Automation in Mining: Beyond the Front Gate
Contributor:
Mining IQ
Posted: 03/14/2013 12:00:00 AM EDT | 1
Posted: 03/14/2013 12:00:00 AM EDT | 1
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Automation in Mining - An Update from Mining IQ
There has been a surge in automation development within the mining industry over the past year. Remote working strategies have been modernised, with the likes of BHP and Rio Tinto now able to operate and control a pit from hundreds of kilometres away.
There has also been a huge commitment to driverless trains and continued initiatives to increase safety on site by removing people from hazardous situations and replacing them with machinery.
With such advances in mine production, it was inevitable that automation in mining started to look beyond the front gate and develop across the whole process, from pit to port.
Mining Industry Insider - Perspective on Mine Site Automation
Mining IQ recently caught up with Ken Devencorn, development leader for rail at Aurecon who predicts this is the area where huge developments are set to be made.
“If you’ve got a process which is very efficient for mining and then you dump it at the gate and wait for a train to come by, it’s in those areas where the interfaces occur that inefficiency can arise.”
Ken went on to say that he is looking with interest at the increasing possibility of remote control, driverless trains, and also manless mining.
“If that comes to pass, and develops as I believe it will, then we can probably see a situation whereby the mining process and the heavy haul two-door rail process, possibly even also the bulk materials handling process at the port, and maybe even some of those port functions, might be all done from a single control point many hundreds of kilometres away from the mine or the railway or the port.
“If you can get into a situation whereby the entire supply chain is integrated, then there are significant returns that can be had.”
This development of process integration has already begun. Ken explains how a very large iron ore project has been using new systems to get real time data on the journey from the pit.
“Checkpoint systems allow the train to be assessed in transit, as it goes through, so over a number of these checkpoints the load can be assessed, the health of the train can be assessed, even the health of the cargo, the payload, can be assessed.
“And all that occurs in real time as the train is trundling down the track at 60, 80 or 100 kilometres per hour. That can happen, in a number of points along the journey. It’s an incredible process, whereby that whole quality system can extend beyond the mine, all the way down the rail, across the entire logistics chain.”
However, Ken explains that this is a fast evolving process and as technology continues to advance at this pace some tough questions are going to have to be asked.
“Many companies make the mistake of just assuming that because somebody else did it that way, that’s the best way to do it, or that’s the way we’ve done it in the past, or that’s the way it’s always been done."
“Technology is changing, and the entire scope of this logistics area is changing so quickly that you really have to keep up-to-date by looking at what your competitors are doing, and what other companies are doing, and learning from their mistakes.”
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Contributor:
Mining IQ |
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This article is incoherent.
How do you define the "health" of iron ore?
Get a real journalist to do a real interview and write a real article!
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