Small Mine Development
Challenge – Lack of onsite facilities
Solution – Hercules Truss Arch Buildings
Size – Three 50′ wide x 80′ long
Application – Maintenance shop and other facilities
Small Mine Development, an underground mining contractor, develops, builds and operates underground, hard rock mines in the western United States. Operations Manager Keith Jones says, “We have experience working with very small operations to working with very large, global mining companies on their flagship underground projects.”
As a mining contractor, the facilities available to the company vary from project to project and they must construct their own onsite maintenance shops, fuel and lubrication facilities, equipment washing areas and other facilities. Jones explains, “At some locations we have been able to utilize existing structures owned by the client, and at other locations we have actually constructed the facilities underground. At the sites in Butte, MT and Carlin, NV, there were not any existing structures and we did not want to construct the facilities underground due to the site layouts available to us.”
The company needed a solution that would allow them to mobilize and demobilize quickly, and the portability and economical price of ClearSpan Fabric Structures appealed to Jones. He says, “The ClearSpan structures appeared to be easily assembled and disassembled while still being well built. Traditional wood structures do not offer high portability and, while metal structures can be quickly put up and taken down, they typically do not assemble very well the second time due to bent metal and numerous screw holes in the sheeting.”
After constructing two 50′ wide by 80′ long Hercules Truss Arch Buildings at their Butte site and one of the same size at the Carlin site, Jones finds that the structures are meeting all of their expectations: “They are well made and we have had no issues. We chose to insulate the buildings due to harsh winter conditions and they have been wonderful, during both winter and summer.” One added benefit for Small Mine Development is the high clearance of the structures. Jones says, “The height has allowed us to install mezzanine decks that have greatly increased usable space within the same footprint.”
He continues, “We really appreciated how quickly the buildings were erected. Due to time constraints, we elected to have ClearSpan do the installation. We were happy with the professional crews dispatched to our sites. The crews had to work under Mine Safety Health Administration regulation and we had no issues or concerns. We will most likely be ordering more of these buildings for future projects.”
For more information on Small Mine Development and their ClearSpan structures, visit www.undergroundmining.com.
