Taseko Mines Ltd.’s Gibraltar copper-molybdenum mine is located in south-central British Columbia, approximately 60 km north of the City of Williams Lake. Built in 1972, the Gibraltar Mine is the second largest open-pit copper-molybdenum mine in Canada.
As part of the multi-phase expansion and modernization program for the mine, Allnorth Consultants Ltd. provided engineering for the construction of a new four-bay truck shop and maintenance facility. This new area would house Komatsu 930E haul trucks, which weigh 207 tons empty and approximately 495 tons loaded and have a body capacity of 276 y3.
Without proper wear resistance, the new shop and facility’s concrete could easily have suffered from abrasion by such vehicles.
To prevent this abrasion, the owner chose to add Kryton’s Hard-Cem to the concrete, which is a proven technology that increases concrete wear resistance. It is fully compatible with conventional admixtures and is the only hardener on the market.
Hard-Cem’s full-depth concrete hardening will extend the service life of the concrete in the shop and facility, particularly in high-traffic areas that are subjected to long-term abrasion from equipment service and long-term erosion from wash areas. In turn, this will prevent costly repairs and replacement and corresponding facility downtime. In short, Hard-Cem will prove to be a cost-effective solution for the owner, offering long-term savings with lower maintenance costs and improving the wear resistance of the shop and facility’s floor for employee safety.
Hard-Cem is an Integral Hardening Admixture used to increase Abrasion and Erosion resistance of concrete. Hard-Cem is added to the concrete at the time of batching to increase the hardness of the concrete and extend concrete wear life. It outperforms and overcomes deficiencies of labor intensive surface applied hardeners, and is used to enhance durability...