Issue link: http://resourceworld.uberflip.com/i/1012424
62 www.resourceworld.com A U G U S T / S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 8 MININGWORLD LEFT: The Minidozer M-27 in operation at Project Minera Escondida Antofagasta in Chile. RIGHT: Minidozer working in confined area. Photos courtesy of Movex Innovation. F ounded in 2001, Movex Innovation Inc., based in Shawinigan, Québec, develops electric powered, remote controlled, track vehicles to safely and eas- ily move material and equipment up and down stairs and in and out of confined areas. Jean Yves Bacle P.Eng., M.B.A., Sales & Marketing Director for Movex Innovation, spoke to Resource World about their track equipment and how they developed the Minidozer to address some very specific challenges in the resource sector. The company first developed track vehicles for transporting material and equipment up and down staircases at construction and demolition proj- ects. Today, mass transit and subways in Montreal, Toronto, New York, Paris, London, Moscow and Tokyo use Movex Innovation's Track-O. According to Bacle, "In 2008, the aluminum sector was looking for a way to improve existing technologies for operations in aluminum smelter, pot- line basements." On the main floor of the smelter, molten aluminum is poured from large vats, known as pots, into molds. As many as 300 pots can be connected together into potlines. In the potline basements, underneath the smelter's main floor, there are columns for each pot- line where alumina and baths (solids and powders) accumulate. Cleaning under the vats is a challenge as disturbed alumina dust can cause serious respiratory problems. Bacle said, "That is a very difficult envi- ronment in which to work because you are working between columns under a low ceiling. The traditional method was to use diesel engines with some kind of remote control. The diesel engines had issues such as generating toxic emissions and creating alumina dust clouds. They were operating in very hot temperatures and they tended to overheat and shut down frequently." A major Canadian aluminum company approached Movex Innovation to develop a better solution. "This is how we made our first remote controlled Minidozer which was specifically designed for the very stringent environment inside alumi- num smelters in the potline basements," said Bacle. "All the dozer's electronics and remote radio receiver had to be shielded against high electromagnetic fields created by the 300 to 600 thousand amp "buzz bar" that powers the electrolysis process. "As a matter of fact, the customer that bought the first machine brought it in last week for a major overhaul. It has been in operation for over 10 years," Bacle added. The average cost of operating diesel vehicles ranges between $20 and $25 per hour. After 10 years of operations in an aluminum smelter, the Minidozer has an established operating cost of $5 per hour. Movex began to export the Minidozer to aluminum smelters around the world and expanded into Europe, South Africa, the Middle East and South America. Today they are a leader in that sector. Movex Innovation's remote Minidozer also provided a solution for copper min- ers. Bacle explained, "Chile is one of the biggest copper producers in the world. Many multi-national companies are located there." The challenge there was to find a way to clean underneath conveyor belts that carry the ore to different stages of processing." A second more rugged industrial version of Minidozer, without the shielded electri- cal system, was developed and launched to the mining sector in 2011 with significant Movex Innovation's Minidozer – the little dozer that could by Kathrine Moore