Western Region

Of

Underground Master Mechanics

May 18, 2001 Meeting Minutes

WRUMM Staff Place: Convention Center John Cashell – Chairman City: Winnemucca, Nevada

Dave Starbuck – Vice Chairman

Gary Brouse - Secretary

Ben Casey - Treasurer

Dave Starbuck opened the meeting due to the absence of John Cashell. The Treasurer, Ben Casey was also absent. Dave reviewed the agenda for the day including the meeting with the Surface Master Mechanics group on future strategies for the members. The minutes from the last meeting were reviewed.

The group discussed the old business issues and decided that our focus should be on current problems. Not that old issues shouldn’t be discussed but only review them if new information is available or there has been some closure to them. This will minimize wasted time and allow more time for current problems

Web Site:

There have been some concerns by the members that when as issue is brought up and the solution to the problem is not available during the meeting that by the time we meet again four months later a lot of time and money has been spent. With the current financial nature of our business, we wanted an alternate solution to quicker response times besides meeting more frequently. The telephone and e-mail are good alternatives to this problem but it was decided by the group to get more involved with the Web Site that the vendors were pursuing. After the meeting in Winnemucca, Dave Starbuck and Gary Brouse met with the Suppliers Association and the Surface Master Mechanics Association to review the web page and what our involvement would be to get this up and running. Dave and Gary committed our group based on the following costs and responsibilities: The Suppliers Association will fund the startup at approximately $1,000.00 to $1,300.00 to get the page up and running. Our responsibility after the startup will be an annual cost of $300.00, which will be split by the Surface and Underground groups to maintain the site.

Here are some of the possibilities the site will or could provide:

1. If you have a problem or concern for the group you could post it on the site for all the members to view to get a quick answer rather than waiting up to four months for the next WRUMM meeting.
2. Contact lists could be posted to allow you to contact a specific individual or mine.
3. Equipment lists could be posted to let your company contact other companies that have the same type of equipment as you do or that you’re interested in. I have included three basic excel forms that the web builder wants us to use to put our information on the site. Please send this information to Gary Brouse at gbrouse@anglogoldna.com or Box 31, Mountain City Star RT., Elko, NV 89801. For those of you without e-mail, you can fax them to me at 775 758-6418.
4. We could post our meeting minutes and agenda for future meeting.
5. If a vendor is out of stock on a particular part, this could be an avenue of obtaining the part from one of our mines without calling each mine or utilizing the contact list for like equipment.

The possibilities are endless on how the site could help us all. There is also a web site on the attachments that will give a basic overview of what the site would look like. The final site will be impressive compared to the concept site you can view now. Please get your information back to me as soon as possible as our goal is to have the site up and running by the July 1, 2001.

Meeting Locations:

The question was asked as to why we have a meeting in Reno, since there are not any mines in the area and the cost involved in going to Reno. Our group met with the Suppliers and the Surface group and decided to move the Reno meeting to Elko this year. We also talked about the possibility of a Salt Lake City meeting if we could get support from the Utah and Wyoming mines.

Maintenance Issues:

Because of the time spent on the above issues, maintenance topics were limited. It was agreed that we needed to address the above topics.

Anglogold talked about compressor costs due to leaks within the mine. An air loss cost estimate chart was presented to members. This was put out by CAS Tech Info found on the web under www.airheads.net/tech/techinfo/airloss.html. As an example, a combination of air leaks totaling 5/8" in diameter would lose 649 CFM and a daily cost of $233.00 based on a conservative cost of $0.25/1000 cu. ft. of compressed air, 100% coefficient of flow, and working 8,760 hours/year, at 100 psig.

Possible electrical savings by updating your out dated fixtures was discussed. Anglogold sent out a memo to the members on savings done at their Murray Mine utilizing what was covered at an electrical cost saving seminar in California. If you did not receive a copy of this and would like one, contact Gary Brouse at 775 738-5006 ext 312 or if you have question on electrical benefits contact Mike Morgan at 775 738-5006 ext. 313.

Alternators were discussed to include rebuilt verses new and costs associated with the different makes. One comment made was Delco alternators cost less to purchase but more expensive to rebuild than other brands. It’s an area worth looking into. Even with tough times in the industry, it’s important to work with the purchasing departments as they can’t be strictly price driven and it’s our jobs to get them informed.

Some mines are experiencing bolt drivers breaking off at the tips. There are some vendors building different types of drivers for testing. If you have tested any of these please bring the information to the next meeting to share with the group.

Newmont is utilizing a computerized tire maintenance program to reduce tire costs. This program paid the wages for their tire man and the program itself at Carlin East Mine. There are a lot of programs out on the market to reduce tire cost. This has been an interest to the group so we will try to schedule one in for a demonstration.

1. Cat Engines 4. Normet 7. Secoroc
2. Ed Tomany State Mine 5. Ford Tractors 8. John Deer
3. D&D Tire 6. Young’s Machine 9. Cummins Engines

Let me know as soon as possible if there is someone you would like to hear from.

Tamrock----Ed Picard and Steve Ober

They gave an overview on the new management changes within the organization. Steve Ober has transferred from Australia, bringing with him twenty years of experience, to assume the Elko store manager position. The former manager, Bob Metz transferred with Tamrock to Australia.

Tamrock came to the Elko area in 1994 and opened a 2,880 sq. ft. building and since then has expanded to a 10,000 sq. ft. building. They have approximately three million in parts and seven service mechanics. They are putting a customized exchange program in place by Troy Fausett with a slogan of " Rebuild Not Re-bill". Tamrock will come to your mine site and perform equipment audits, which will reduce catastrophic failures and insure your machine receives all the latest updates. Another benefit of the audit is all the parts will be staged for the specific project and brought out for the repair. A step beyond this type of repair is a complete rebuild of your units, regardless of make, at their rebuild center in Mexico. They will assist in arranging a tour of that facility for those that are interested. Maybe a group trip could be planned.

Tamrock was asked to look into the following problems by our members.

1. The pilot circuit at the slip ring area on Jumbo’s and bolters is loosing contact. They will research that problem and see if there are currently any updates and possible solutions to the problem.
2. Problems with the fingers on the wire handlers on bolters. This problem has already been researched and redesigned fingers are in process.
3. Hydraulic temperatures on the EJC 430’s run between 180 and 194 degrees. Operators are complaining that hoses in the cab area are extremely hot. Our question is could Tamrock design a hydraulic oil cooler for this unit. Tamrock will consult the factory representatives on this issue.
4. There have been some problems with the seat suspensions on the Getman’s not holding up. Newmont felt a pedestal seat would be a better option.

Nova Log----Roch Burton

Nova Log is a company that has developed a Cat Based parts system for the underground. They are a company of six employees and the first USA customer was in 1983. This computer program allows the customer to search parts and schematics faster and more efficiently than with parts books thus reducing labor costs. You can search by part number, your number, and manufacturer’s number or by name. There is a good correlation between the service manuals to parts books. An example of this is when you are looking at a certain page in the service manual; the corresponding parts page appears with it, which allows a better look at the breakdown of the part. This program interfaces with many maintenance software programs.

There is a demo available over the Internet for those members who could not make the Winnemucca meeting. Contact Roch at (514) 486-0565 if you would like to view this demo. Cost of the system with your maintenance program is about $1,500 per user, which is relatively inexpensive when compared to the cost of service, parts manuals and the many other options it offers.

Berry-Hinckley----Dean Stone

Dean gave an overview of diesel fuel and some of its properties. The four basic areas of fuel are:

1. Lubricity--- Minimizes wear in pumps and injectors. Higher viscosity brings with it better lubricity.
2. Power---Power of fuel or heat value or BTU’s per gallon. The density of fuel directly affects heat value.
3. Emissions---Hydro Carbons, Carbon Monoxide, Particulate Matter and Nitrogen Oxide.
4. Low temperature operability---Cloud Point, point at which waxes fall out of solution and cold filter plug point.

Most engine manufacturing companies require a cetane rating of forty. Cetane is the tendency for fuel to ignite spontaneously under compression. Most underground mines all use low sulfur fuel. In 1992, the change in sulfur content was instituted. Low sulfur fuel has to have sulfur content less than .5 %.

The two most commonly used fuel types are number 1 and 2. Number 1 fuel has a lower viscosity and is less dense but it burns cleaner and has a lower cloud point. Number 2 fuel is higher in density and viscosity and burns hotter but higher emissions come with this fuel. With the cost difference in the fuels each mine should select a fuel or a blend of fuel that best suits their needs for power, emissions and temperature.

Our Underground officers met with the Surface group and the Suppliers Association to see their changes for future meetings. I feel we should utilize some of their suggestions to enhance our group. Besides the web page, which was mentioned earlier, one good idea was each member, should try and get someone from another mine to attend our next meeting. We have a contact list of current members but to improve our organization we need to bring more members to the meeting, which brings more ideas, and better practices, which we will all benefit from. As ideas present themselves, please keep us informed, as we need to continue to grow and enhance the WRUMM. Thanks for your participation and I look forward to seeing you in Elko in October.

Dave Starbuck

Vice Chairman WRUMM