1,000 Meters Underground

At In-Situ machining, we are always looking for an opportunity to challenge ourselves, and this fall we had the chance to work 1,000 meters underground for 4 weeks repairing a miner at Agrium Vanscoy Potash Operations. The miner is responsible for tunneling and excavating potash which is then processed above ground to be used in fertilizer. The miner was damaged when the tunnels roof fell in slightly, crushing the miner with tens of tons of pressure.

To help repair the miner, we had two crews working around the clock providing a number of onsite machining services. These included: Line boring to straighten misaligned bores, flange facing the bore face square, re-cutting damaged key ways, drilling and tapping holes for a threaded sleeve repair and milling the distorted mating surface.

The unique location of this work made it an exciting project to be a part of. Today the miner is back in operation and running smoothly.