Challenges
At 9,000 feet, this Canadian mine is one of the deepest in the world. When two main power feeders were damaged during the installation of cable for an upgrade to the mine’s power system, the customer reached out to Wesco to inspect the cable and review the damage. The mine hoists about $1 million of ore per day and without the proper cabling to bring power deeper into the mine, there was a risk of operations being halted, costing millions in profits. We needed to quickly determine how to repair the cable to keep the project up and running.
Solutions
Wesco completed an onsite inspection of the two installed cables to diagnose the issue and created a plan to repair them. We provided the mine with Prysmian’s Airguard™ cable for the remaining four cables. This cable, built for aggressive environments, could be installed from the surface and lowered into place. It enabled much longer runs, less junction boxes, and therefore was less expensive to install.
Results
While the customer had presumed the problem to be the cable, Wesco isolated the root cause of the issue—an incorrect cable installation. Our specialized engineering teams made the repairs to the installed cables, and recommended and installed an ideal solution for the remaining cable. The customer saved millions of dollars in time and material costs, while also avoiding downtime.
Summary
Customer
A Canadian mine located in Sudbury, Ontario.
Challenges
- Repair two long runs of incorrectly installed cable in one of the world’s deepest mines.
- Provide cable for the remaining four lengths and install it without any project downtime.
Solution
- Onsite inspection to diagnose incorrect cable installation.
- Recommended a long run cable that could be more easily installed at a lower cost.
Results
- Saved millions of dollars by
- Repairing previously installed cables
- Avoiding downtime
- Installing a less expensive cable solution to complete the project.
- Paved the way for $2M+ of additional cable installations at the customer’s other mines.