SURFACE AUTOMATION
RCT ControlMaster ® Line-of-Sight was installed on two Cat dozers at Alliance Resources Partners’ River View coal mine in Uniontown, Kentucky
major components, better fuel economy and less overall downtime associated with operator abuse of machinery. When this is taken into account, the return on investment is still relatively fast, but maybe not seen as an immediate increase in production rather a lowering of the cost base.”
as well as efficiency by reducing downtime during shift swaps( eliminating the need to stop the machine for a prolonged period of time to swap operators) and enabling operators to shift the coarse refuse further into the tailings pond, more quickly and easily.
RCT says it is comfortable providing the autonomous technology required for most aspects of the mobile machinery fleet:“ Our adaptability to install on a variety of machinery makes and models without being brand specific leads us into filling the niche where some of our competitors can’ t. All miners regardless of size are looking to gain a better bottom line profit by
introducing machine automation. The larger players definitely have an attitude that leads to larger scale projects of machine automation and hence a larger capital investment. With the smaller players having a more focused attitude on critical areas of their business they offer productivity gains with a lower capital outlay.”
The immediate benefit of integrating automation was the lack of machine damage that was occurring which was probably overlooked when the automation push first came into the industry.“ Suppliers were reluctant to drive the machines outside of the OEM specifications, which then resulted in less wear and tear of
Pilbara continues to lead progress
In its June 2016 production quarter, Fortescue Metals Group, the world’ s fourth largest iron ore miner after Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Vale, stated:“ During the quarter, the Solomon Autonomous Haulage System fleet safely transported the 200 millionth tonne of material using driverless trucks.” The company reported shipments of 43.4 Mt of iron ore with cash production costs of US $ 14.31 per wet metric tonne( wmt), a reduction of 3 % compared to the March 2016 quarter and 35 % over the prior twelve months. Guidance for FY17 has also been released targeting shipments between 165-170 Mt and cash production costs in the range of US $ 12-13 / wmt.
Chief Executive Officer, Nev Power, said:“ Our June quarter result demonstrates the consistent delivery of outstanding operational performance across all aspects of our business. Costs have been lowered for the tenth consecutive quarter and our continued focus on productivity and efficiency measures will drive C1 costs even lower in FY17. With net debt reduced to US $ 5.2 billion,
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