Corroded Mining Elements replaced with Double Corrosion Protected DSI Rock Bolts
The Cannington Mine, which is 100% owned by BHP Billiton, is located in northwest Queensland, about 250 km southeast of Mount Isa, Australia, and is the largest and lowest cost producer of silver and lead in the world. For the 2005 financial year, the Cannington mine achieved a production record with 3.4 million tons of ore mined and 3.1 million tons of ore processed.
The Cannington mine site operations consists of an underground mine accompanied by a metallurgical processing facility. Both open stope and bench mining methods are used at Cannington. While grinding, sequential flotation and leaching techniques are used to produce high grade marketable lead and zinc concentrates that contain high silver content. In addition, the operation includes a rail loading facility at Yurbi and a modern minerals concentrate handling facility at the Port of Townsville.
In 2006, Cannington mine operators began two simultaneous rehabilitation projects, the decline rehabilitation project and the southern zone rehabilitation project. Both rehabilitation projects were required due to the corrosion of the installed support elements, which was resulting in an increasing frequency of rock falls that posed a major hazard inside the mine.
The rehabilitation project involved installing new ground support elements in approximately 20 kilometers of underground roadways with a target timeframe for completion of 6 months. The operators of the Cannington mine elected to utilize high-quality DSI Mining Products that can be installed easily and quickly. DSI Australia supplied a large number of double corrosion protected (DCP) rock bolts as well as other highgrade mining products to stabilize the Cannington mine. The DCP bolt developed and supplied by DSI Australia is essentially a post-grouted expansion shell bolt with a polyethylene sleeve providing corrosion protection. Another significant feature of the DCP bolt is an injection adapter specifically developed by DSI Australia which renders post-grouting significantly faster and therefore more cost-efficient.