At the Waikato North Head Ironsand operation, NZ Steel Mining Ltd is using a Bucket Wheel Excavator- shiftable conveyor mining system to excavate Titanomagnetite bearing sand and clay._x000D_
The system utilises two Bucket Wheel Excavators with a two level shiftable bench conveyor and common trunk conveyor to deliver the material to a processing plant._x000D_
The system was commissioned in November 1984 and has proved itself to be a high capacity, low cost method of excavating. Techniques of handling high sand faces have been developed and the conveyor layouts are going through a process of change to cope with the variable geo technical conditions and remain within: the characteristics of the excavators._x000D_
The safety requirements for operating the system have been of a high standard and the experience has increased the confidence of the Company and the Mines Department Inspector's, for the first Bucket Wheel Excavator Mining system in New Zealand.