ELECTRIFYING THE MINING PROCESS
Electrified
Reducing diesel-powered equipment underground has a positive impact on environment, health and safety and also brings a big reduction in ventilation costs – John Chadwick reports
The industry has been striving to reduce power consumption and taking this to a new level, Goldcorp has announced plans to develop an all-electric mine at its Borden Lake deposit near Chapleau, 200 km southwest of Timmins, Canada.
Goldcorp says its ambitious plan“ will significantly improve the health and safety performance of the mine and reduce its environmental footprint. In an increasingly competitive sector that is facing greater emissions regulation, making the site more operationally efficient – in addition to environmental and health benefits – is a big win. Eliminating diesel will make a huge improvement to working conditions by removing diesel particulate and other gases like NOx and SO 2 from the workplace.”
To make this vision a reality, Goldcorp is teaming up with Sandvik Mining and MacLean Engineering to provide battery-powered underground vehicles for almost all the requirements at the site. Goldcorp’ s new mining technology will range from battery-operated drilling and blasting equipment, to electric bolters, personnel carriers and ultimately a 40 t battery-powered haul truck.
The company’ s battery and electric mobile equipment will eliminate all greenhouse gases( GHGs) associated with the movement of ore and waste rock, equal to roughly 50 % of the total GHGs on site, or 5,000 t / y of CO 2, and will reduce maintenance and energy costs. With the decrease in emissions comes a reduction in
underground ventilation needs. The use of an efficient on-demand ventilation system will provide added benefits- the Borden mine will require 50 % less ventilation than a baseline diesel underground mine.
“ At Goldcorp, one of our core values is to embrace innovation. Mines are large consumers of energy. As much as 15 % of site operating costs come from consumption of electricity, diesel, propane and natural gas so focusing innovation efforts toward a big cost driver makes obvious business sense,” said Brent Bergeron, Goldcorp’ s Executive Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Sustainability.
“ Electrifying Borden means more upfront capital cost, however with the additional benefits to health, safety, and environmental performance, there is an even stronger business case to proceed with this ambitious mine design.” Moving away from diesel and by achieving other reductions associated with the use of clean technologies, Goldcorp can avoid more than 7,500 t of CO 2 and eliminate 3 million litres of diesel fuel, 1 million litres of propane and 35,000 MW hours of electricity every year.
Borden will rely on digital and smart controls, including tele-remote technology to maximise equipment use for continuous mining, and will also consider renewable energy such as biomass for heating. Goldcorp aims to generate new awareness that the‘ mine of the future’ leads to improved economic performance and increases net asset value.
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The mine is even examining the feasibility of generating its own power.
“ Other mining companies are studying electrification as an option, but so far no one has put it into practice in Canada,” adds Bergeron.“ We want Borden to not only showcase our commitment to safe, sustainable and responsible mining, but also that embracing innovation is a smart business choice that will keep our sector competitive.” The first battery powered piece of equipment goes into operation at Borden in the second half of 2017, during the advanced exploration phase of the project.
Since mining is relatively new to this part of northeast Ontario, Marc Lauzier, Mine General Manager of Goldcorp’ s Porcupine Gold Mines( PGM) division in Timmins, said his team is taking extra care to educate everyone and gather residents’ feedback in developing a“ green mine” that will have minimal environmental impact.
In 2015, Goldcorp reported Borden Lake contained an indicated resource of 1.6 Moz of gold. Exploration continues as the deposit remains open at depth. www. sudburyminingsolutions. com reports that“ construction of the portal will start in February. The ramp will be driven into the deposit to extract a 30,000-t bulk sample in 2018. Commercial production starts in mid-2019.”
68 International Mining | FEBRUARY 2017