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The deep hard rock mines lining Ontario's Sudbury Basin feature some of the toughest working conditions in North America. There are more than 3,000 miles of mine tunnels under the region's lakes and trees — some of those miles start at the bottom of a shaft more than 8,000 ft. below sea level. Down there, moisture-laden air mixes with ambient rock temperatures hovering around 100 F. Factor in long ramps with grades of more than 20%, narrow tunnels walled with unforgiving igneous rock and the occasional puddle holding enough sulfuric acid to consume a screw — Pebble Beach, this is not.
Equipment builders get no breaks, even in that environment. Whether using a production or support vehicle, mine operators expect maximum availability from their equipment. An equipment failure in a narrow tunnel 5,500 ft. down and two miles from the elevator, or cage, to the surface can be very expensive and downright inconvenient. Mines also want the machines to be safe and easy to maintain.
Utility vehicles, as ubiquitous in mines as telehandlers at a Las Vegas casino construction project, must be able to move quickly so as to not impede a truck loaded with nickel-bearing ore worth thousands of dollars. Utility vehicles must be extremely reliable and easily serviced. If a production machine is down, the supervisor's 4x4 will have to wait and likely keep working until its turn comes up.
Once workers leave the cage, it can be a long drive through the tunnels, or drifts, to the development work (such as extending a drift en route to the ore body), or the stope (where ore is being removed). Work areas are spread out, and supervisors must keep an eye on each location. A utility vehicle can easily add up more than 100 miles a day.
Covering 1,400 sq. miles five hours north of Toronto, the amalgamated City of Greater Sudbury is the hometown market for Industrial Fabrication Inc.'s utility vehicles. The Minecat 6000 Series is the company's flagship model. It's a heavy-duty multi-use vehicle that can be ordered in many different variations, such as a two-passenger lube truck and a seven-passenger personnel hauler with ROPS/FOPS protection, each on the same common platform.
The 6000 Series grew out of a line of modified farm tractors Industrial Fab acquired in 2002. For several decades, tractors were mining's preferred foundation for underground utility vehicles. A new tractor was purchased and stripped, its agriculture-specific bits replaced with components designed for mine work.
"They were relatively low-capital cost in the early days," says Daryl Rautiainen, vice president, Industrial Fabrication, "but they were plagued with reliability and durability issues which drove up operating costs. Many of these utility tractors were costing as much in maintenance as large production equipment."
Over the years, as more equipment suppliers built their utility equipment on farm machinery the tractor-based Minecat became a "me too" product. Nothing put the utility vehicle apart from its competition. Pat Berube was hired as engineering manager to help raise the bar on Industrial Fab's vehicle line.
"We realized that the most successful machines in the mining industry are the ones that are purpose-built for their application." says Berube. The decision was made to explore the opportunity of building our own purpose-built machine."
Berube's team talked extensively with end-users during the design stage. He did not have to leave the city to meet with potential customers. There are 15 mines and more than 100 years of continuous mining experience within the city limits. Supporting that work are nearly 300 firms focused on mining supply and service (MS&S) ranging from specialized fasteners to equipment design and world-class system developers. It's a virtually unparalleled concentration of hard rock mining experience.
