Canadian industrial material and haulage solutions manufacturer Rail-Veyor Technologies’ bulk materials handling solution for surface and underground applications has earned the company this year’s Bell Canada Innovation Award.

In July, Rail-Veyor was acknowledged as having successfully developed, commer-cialised and installed its materials handling technology designed for the mining, aggregate and other bulk material handling industries.

“It is an honour to be recognised by our peers in the community,” said Rail-Veyor’s president and CEO Ron Russ at the Bell Canada Excellence Awards.

“It is rewarding to see the technology devel-oped by the Rail-Veyor team attract so much interest from so many industries worldwide,” he added.

Rail-Veyor provides a simple solution to handle complex industrial material haulage problems by offering the best of conveyors, truck haulage and heavy rail haulage in one complete package.

The system is an electrically powered series of two-wheeled interconnected mini rail cars that can operate 24/7 and travel along a light rail track at speeds up to 8 m/s or 29 km/h.

The remote controlled Rail-Veyor tech-nology comprises simple components that allow continuous material haulage with-out diesel emissions and with significantly less capital and maintenance costs than other options.

The simplicity, adaptability and its impres-sive financial returns make the Rail-Veyor technology appealing to many industries.
“Rail-Veyor’s ability to manoeuvre through complex track geometries, transport across difficult topography and easily stop and start on gradients up to 20% caught my attention,” says Russ.

“Besides the safety aspects of an unmanned system, its efficiency as an automated system with a small environmental footprint is something most bulk materials handling systems cannot match.”

Brazilian miner Vale installed the Rail-Veyor system at its Copper Cliff mine 114 ore- body demonstration plant in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, in December 2011 and the system was operational by June 2012.

According to former Vale engineer Kate McLaughlin, the Rail-Veyor technology doubled the mine’s advance rates and produc-tion rates.

“Lead time to production for any project is extremely critical for the return on investment (ROI) of the project. If we can double what we currently do to bring an orezone into pro- duction and reduce it from four years of pre-capital expenditures to two, this will positively improve our ROI,” says Vale underground mine technology GM Alex Henderson.

The Rail-Veyor system, in an underground mining application, eliminates the need for underground infrastructure such as ore passes, crusher stations and large bins where accid-ents are most likely to occur. It enables mines to go deeper and easily transport far below the shaft within a small 2.4 m × 2.4 m opening and integrate with the mine’s existing mobile equipment if necessary.

“There are many aggregate companies that see the value our system brings to the table,” says Rail-Veyor technical services VP Pat Fantin.

“The multiple dump loop configurations offer many site-specific ways to apply the Rail-Veyor technology and its ability to adapt to any application is self-evident,” concludes Vale mine development superintendant Mike Vanderhoof.