Cubex Quarterly Report – Q1, 2010
CUBEX PIPE HANDLING SUCCESS
Innovation and industry firsts are the hallmark of Cubex ITH products. Cubex has recently launched an innovative pipe handler, contributing to overall mine safety and productivity at the Agnico‐Eagle Goldex Mine.
The Issue
- Inherent danger associated with manually lifting heavy drill pipe, in muddy conditions. (Manual lifting requires awkward twisting and lifting postures)
- Manual insertion – requires drillers to be in close proximity to rotating top drives and falling debris
- No carousel available to hold over 125 ft of 5” diameter drill pipe
The Solution
- Cubex began working with the Agnico‐Eagle Goldex mine to develop a system to transfer rods to ITH drills without any human handling.
- Subsequent design and implementation of the PT‐50
The Results
- Four PT‐50s, drills, and boosters have been delivered to the Goldex mine in 2007
- Up to 200,000 m annually of 6 ½ inch holes at lengths up to 130 m have been drilled, with no at work injury as a direct result.
- 100% of all drill rods handled at the mine are done with the PT‐50
- Only one operator is required to operate the drill and the PT‐50
- Men go into the mine with clean overalls, and come out of the mine with clean overalls since there is no manual handling of drill rods.