In 2023, Tasmanian based manufacturer, Elphinstone acquired the proven Beltor ‘Puller’ – an underground mine extraction device originally designed by Beltor Engineering to safely recover buried equipment and minimise disruption to mine operations.
Since 1975, Elphinstone has pioneered and championed innovation, changing the course of the mining industry through its vision, leadership, and passion for continuous improvement, safety, technology and services.
Operator safety and mine productivity has always been a priority at Elphinstone which has a long and successful history designing and manufacturing underground hard rock mining equipment from its headquarters in Burnie, Tasmania.
The company’s ongoing commitment to safety and mine productivity was demonstrated in March of 2023, when it announced the acquisition of MED Pty Ltd, the owner of the intellectual property for the underground Mine Extraction Device (MED) also known as the “Beltor Puller”, developed by the founder of Beltor Engineering, Aldo Beletich back in the 1980s.
The MED was invented in response to a need by underground miners to extract buried or bogged equipment in a safe and efficient means without damaging the mine or negatively impacting production.
When Aldo invented the first Beltor Mine Extraction Device – or MED Puller as it’s commonly called – back in the 1980s, mining equipment was much lighter than it is today.
The first MED, with a pulling capacity of 90 tonnes, was introduced to the market in 1988 to meet the needs of the underground thermal coal miners in and around Newcastle.
With the increase in size and weight of underground mining equipment, there was a need for larger extraction devices to recover buried or bogged equipment.
As a result, higher capacity MEDs were introduced to ensure that underground mining operations could return to full production with minimum delay.
Subsequently the 150-tonne (MED150) and 210-tonne (MED210) versions of the device were introduced in line with the industry’s growth.
In addition to the retrieval of buried equipment, the higher capacity models are also capable of extracting drill rods embedded in the rock face.
The expansion did not stop there, in 2020 the largest version of the extraction device was launched, the MED360 with a pulling capacity of 360 tonnes for much larger underground coal and hard rock machinery.
The MED range has revolutionised the way buried underground equipment is extracted and made this process safer.
“What makes Elphinstone’s original MED unique is that it eliminates the damage and disruption caused when using other production equipment to remove a buried machine, operating in a more controlled and safe way,” says Tim Mitchell, Elphinstone’s Global Sales and Marketing Manager.
“When the MED is towed into position in the mine, the boom is raised against the roof and the wheels are raised lowering the MED to the floor, effectively wedging the machine into position. A bridle assembly is interlocked into the teeth of the MED racks which are then pulled via hydraulic cylinders”.
“The process is conducted in relative silence allowing the operators to hear and see exactly what is happening during the extraction, a stark contrast to the traditional method with wheeled or tracked tow vehicles that produce noise and dust ,” says Mitchell.
The MED is sold and serviced by Elphinstone direct to end users from the company’s manufacturing facility in Burnie, Tasmania.
This sponsored editorial is brought to you by Elphinstone. For more information, visit elphinstone.com.
