUST 2009
buses, trucks, forklifts and a mobile crane.
The remaining members of the LIP
technician team are in the component rebuild
areas and work on drifters, hydraulic hammers
and booms, axles, transmissions and torque
converters, hydraulic cylinders, the surface
drills and also some teams designated to
rebuilding underground LHDs and Getman
service vehicles.
Cooper explains that also there is a team
of supervisors and administration personnel to
lead from the top and manage the jobs
coming into the workshop. Next year
workshop activity will grow with overhauls of
Axera drills.
The LIP facility is also the main offices and
headquarters of PT Sandvik SMC, and hosts its
main warehouse. To support PT-FI effectively,
the company has its inventory replenished by
17 vessels each year, and limited air freight.
Sandvik's LIP workshop embraces welding and
fabrication, component and machine rebuilds,
materials
The latter is kept to a minimum for obvious
cost reasons. The $11 million inventory on site
is sustaining the repair and maintenance of
close to 230 pieces of equipment parts for
the support of Getman utility vehicles,
hydraulic breakers, surface and underground
drills, older EJC loaders and trucks,
consumables, crushers and operational items.
The PT Sandvik SMC logistics team operates
three warehouses (two up the mountain) on
site with 9,526 lines in stock. Two of the
warehouses operate 24 hours with the main
hub in LIP operating 16 hours replenishing the
satellite warehouses daily. The logistics team
totals 25 people, working in the areas of
supply, transportation, inventory management,
warehousing and customer service.
About 85% of the stock is Sandvik supplied
and ordered from Singapore, other items come
from the US, Australia and Indonesia. The
number of inward bound containers has
increased from six per month in 2006 to
average 20 per month for the LIP warehouse
today. Cooper notes: The house keeping of
the warehouse is an achievement and
indication of our teams strong commitment to
staying compliant OHSAS18001 and the
ISO14001.
The company recently introduced two small
trucks to run parts up to the mine/mill site and
this has been a great success. Previously,
Sandvik depended on the PT-FI supply route up
the mountain, but now it is in control of its
own destiny, as Cooper explains. IM