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Turnaround in the andes – significant increase in equipment availability

June 28, 2016

When Chile’s El Sauce copper mine launched an investigation into the reasons for its declining productivity, the low availability of its drilling equipment was identified as key factor. What came next became as industry “first”.
The El Sauce mine in Chile, owned by the Las Cenizas Mining Group, is believed to be the first company in the mining industry to renew its entire fleet of rock drills as the pathway to a more profitable future. Located about 170 km north of Santiago, the capital, El Sauce had been suffering for some time from declining productivity, and in mid-2014 an investigation was launched to indentify the cause.

After several months, investigators announced they had found the source of the problem; excessive downtime of production drilling equipment due to insufficient service and maintenance of rock drills. As a result, a plan was launched to optimize rock drill availability with the support of experts from Atlas Copco – a cooperation that subsequently led to the renewal of all rock drills and hoses.

"Previously, it took a crew of skilled drillers four minutes to drill 48 holes. Today, with the new rock drills, the same crew does the same number of holes in two and a half minutes. This means we are now drilling a face in about two and half hours, which is fantastic."

Raul Fara Engber ,head of Maintenance at El Sauce

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