FUTURE MINING AND UNDERGROUND AUTOMATION
Scott Phillips, CEO GE Mining, says Digital Mine“ is a total mine solution above and below ground from rock to dock.”
collected today, but data alone does not increase efficiency, process optimisation and deliver low cost production. Operational productivity requires domain data, algorithms and real-time analysis, physical, analytical and digital engineering models, industrial analytics and the ability to modify machines to achieve different outcomes.
What if you could predict when your equipment needed maintenance? What if every plant performed like your best plant? That is the Digital Mine, powered by Predix™. Predix, says GE,“ is the first and only cloud-based operating system uniquely built for operating conditions,” and scaled for industrial data and applications. Used with GE and non-GE built applications, Predix“ provides real-time situational awareness to monitor, and continually improve, equipment and process performance.”
“ Digital Mine can optimise ore recovery, process throughput and increase energy efficiency,” states Scott Phillips, CEO GE Mining.“ It is a total mine solution above and below ground from rock to dock.”
How does it work?“ GE creates a software model of a physical asset or process called the Digital Twin, housed on the Predix Cloud,” explains Doug Hanson, Digital Mine General Manager.“ Real-time equipment data is compared to the Digital Twin’ s predicted behaviour, uncovering potential issues and preventing potential failures.” Operators receive a real-time stream of developing problems along with diagnoses and prioritisations on their mobile devices. That’ s real insight to help optimise availability, increase reliability and automate entire processes.
Solutions developed so far bring estimated performance gains of 20 % across all GE
industries, which in turn could translate into approximately $ 8.6 trillion in value on an annual basis. Applying learnings from other industries allows Digital Mine to drive more efficient results. Today, Digital Mine solutions help miners to promote safer mining practices, while increasing asset performance and optimising operations. How much could be saved with connected machines? A 1 % improvement in operational costs across the entire mine value chain adds up to nearly $ 5.4 billion in savings, just amongst the top 40 miners( Mine 2015, The Gloves are Off © 2014 Accenture).
“ What if you could increase asset reliability and availability while reducing cost and risk in operations?” GE asks. Asset Performance Management provides a unified, accurate view of assets within a plant. GE’ s advanced modelling, protected by over 40 patents, puts into context the normal operating relationships among all relevant parameters, such as vibration load, temperatures, pressures, and ambient conditions. Technicians receive real-time, databased early incident alerts that highlight anomalies with maintenance recommendations. Average asset utilisation improvements can provide 3-10 % savings. Overall, users have experienced 15 % increase in fleet availability as well as reduced maintenance costs and unplanned downtime.
GE further asks,“ What if you could increase revenue and margin by optimising the performance and throughput of your plants, sites, and portfolio?” Operations Optimization Management sensors, software and analytics help provide clarity to issues, identify potential solutions, analyse outcomes, monitor progress and measure results.
Every operation suffers from bottlenecks. For Lonmin, downtime in the drying area of the platinum smelter sometimes stopped the whole production line. Operations manager Percy French explained that this cost roughly R1.71 million / hr. Improvements made as a result of Digital Mine helped Lonmin achieve a 10 % increase in smelter throughput and 1.5 % more platinum from the mine.
To promote safer mining practices within operations, GE Mining’ s Collision Alert Systems( CAS), have been available for more than 12 years and have more than 270 million hours of operation. This proven solution is in use at 35 mine sites across more than 5,000 vehicle installs.
The underground CAS system uses a VLF magnetic system, enabling detection around corners and through strata to alert on potential collisions between people and heavy equipment.
Operation centres
As the industry strives to improve efficiency, reduce costs and increase safety, major mining companies like Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton are establishing operations centres for automation and analytical support of automated mining. So too are major suppliers, like Joy Global, helping bring mining performance to the next level.
Through JoySmart Solutions, Joy Global helps solve its customer’ s toughest challenges using data-driven intelligence, collaboration through partnership, and experienced-based service execution. It is a solutions-based offering designed to help reduce costs and increase productivity for customers, while helping them achieve or exceed their operating and financial goals. The program integrates: n Data and analytics as well as operator training n Direct engagement with the customer, focused on helping the customer achieve value through direct service n Engagement with the equipment designers; the customer is just one call away from the person who designed the machine. Smart, connected products deliver data to Joy experts, who partner with customers through the direct service network. The analytics produced
16 International Mining | APRIL 2017