Atlas Copco and Rio Tinto win top design award

A joint project between the mining company Rio Tinto and Atlas Copco involving a new type of mining machine has won a top award in the Mining Magazine 2010 Awards.

This cooperation has resulted in the Modular Mining Machine (MMM), a horizontal tunneling machine which can excavat e mine drifts with preferred profiles. It is also flexible enough for narrow turns and for starting the tunneling of Y-shaped branches and can work on a 1:7 incline or decline.

The award was announced durin g the Mining Magazine congress in Perth in Novembe r and the design is now being finalized.