ABSTRACT
Around the world, several mines have trialled hydro-scaling as an alternative to conventional scaling in headings to be shotcreted. In Australia, Gold Fields Ltd recently conducted a trial using a shotcrete machine to carry out hydro-scaling in their Waroonga gold mine at Agnew Gold Mining Company. This paper summarizes an investigation into the effectiveness of hydro-scaling conducted at LKAB’s Kiirunavaara iron ore mine in Sweden as well as the Waroonga trial. The results show that hydro-scaling can achieve positive out-comes for safety and shotcrete adhesion as well as reduce scaling costs and increase mine productivity by freeing up traditional scaling equipment such as drilling jumbos. The paper concludes that hydro-scaling is likely to become the first choice in scaling options for mines using shotcrete, and will significantly enhance the value of shotcreting equipment in a mine’s equipment fleet.
