Energies, Vol. 18, Pages 4872: Study of Long-Distance Belt Conveying for Underground Copper Mines
Energies doi: 10.3390/en18184872
Authors:
Natalia Suchorab-Matuszewska
Witold Kawalec
Robert Król
Efficient material handling is critical for mining productivity, safety energy and cost control. This paper analyzes the energy efficiency of five alternative designs for a 3 km inclined underground conveyor system for copper ore transport, considering route geometry, belt specifications, drive configurations, and operational parameters. Two main design approaches were examined: a single long conveyor and two shorter conveyors. Variants differed in belt tensile strength, the use of intermediate drives, and system layout. Calculations results achieved by using dedicated QNK-TT software (version 4.45.21.08.10.18.11) show differences in the specific energy consumption index between variants for both average and peak capacities and highlight that high-capacity performance requires non-standard solutions: either higher belt strength or an intermediate drive system. The study shows that conveyor energy efficiency depends strongly on load level, with near-maximum throughput yielding the best performance. The authors conclude that conveyor system component selection should be based on a multi-criteria evaluation—including the capacity margin, operational safety and maintenance complexity—rather than energy efficiency alone.