Compressed Air

The parts of which this important area related to the compressed air equipment is integrated are:

• Support platform.
• Electric variator and control consoles.
• Air compressor.
• Piping line.
• Rubber-canvas hose 1" 100 meters.
• “Lungs” (air storage).

Location.

As you can see in the following images, the support platform was initially built in the space intended to contein the compressed air equipment:

Transport.

Once that place had been conditioned, the air compressor was moved from the supplier to the mine. It arrived in Guayaquil packed inside this container:

Instalation.

So the compressor that will provide the air for the machines that will be used inside the mine, is already in the Minera Guayaquil camp, inside a 6 m x 2.4 m container, on a 7.3 m x 3.6 m cement plate:

Functionality.

The compressed air equipment is a device designed to take the air from the environment, store it and distribute it according to the needs of those equipments that require it. The air is mainly used to give power to the drilling hammers that will be used inside the mine, being released through a pipe with a regulated pressure.

It is basically composed of three parts:

• The compressor itself, the main piece in the operation of compressed air equipment. It is a cylinder with a piston driven by an electric motor, which takes the air from the environment and compresses it.
• The tank, also called “calderín” (“boiler”), which consists of a container where the compressed air is stored to be used later.
• The control and supply equipment, which is in charge of making use of the compressed air by the compressor piston, and which has been stored in the boiler. By means of a pressure switch it controls the pressure with which the air will come out through a flexible pipeline, and for that, said pipe is equipped with a manometer at its end.

The piping of the compressed air, which covers the distance from the compressor to the pithead, is 4 inches in diameter and approximately 540 m long.