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By Fabien Miller

Automation technologies are increasingly envisaged to improve underground mining productivity. However, the technologies need to be used and adopted gradually in order to get the best benefits. This paper presents the technical and operational aspects of autoguided production vehicles at Brunswick Mine. During 2001 Noranda?s Brunswick Mine has successfully commissioned an automated haulage zone where two optically guided trucks transport ore from a remotely operated chute to two orepasses. Operational advantages include increased system capacity and enhanced safety and comfort for the operator. The data obtained up to now indicate that the system can operate reliably in mine production

May 1, 2002

By Fabrício Tibúrcio Silva Araújo

O AutoLog é uma solução em tecnologia de automação e informação para controle absoluto do carregamento e descarregamento de caminhões em um grande cliente no ramo de fertilizantes. Seu objetivo é garantir uma operação autônoma que otimize os lucros e reduza os custos em logística. Este trabalho visa demonstrar o problema que originou a solução, a metodologia utilizada no seu desenvolvimento e o seu objetivo final.

Oct 30, 2017

By William G. Schultz

Sylvite of Canada, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Co., operates an 8000 TPD potash mine and refinery located nine miles North East of Rocanville, Saskatchewan. Prior to Hudson Bay's entry in 1968 into potash mining and refining, it was one of the more traditional and conservative Canadian Mining Companies whose principal business had been for many years a successful copper-zinc mining and smelting operation located at Flin Flon, Manitoba. The potash reserves being mined by Sylvite were acquired through the acquisition of Francana Oil and Gas. This acquisition was at the time when several major potash mines were being developed or had recently been brought into production in the Province. These mines are owned by either very substantial Canadian Mining Companies or Multi-National Mining Companies with considerable potash mining experience. At that time, it became very apparent because of the new mines coming into production, potash mining and refining would quickly become a very competitive industry. Because of long term considerations, Hudson Bay decided to proceed with the development of its potash reserves, recognizing the Mine and Refinery would have to be the most advanced available in order to successfully operate. This report deals with the mining operation at Sylvite and the degree of success Sylvite has achieved.

Jan 1, 1972

By W. G. Schultz

"Sylvite's potash mine, which produces 8,000 tons of ore per day, probably ranks as one of the most highly mechanized and automated mining operations in the world. Employing, on a normal 10-hour production shift, one supervisor and a crew of seven operators, Sylvite is able to mine at an average rate in excess of 600 tons per hour. The ore is produced by two Marietta miners weighing 258 tons, the largest and heaviest pieces of equipment ever taken underground. The ore produced by these two Marietta miners is conveyed to the shaft area, cycled through a 15,000-ton storage system and hoisted to surface completely automatically. The operation of all equipment in the mine can be monitored and controlled from a central control panel located underground. Because Sylvite's mine is a new operation with equipment of a new design, the full potential of the operation has not yet been realized. The ultimate capability is clearly evident from the success Sylvite has had over the past year as the average mining capability has risen from 100 tons per hour to 600 tons per hour."

Jan 1, 1973

By Shawn Healey, Ray Norcross

"Site IdentificationNew Britannia MineA 50/50 WX Gold Inc. - High River Gold Mines Ltd. Joint VentureTVX Gold Inc. is the OperatorLocationThe New Britannia Mine is located in the town of Snow Lake, Manitoba, which is situated between Flin Flon and Thompson, 420 miles north of Winnipeg.Brief Description of OperationNew Britannia Mine processes 2000 tonnes per day at an average grade of 4.5 g/t. Mill recoveries are currently 91 YO, accounting for forecast of 98,000 ounces for 1998.New Britannia Mine's mill complex incorporates conventional crushing, grinding and carbon-in-pulp technology. The design capacity of the New Britannia Mine mill is 1850 tonnes per day. The mill has processed upwards of 2300 tonnes per day, with no required upgrades.Gold recovery averaged 89.8% for 1997 compared to the planned 87% recovery expected from projected metallurgical test work. Year to date recovery mid December 1998 stands at 91.1 %Cash costs for the 1998 year to date were down to U.S. $221.49 per ounce, down 12% from the 3rd quarter of 1997. Milling costs for 1998 YTD were at Cdn. $9.38 per tonne and Cdn. $73.50 per ounce.Geology - (Orebody Description)The Snow Lake gold deposit is located within the Aphebian Flin Flon / Snow Lake Greenstone belt. This belt is composed of an assemblage of poly-deformed volcanosedimentary supercrustal sequences intruded by pre and sin tectonic ultra mafic and mafic intrusions and sin to post tectonic granitoid.The principal gold bearing rock at the New Britannia Mine is made up of quartzcarbonate material in sequence of basic and acidic volcanic rocks contained within a shear zone. The ore itself is gold associated with the sulphide mineral arsenopyrite and contains some pyrite, pyrotite, plus chalcopyrite. Proven and probable reserves at December 31, 1997 were at 4.04 million tonnes at 4.6 g/t and underground exploration continues to confirm the extension of the ore zones to depth."

Jan 1, 1999

By G. Springer

The identification of lost mineral values in mill tailings frequently requires the inspection of hundreds of thousands to millions of particles. The search of these particles can be made automatic by using an electron microprobe. A standard instrument (Cambridge Mark V) was modified by the addition of stepping motors to advance the specimen stage in a controlled manner. The X-ray Signal is monitored continuously by a computer interfaced to the instrument with an analog-to-digital converter. 400,000 particles of a tailings sample can be scanned in about 3 hours. Particles as small as 2 um and containing as little as 3% of a particular element can be detected.

Jan 1, 1982

By Juan J. Monsalve, AMAN SONI, ALEX PFREUNDSCHUH, Nino Ripepi

Ground control failures are one of the main causes of accidents in the underground stone mining industry. Some of the fundamental tools for rockfall hazard identification are related to rock mass characterization and geotechnical discontinuity mapping. Recent technological advances in these methods are related to remote sensing techniques and pointcloud processing software for automated discontinuity mapping. Remote sensing techniques, such as LiDAR and photogrammetry, generate multimillion-point clouds with millimetric precision, capturing the structure of the rock mass. The automated point-cloud processing tools offer alternative algorithm-based methods to characterize and map these discontinuities. However, their applicability is constrained by multiple factors, such as site-specific conditions of the rock mass and the parameters used within the mapping algorithms. This paper evaluates the performance of automated discontinuity extraction software compared with manual virtual discontinuity mapping. Sampling windows from laser-scanned sections in an underground limestone mine are defined and mapped using the Discontinuity Set Extractor (DSE) opensource software. Results from the virtual discontinuity software are compared with manually extracted fractures from I-Site based on reviewing orientation, trace length, spacing, number of extracted discontinuities, and processing time.

By Juan J. Monsalve, AMAN SONI, ALEX PFREUNDSCHUH, Nino Ripepi

Ground control failures are one of the main causes of accidents in the underground stone mining industry. Some of the fundamental tools for rockfall hazard identification are related to rock mass characterization and geotechnical discontinuity mapping. Recent technological advances in these methods are related to remote sensing techniques and point cloud processing software for automated discontinuity mapping. Remote sensing techniques, such as LiDAR and photogrammetry, generate multimillion point clouds with millimetric precision, capturing the structure of the rock mass. The automated point cloud processing tools offer alternative algorithm-based methods to characterize and map these discontinuities. However, their applicability is constrained by multiple factors such as site specific conditions of the rock mass and the parameters used within the mapping algorithms. This paper evaluates the performance of automated discontinuity extraction software compared with manual virtual discontinuity mapping. Sampling windows from laser-scanned sections in an underground limestone mine are defined and mapped using discontinuity set extractor (DSE). Results from the virtual discontinuity software are compared with manually extracted fractures from I-Site based on reviewing orientation, trace length, spacing, number of extracted discontinuities, and processing time. The analysis determined that the automated mapping algorithm was able to identify the same discontinuity sets that had been manually mapped. The automated mapping software mapped an excessive amount of smaller fractures, which caused the comparison of both mapping techniques to be unsuccessful in terms of trace length and spacing.

Mar 19, 2021

By J Välivaara

The mining industry will face numerous challenges over the next 10–15 years as new deposits are likely to be more remote and lower grade and existing deposits will be mined deeper. As a result, mines and mining contractors operating in deep-mine conditions will need to focus on the quality of drilling and blasting to minimise unnecessary waste rock excavation to keep costs at an acceptable level. In addition, increased demand for improved safety and operator ergonomics will set greater demands on original equipment manufacturers of mining equipment. Finally, difficulties finding a skilled and experienced workforce, particularly in remote mine locations, have already negatively impacted mines’ ability to achieve high productivity and low operating costs.This paper introduces techniques and shares practical experiences in increasing productivity and reducing the costs of excavation in underground face drilling. The paper uses Sandvik’s new DD422i automated mining jumbo as an example of the type of equipment needed to deliver the features and corresponding benefits for future mine development. Case studies using this equipment are presented to illustrate the points made in this paper.CITATION:Välivaara, J, 2016. Automated drilling features for improving productivity and reducing costs in underground development, in Proceedings Seventh International Conference and Exhibition on Mass Mining (MassMin 2016), pp 723–730 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

May 9, 2016

By Tao Cheng

Previous research and applications in construction resource optimization have focused on tracking the location of material and equipment. There is a lack of studies on automated monitoring of the interaction between workers and equipment for safety purposes. This paper presents a new approach for measuring the safety performance of construction personnel particularly when they work in very close proximity to moving equipment as well as static hazards such as chemical and flammable substances. A method of generating hazardous zones according to the geometric and kinematic characteristics of the considered hazard is introduced. The spatio-temporal relationships between the hazardous zones and workers? positioning data collected by real-time location sensing technology are automatically analyzed. This approach has been validated in a controlled test bed environment that simulates a construction site. Results indicate that worker?s safety performance of selected activities can be automatically and reliably measured using the developed approach. Furthermore, a heat map is generated for visualizing proximity related issues in the test bed using the computed results.

Aug 1, 2013

By L. J. Cabri, J. M. D. Wilson, R Lastra

An image analysis program can search for gold minerals in polished sections by scanning about 100 x 100 back-scattered electron images at a magnification of x400, allowing gold grains as small as 1 micrometre in diameter to be detected. Typically, a c.15 h overnight search of a product smaller than 45 micrometres will scan c.1 500 000 particles, providing data that are not easily obtained through manual operation of an optical microscope. The program locates grains of the correct brightness, acquires gold X-rays from them by wavelength-dispersive spectrometry, filters the data to remove artefacts and record the images and stage locations for subsequent retrieval. At the end of the run, the program allows the operator to verify and identify the grains found. Industrial studies at Canmet have included determining the nature of gold in cyanidation tailings, checking the mineralogy and size of gold grains in samples from an Indonesian Cu-Au concentrator and locating and measuring gold liberation and grain sizes in an ore

Jun 21, 1905

By W. L. Hollinshead

For more effective and cost saving production in tunnels, the machinery used on construction sites will be equipped with guidance systems combined with working procedure management systems. This paper describes sensors for these systems and various system configurations. A project is described which uses a computerized guidance system on an underground mining machine for guidance and profile control.

Jan 1, 1999

By A Melkumyan, M Balamurali

Geological domains describe the mineralisation state and stratigraphic location of different geological regions of mines. They play a very important role at the geological modelling stage as weight percentage of chemical elements information within each geological domain is assumed to be correlated while information coming from different geological domains is considered uncorrelated. Having correct domain assignments to both the chemical assays and the 3D space of modelling is critical for building a reliable geological model of the mine.As standard practice significant effort is invested into the interpretation of the deposit and identification of the geological domains for the chemical assays and the 3D geological space. Despite these efforts, there are some chemical assays with ambiguous geological domain where the exploration assay domain and the block domain do not match. Incorrectly including a sample in the wrong domain can cause a large change in the predicted weight percentage of chemical elements estimation for that block. Therefore, the major challenge of grouping the spatially correlating weight percentage of chemical elements is how to determine which of these domains best fits these misclassified samples.This work proposes machine learning based autonomous technique for identifying to which geological domain (the exploration assay domain or the block domain) the misclassified sample belongs. The proposed methodology is based on Gaussian Process (GP) classification. The GP machine learning approach consists of training and inference stages. At the training stage the GP automatically learns the properties of different geological domains using the chemical assays with unambiguous domain assignment. Then, at the inference stage the GP makes predictions for the geological domains of the assays with ambiguous initial domain assignment.We tested the proposed technique by conducting a case study for an iron ore deposit located in Western Australia. The results demonstrate that the application of the proposed GP technique removes statistically significant deviations in the assay values in many regions: mineralised ore region, unmineralised region, highly weathered region and intrusive material that is highly variable. In this case study the proposed methodology autonomously identified the geological domains for more than 50 per cent of samples which are initially ambiguously classified. For the majority of the assays the GP predicted domain agrees with the geological domain assigned by the exploration assay.CITATION:Balamurali, M and Melkumyan, A, 2014. Automated identification of geological domains for exploration assays with ambiguous initial domain assignment in an iron ore deposit, in Proceedings Ninth International Mining Geology Conference 2014 , pp 99–106 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Aug 18, 2014

By Garland Likins

Where soil conditions are favorable, augercast piles have significant economic advantages, but they also have some uncertainty due to the in construction methods. To confirm structural integrity, static testing can be performed on a small sample of piles. Other Non-Destructive Evaluation methods like Pulse Echo are frequently specified for a large percentage of the remaining production piles. However, such NDE methods require testing the pile after the grout/concrete has hardened. If problems are found, then the repair or replacement can be relatively expensive. The confidence in the quality of these piles can be improved by automatically monitoring the grout pumped as a function of depth during the grouting phase of installation. If a low grout volume is detected, the pile can be redrilled and regrouted immediately while the piling rig is still in place and the grout still fluid. This considerably reduces remedial costs. To be effective, such installation monitors must accurately determine both grout volume and depth during installation and be rugged simple to operate. Such an equipment can be of great help to the installation crews. The assurance gained may reduce the need for subsequent NDE tests. The quality of inspection of driven piles depends heavily on the inspection personnel. While inspection is critical in a good installation, it is sometimes assigned a low priority. Inspection personnel in many cases are technicians with little pile experience. They may not understand the project needs or even how the pile driving equipment works. The task is often monotonous and any distraction makes accurate record keeping difficult. In some cases inspection is totally ignored for lack of qualified personnel. Electronic systems can automatically and accurately monitor driven pile installations and include documentation of certain hammer performance parameters. This paper describes equipment available and routinely in use for automated monitoring of both augercast and driven piles and demonstrates applications on typical construction sites. The paper also discusses benefits and limitations of the alternative NDE tests. KEYWORDS: Augercast Piles, Piles, Installation Monitoring, Pulse Echo Method, Integrity Testing

Jan 1, 1999

By John Lemke

Current practice for monitoring static pile load tests commonly consists of measuring load and displacement at the top of a pile. This is typically accomplished by monitoring dial gauge movements, line pressure of a hydraulic jacking system, and electronic load cells on occasion. While this testing approach provides useful information for one boundary condition (the top of the pile), a system that measures movement and/or strain along the entire length of the pile can provide additional useful data that can be used to refine pile design. Automated data acquisition systems provide the essential ingredient that can integrate these types of sophisticated instrumentation devices into a standard pile load test program in a cost effective way. This paper provides a general overview of pile testing instrumentation and describes a newly developed chain of instrumentation modules that can be embedded in a pile to gather additional testing information. The new system can measure forces and movements within the test pile synchronously with measurements at the pile top, and the direct application of this system to axial and lateral pile testing is illustrated. This is particularly relevant to the design of ACIP and drilled displacement piles since determination of the reinforcement cage length is important from the standpoint of both seismic design and foundation cost.

Jan 1, 2002

By P Valenzuela

Joint mapping is a fundamental input for rock mass characterisation and slope stability analysis. The usual way to do it is using a compass in the field or digitising structures on a screen, with a software package.In this paper a method to identify and map joints automatically along a rock face is presented; it is called the Concentric Shells (CS) algorithm. The method scans a point cloud sequentially, tests if selected points are ‘true pivots’ within an inner shell, and then it searches for points inside a wider sphere (outer shell).The algorithm, developed by the author, was applied in real data. It reproduces the main features obtained from conventional (compass) and digital mapping (software package). Execution times are approximately 45 seconds for two point sets holding of 3.1 million points. Obtaining the same results via digital mapping takes approximately 3–4 working days.Key advantages of this method are: significant time reductions; elimination of mapping bias; and the ability to manage very large data sets (>2 million points) without the need of scanning the cloud on the screen. These advantages make this method an attractive tool for engineers and geologists wanting to increase productivity.CITATION:Valenzuela, P, 2017. Automated joint mapping using the concentric shells algorithm, in Proceedings Tenth International Mining Geology Conference 2017, pp 257–262 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Sep 20, 2017

By R Grobler, D Burger, L Alberts

The current climate in the mining industry is allowing mining companies to further broaden their views and investigate technologies to improve the safety, efficiency and cost-effectiveness of their operations. Furthermore, underground mine environments will become more demanding for mining equipment and personnel as orebodies become deeper in weaker ground conditions with more extreme environmental conditions. Loading and hauling can represent significant components of the production cycle of an underground mine and automation of these activities can offer considerable benefits. Sandvik has accumulated a long history and experience in loading and hauling automation in underground mining. Since the late 1980s Sandvik has actively participated in several major research and development automation programs leading to the commencement of the development of an integrated system for semiautomated loading in 1999. Development work was later conducted to expand the capabilities of the system for automated hauling during 2001 and the AutoMine« system became commercially available. The first delivery of the AutoMine« system was completed in August 2004 in South America, where the system continues to operate in a full-scale production environment and is being expanded as the production area enlarges. Further systems have been delivered and are operational in North America, Africa and Europe. This paper focuses on the AutoMine« system deployed in Block 4 at De Beers Finsch Mine in South Africa. An overview of the mine and the process used to acquire the system and the key drivers which led to the selection of an automated solution are described. An overview of the initial system installation, subsequent expansions and future plans are presented. This is followed by a summary of the implementation and operational experiences associated with automated underground operations. The paper concludes by summarising the benefits that have been realised.

Jan 1, 2008

By Fraser Rowe

This paper discusses the philosophies, strategies, goals and pitfalls in automating a mine schedule. The intention of the paper is to give an open and honest view of who could benefit from moving to an automated system, what you can expect from such a system, and what you should be aware of. Many companies feel that moving to an automated mine planning solution will allow the mine scheduling engineer to push a button and walk away, but the reality is that is hardly ever the case. Part of that awareness comes from understanding what is meant by ?automated mine scheduling?, and this paper address that. By contrasting what is meant by ?manual scheduling? and ?automated scheduling? it is hoped that the reader can gain an appreciation of the entire process.

Oct 1, 2009

By V. Králová

The TESCAN Integrated Mineral Analyzer (TIMA), an automated mineralogy system, enables fast and quantitative mineral analyses of rocks, ores, concentrates, tailings, leach residues or smelter products. It combines BSE and EDX analysis for identification and measurement of mineral concentrations, particle size distribution, and liberation/locking parameters. In addition, it can provide bright particle searches for PGM, gold-silver ores, and/or REE. With the newly developed Automated Loading System (AutoLoader), the TIMA has become the world?s first automated mineral analyzer which permits robust, continuous and unattended sample loading. With the AutoLoader (robotics) system, the TIMA has emerged as a powerful plant support instrument. It increases the sample throughput, minimizes manual labor and enables 24/7 operations. As such, it can be used in daily, continuous mineralogy for mine geology/ore control, concentrators, leach operations, and smelter support. It will also increase the capabilities of technical service centers for mining companies, commercial laboratories, large drilling programs or pilot test campaigns. In combination with a highly automated sample preparation lab (sizing, potting and polishing), TIMA technology can establish high-throughput and fast-turnaround automated mineralogy lab modules for mine-site production support.

Feb 23, 2014

For years traditional optical microscopic techniques have been used successfully to carry out mineralogical studies on processing products. Essential information could be obtained by supplementing microscopic data with X-ray powder diffraction data, chemical analyses, etc. However, most of the time the mineralogists working on plant related issues, would supply qualitative information to the metallurgists, due to quantification not being possible in the available time. Since the late-80s, the use of semi-automated to automated techniques for mineral quantification has impacted positively on the use of mineralogy for optimising processing plants. Rustenburg Platinum Mines (now Anglo Platinum) were the first mining company to purchase a Qem*Sem in 1987. With the success achieved in quantifying the minerals in the concentrator streams of the Rustenburg Platinum operations, a second instrument was purchased soon after. These instruments have proven invaluable tools in understanding the flotation behaviour of the sulfide and gangue minerals in the various reefs of the Bushveld. Restrictions in the resolution of these earlier instruments, as well as the time involved in searching for and correctly identifying the fine-grained platinum-group minerals (PGM), meant that these investigations focused on the deportment of the more abundant base metal sulfides, rather than on the actual PGM. The Mineral Liberation Analyser (MLA), which became available in the late 1990s, was well suited to detect and analyse minerals occurring in trace amounts such as the PGM. Anglo Platinum was the first mining company to purchase such an instrument and now has fourteen systems operating at the AR Crown Mines site. One of the applications of these systems involves the study of feeds, concentrates and tailings from the various concentrators on a monthly basis. These routine investigations provide information on a variety of mineralogical parameters, including liberation, association, and grain size. Results are used to emphasise areas for improvement, and specifically underline those areas where improvements will have the most impact on recovery. After new or different technologies have been implemented, mineralogical characterisation of the different process streams is an essential component in the assessment of the impact of these changes on flotation performance. In addition, the knowledge is databased for future reference to draw trends across the various concentrators around the Bushveld complex, and is also used for comparative studies when plants experience high losses to tailings. Due to the success of these investigations the question was posed whether it was possible to obtain data on a daily basis, as compositing samples could hide the impact of daily events. Although the instruments currently used are suitable for a research environment, these are not ideal for mine-site implementation. For that reason Anglo Platinum, together with FEI embarked on a development program to develop a system that can be implemented on-site to measure the important mineralogical characteristics on a daily basis. Important requirements for such a system include time-to-data, ease of use and regular quality control. Highlighting some results from concentrator studies, the presentation will review the progress on the development of automated mineralogical techniques for fast, automated mineral measurements. This is an abstract only. No full paper was prepared for this abstract.

Sep 13, 2010