Chililabombwe, Copperbelt Province
Chililabombwe sits on the Konkola orebody at the northern end of the Copperbelt, on the DRC border, and is defined by deep, wet underground mining. Konkola is among the wettest mines in the world, with very large pumping infrastructure, and that pumping plant is itself a continuous source of heavy hydraulic and bolting work.
On the Copperbelt, at the Kasumbalesa border corridor.
Wet, deep, and hard on equipment
Water is the operational fact at Chililabombwe, and it reaches tooling as well as the workings. Tools that live underground in a wet mine corrode in ways a surface fleet does not, and the failure is usually internal and invisible: a mechanism that binds, a spring that has lost its rate, a wrench that still clicks but not at the number on the scale.
This is the strongest argument for as-found data there is. A tool that looks fine and reads wrong is only caught by measuring it before adjusting it, and by someone who records what they found.
Services delivered in Chililabombwe
- Onsite and workshop calibration, with as-found data on every certificate
- Repair and overhaul of tooling recovered from wet underground service
- Pump, cylinder and jack overhaul and load testing
- Scheduled servicing, planned so that tools come to surface in batches
- Asset marking and tool control for equipment that goes underground
Common questions
Can tooling that has been in a wet mine be recovered?
Usually, yes, and it is a large part of the work. What matters is catching it before the corrosion reaches something structural, which is a servicing interval question rather than a repair one.