We replaced part of the steel frame for the underground belt conveyor at Yara’s mine.

Just over a year ago, we replaced the pulley drive equipment for the KA1160 conveyor taken into use in the 1970s at Yara’s Siilinjärvi mine. Now it was time to replace the conveyor frame of the underground section of conveyor.

The KA1160 transports crushed stone from the gyratory crusher to a day silo, from where it is transported using a conveyor to a fine crusher. The underground section is around 250 metres long, and we replaced 117 metres of it. The conveyor has a capacity of 2000 tonnes per hour.

At Yara, safety is of the utmost importance, and so safety requirements were very stringent. A safety plan and risk assessment for the installation work were completed in collaboration before installation, and identified risks were accounted for in installation plans and working methods.

Yara believed in the structure offered by Simetek

The conveyor’s previous cable-structured frame had its own challenges, and had reached the end of its service life, so Yara decided to replace it with a solid, rigid frame.

“We compared different methods of implementation, and the implementation solution offered by Simetek seemed reliable. We wanted the frame to be strong and sturdy. Simetek’s solution seemed sturdy, and it wasn’t overly optimised in the frame structures. We believe that the conveyor frame structure is a long-term solution,” says Yara’s project manager, Mikko Lappalainen.

Simetek laser scanned the site before design

There was limited documentation available for the conveyor’s old structure, so Simetek laser scanned the tunnel section and drew up plans for the device using scanning data. The site was so challenging that in places, we had to rethink installation. According to Lappalainen, Simetek responded smoothly to the need for alterations, and installation went well and on schedule.

“The chosen solution seems good, and the project went well. We intend to replace the rest of the conveyor later on. We believe that the conveyor will serve us for a long time,” says Lappalainen.