Cobre Panama is a large open-pit copper development project in Panama. The concession is located 120 kilometres west of Panama City and 20 kilometres from the Caribbean Sea coast, in the district of Donoso, Colon province, in the Republic of Panama. The concession consists of four zones totalling 13,600 hectares.
Following the acquisition of Inmet Mining in April 2013, First Quantum assumed an 80% equity interest in Minera PanamĂĄ, S.A. (âMPSAâ), the Panamanian company that holds the Cobre Panama concession. MPSA was incorporated under the laws of the Republic of Panama in January 1997 and has a mineral concession to explore and exploit the Cobre Panama property.
Access to the project area is via the Pan-American Highway system from Panama City to Penonome, surfaced all-weather roads to Llano Grande, and gravel roads via the town of Coclecito. The topography in the concession area is low elevation (less than 300 metres) but rugged with considerable local relief covered by dense rainforest. Climatic conditions are tropical with high precipitation levels, high humidity and relatively high temperatures of 25ÂșC to 30ÂșC year-round.
The Industrial crane division of Konecranes UK has already supplied similar cranes to First Quantum mining projects in Zambia â Sentinal project, and Ghana. Six cranes are to be supplied to the new Panama project.
Two of the cranes are 135t/70t/15t SMT double girder overhead cranes which will have a span of 43.5m. The next two are 110t/15t SMTD double girder Semi-Goliath cranes which will have a span of 18.7m. The high leg will be 23 metres and the short leg is 6 metres. The next crane is a 63t/5t SMTD full double girder Goliath crane with a span of 63.4m and back reach support cantilever extension taking the girder length to 74mts. The legs will be in the order of 30m high.
The 74m long girders will have 2 girder splices per girder for transport purposes.
The cranes will be fitted with Konecranes developed components and accessories including: platforms on both girders, trolley platforms, anti-sway control, tandem lift function on the twin trolley crane, Remox radio control, Konecranes DynAHoist inverter stepless speed control on every SMARTON hoist and Konecranes DynAC inverter variable speed control on the cross and long travel motions, true vertical lift, load summation between hoists and Konecranes ControlPro codition monitoring system on each hoist to allow programmed maintenance to be properly scheduled to suit usage and to provide overload protection, increase safety, monitor combine load combinations and minimise unscheduled stoppages. The cross crane power and control wiring is delivered to the hoists with a cable chain system (rather than conventional festoon cables), and there is a Motorised cable drum for long travel power.
The cranes will each be painted to a C5 paint specification, suitable for an outdoor environment and the climatic conditions to be found in Panama, giving many years of protection before 1st maintenance is due. They will also have storm locks, IP66 motors, rain covers on motors and panels, ramshorn hooks, floodlights, access lights and Konecranes ESR (Extended speed range) on the auxiliary hoists. Due to the possibility of seismic activity in the region the cranes are designed to suit seismic loadings to USA norms and include derailment brackets on the bridge and trolleys.
The 6th crane which will operate indoors is a 15t CXTD double girder crane with a span of 20.45m, 2 speed hoist, invertor control on cross and long travel and long travel power via festoon cable system.
All cranes will incorporate 2 step long and cross travel limit switches (slow/stop), anti-collision between cranes on the same track, set to give a fail-safe fixed minimum distance to aid the gantry loadings, upper and lower limit switches, ultimate limit switches, load displays, mains off crane isolators, stainless steel cubicles and radio control with back-up pendants.
The first two the cranes are scheduled for completion in the factory by the end of 2014, and will be on site in Feb 2015, then the remainder will be readied to suit a site arrival of May 15.