20 may 2014

PeBeKa is building a drainage pipeline in the Rudna Mine

Drilling work is underway at shaft R-V in connection with building the main drainage pipeline. The Contractor for the job that started in mid-February is KGHM, ZG Rudna Branch.

PeBeKa is responsible both for design and for comprehensive construction of the main drainage 300 millilitre pipeline. The pipeline will be incorporated into the Rudna Mine main drainage system and to the network on discharge pipelines on the surface. As the installation in the borehole must be made from materials resistant to corrosive action of mine water and limescale deposits, epoxy pipes reinforced with glass fibre will be used for the pipeline. The pipeline service life is estimated to be minimum twenty years.
- The borehole will run vertically and pass approx. ten metres from the existing workings a thousand metres underground, says Jan Lubaś, manager of surface drilling department. – In the first stage of the investment, already complete, be drilled a 311 millimetre pilot hole to a depth of 435 metres, which was broadened to a diameter of 762 millimetres. Next, we placed in the hole a column of steel pipes and we cemented it. The second stage of the work will consist in drilling a 311 mm pilot hole to a depth of 1020 metres and broadening it to a final diameter of 558,8 millimetres. The hole prepared in this manner will receive glass fibre reinforced epoxy pipes that will be cemented.

The boreholes are drilled in a close vicinity to workings, so it was assumed that the maximum deviation of the hole axis from the vertical cannot exceed three metres along its entire length. As a result, the pilot hole is drilled with the use of directional drilling services. During the drilling, measurements of the hole curvature and azimuth are taken, based on which appropriate hole trajectory is maintained.

In addition to underground work, PeBeKa carries out surface work. The Lubin company's construction branch is responsible for the foundations and supports of the trestle for the new pipeline and for exchange of part of the existing drainage installations. Intensive underground work is also underway. In March PeBeKa started work at the bottom of the mine to connect the pumping station chamber with the large-diameter hole.

The drilling and assembly works we're carrying out in the Rudna Mine are another importance task we do on KGHM's order, says Jacek Kulicki, PeBeKa President. We have valuable experience in performing such investments. Two years ago, we expanded the central air-conditioning pipeline at the R-XI shaft, also for Rudna. Since last year, we've been working on modernisation of the tailings pipeline on the section from the Lubin Ore Enrichment Plant to the Żelazny Most flotation tailings storage.
Construction of the drainage installation in the Rudna Mine is carried out in accordance with the schedule. All the works should be complete on 30 June.

PeBeKa is building a drainage pipeline in the Rudna Mine