Operating off an LHD or wheel loader’s hydraulic system, the HydraCrusher converts either machine into a useful mobile crushing unit. In underground mines, the mobile crusher can be used to crush waste rock for haul roads, obviating the usual long and costly round trip via a decline or shaft, and surface crushing facility.

A Canadian mine using the first production HydraCrusher unit believes it can achieve a hefty 90-95% reduction in its underground road building costs. The mine operator has also been sufficiently encouraged by the performance of the HydraCrusher to buy a grader and compactor and commence a full-scale road building and maintenance program. Studies on the durability of the roads, and improvements in rubber-tyred equipment wear rates, are understood to have indicated the potential for significant cost savings.

The HydraCrusher also has a number of surface construction project uses, including in road building and demolition work.

Pin or quick-attach mountings on loaders and excavators make the transition from bucket to HydraCrusher, and back again, relatively quick and simple, boosting the versatility of the loading machine. The mobile crushing unit features a “revolutionary jaw crusher”, and is said to operate at a lower decibel level than a LHD engine.

While it can crush rock at a working face underground, MTI says productivity is enhanced and there is less intrusion on normal mining operations if the HydraCrusher retrieves blasted rock from a storage area. It can load, crush and spread the material. Multiple headings can then be serviced with roadbed material.

Silverise principal Rolf Bybyk said the design concept behind the HydraCrusher had been the focus of more than 18 months of research and development by MTI. A prototype unit had been built for the Canadian mine operator, and had operated for eight months prior to an order being received from the mine for a bigger production model.

Bybyk said as well as reducing tyre and vehicle wear and general maintenance, good mine roadbeads allowed for higher equipment tramming speeds and reduced operator fatigue. Cheaper creation of better quality roads made the advantages of a “best practice” roadbed program more appealing.

Silverise’s standard MTI HydraCrusher is a unit 2667mm long and 2108mm wide. Weight including the hopper is about 5.4 tonnes. A mounting adaptor is an additional 907kg.

The hopper capacity is 1.8 cubic metres and the jaw opening is 457mm by 610mm. Product size can be 38-203mm. Production rates — subject to material hardness and the crush-size setting — are 30-55 tonnes an hour and hydraulic oil flow requirements call for 250-380 litres per minute.