Inspection Challenges

Wire Rope Degradation in Hoisting and Haulage Systems.

Winder ropes, dragline ropes, shovel hoist ropes, and conveyor tensioning ropes operate under extreme cyclic loading, abrasive dust, and moisture. Internal wire breaks and core corrosion develop well before any external sign appears. Visual inspection of the rope surface cannot find this damage, and in a shaft hoisting system the consequence of a missed defect is measured in lives, not downtime.

Fatigue Cracking in Heavy Equipment and Structures.

Draglines, shovels, haul truck chassis, crusher frames, mill shells, and conveyor structures carry high dynamic loads around the clock. Fatigue cracks start at weld toes, structural transitions, and bolted connections. On equipment that is coated, dirty, and rarely stationary, they must be detected and sized quickly and without extensive surface preparation.

Abrasive Wear and Erosion in Processing Systems.

Slurry pipelines, tailings lines, cyclones, chutes, launders, and leach and thickener tanks are subject to aggressive combined erosion and corrosion. Wall loss can be highly localised and fast-moving. Point-by-point thickness checks on long pipelines and large tanks rarely capture the true worst-case condition.

Production Pressure and Remote, Hostile Site Conditions.

Every hour of unplanned downtime on a mine costs production. Inspection windows are short, sites are remote, and conditions are dusty, hot, elevated, or confined. The inspection programme has to deliver complete, decision-ready data within the shutdown, with personnel and equipment that can mobilise to the site and work safely when they get there.

Our Inspection Solutions

Wire Rope MFL — Hoist and Dragline Rope Assessment.

Magnetic rope testing of winder, hoist, dragline, and haulage ropes using the LRM-NDE system. It measures the loss of metallic cross-sectional area (LMA) and detects local flaws (LF) along the full rope length, including internal broken wires and core corrosion. The data gives a quantitative, trendable basis for rope retirement decisions, without removing the rope.

ACFM and PAUT — Fatigue Crack Detection on Heavy Equipment.

We use ACFM to detect and size surface-breaking fatigue cracks through paint and coating on dragline booms, shovel structures, truck frames, and crusher and mill welds, with no coating removal and no couplant. PAUT provides volumetric weld inspection where cracks need to be characterised through the wall to support a repair or run decision.

Guided Wave and UT Thickness Survey — Slurry and Tailings Pipelines.

Long range UT screens long runs of slurry, tailings, and process water pipelines for wall loss from a single access point. Targeted UT thickness measurement then follows up on flagged zones. Together they quantify erosion and corrosion rates so that pipe rotation and replacement can be planned before failure rather than after it.

Drone and Robotic Inspection — Access Without Exposure.

External drones survey headframes, stackers, reclaimers, conveyor galleries, and stockpile structures. Collision-tolerant internal drones inspect bins, silos, chutes, and tanks without confined space entry. Magnetic robotic crawlers carry UT to vessel and tank shells. All three reduce scaffolding, rope access, and personnel exposure in hazardous areas.

High Temperature UT and 3D Laser Scanning — Processing Plant Integrity.

High temperature UT measures wall thickness on operating kilns, roasters, autoclaves, and smelter equipment without shutdown. 3D laser scanning captures mill shell, kiln shell, and structural deformation, and provides as-built geometry for wear liner assessment and plant modification engineering.

Mining