Peak Gold Mine, NSW

A mine might be a challenging and sometime hard environment to cope with. Everything must work smoothly 24/7 and keep the workplace safe is the top priority.

Shotcreting is one of the everyday activities that keeps the mining site safe, productive and profitable.

Sprayed concrete is commonly used to stabilize the excavated sections of the mine. The higher the shotcrete performance the quicker and safer will be the production.

Peak Gold Mines is a medium size gold and copper underground mining operation located in the Cobar Gold Field of Central West New South Wales, Australia which commenced production in 1992. Peak Gold Mines produces gold ore for sale at the Perth mint and copper concentrate which is sold to markets in Asia (amma.org.au).

A typical shotcrete base mixture shall be soft and workable for long in order to reduce rebound and waste. The required slump at Peak Gold Cobar was 220 mm and the slump life at least 3 hours. Strength class 40 MPa.  

Sika proposed ViscoCrete-190 SC in conjunction with Sikatard-990 IP to produce a super-workable shotcrete that can be used on site for more than three hours.  ViscoCrete-190 SC is an advanced, fast wetting-out, HWR which does not contain retarding agents; as a result, the efficiency of the spraying accelerator is improved and the early strength enhanced. Concrete containing ViscoCrete-190 SC shows an outstanding stability and it is very easy to produce at the batching plant.  

Sika Products used:

• Sika® ViscoCrete®-190 SC
• SikaTard®-990 IP