The need for highly reliable equipment that manages increasing mine capacity requirements, reduces maintenance costs and can perform in remote mining regions is continously increasing. Such as in Xstrata Copper´s new Antapaccay mine at an elevation of more than 4,200 meters in the Peruvian Andes:The Antapaccay copper mine in Peru was in need of a complete conveyor system for its conveyor belt.

The complete engineering, manufacture, delivery, supervision, and commissioning of the drive stations for the conveying system were needed. The equipment was required to be innovative yet extremely rugged in order to withstand Peru's wind and weather conditions for many years. This system was required to run with a low number of drives to save space, reduce energy consumption and provide a high reliability with minimized maintenance costs.

The Antapaccay copper mine in Peru was in need of a complete conveyor system for its conveyor belt. The complete engineering, manufacture, delivery, supervision, and commissioning of the drive stations for the conveying system were needed.

In collaboration with ThyssenKrupp, Siemens has introduced a new high-performance generation of gearless conveyor drive systems without motor bearings. The system runs at 22 km/h and it is driven by two Siemens motors. Our solution is the SIMINE CON GD, the principle has been proven for more than 25 years with ongoing research and development. When using gearless drives, the size of the motor is not limited by the size of gearbox available, thus eliminating the necessity to install multi-motor drives. The power required can be provided by just one drive motor per drive pulley.The implementation of an Integrated Drive System with air-cooled SINAMICS SL150 cycloconverter including drive control and two  synchronous SIMOTICS HV belt conveyor motors (3.8 MW, 63 rpm) was optimally suited for Xstrata Copper's requirements.

It is significantly more economical in terms of energy consumption, and it also increases the efficiency of the conveyor system. That is only possible because all components of the Integrated Drive System are optimally matched to one another, which also drastically cuts maintenance costs in operation.Together the two companies delivered an innovative yet extremely rugged 6.5-kilometer overland conveyor belt system for Xstrata Copper's new Antapaccay copper mine which is an exceptionally effective and reliable solution.

The Antapaccay copper mine located in Peru has a 6.5-kilometer overland conveyor belt.