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International Mining( ISSN No: 1747-146X) is published monthly by Team Publishing Ltd, GBR and is distributed in the USA by Asendia USA, 17B South Middlesex Avenue, Monroe NJ 08831 and additional mailing offices. Periodicals postage paid at New Brunswick NJ. POSTMASTER: send address changes to International Mining, 17B South Middlesex Avenue, Monroe NJ 08831
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ISSN 1747-146X
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THE LEADER VOLUME 12 • NUMBER 11
Real-Time Mining
While Europe is still an important mining region globally, particularly from metals production in Scandinavia, Spain and Poland, resource efficiency also remains a real focus within the Europe through a number of ongoing research projects. One of these is Real-Time Mining, the stated objective of which is“ to develop a real-time framework to decrease environmental impact and increase resource efficiency in the European raw material extraction industry. The key concept of the research conducted is to promote a paradigm shift from discontinuous to a continuous process monitoring and quality management system in highly selective mining operations.”
The positive impact of the project will be achieved through improvements in process efficiency and resource utilisation. These will increase energy efficiency and facilitate significant improvements in the environmental performance of mining operations by reducing the emissions and wastes generated. It is considered that deposits which are currently thought as economically marginal or difficult to access could become viable.
The first Real Time Mining™ International Raw Materials Extraction Innovation Conference was held on 10 and 11 October 2017 in central Amsterdam, and brought together individuals and companies working on EU-sponsored projects to exchange knowledge and rise synergies in resource extraction innovation. Topics included: Resource Modelling and Value of Information; Automated Material Characterisation; Positioning and Material Tracking; Process Optimisation; and Data Management.
The conference has been initiated by the consortium of the EU H2020 funded project Real-Time Mining as a platform for inter-project communication and for communication with project stakeholders. It also brings together several European research projects in the field of industry 4.0 applied to mineral resource extraction. These are the projects VAMOS, SOLSA and UNEXMIN. It is hoped this platform will generate synergies, strengthening the project focus and to initiate potential further developments and exploitation activities.
In the opening presentation giving an overview of Real-Time Mining, Dr Mike Buxton of TU Delft, one of the Conference Chairs stated:“ The flow of information, and consequently the decision-making along the chain of mining from exploration to beneficiation, typically occurs in a discontinuous fashion over long timespans. In addition, due to the uncertain nature of the knowledge about deposits and the inherent spatial distribution of material characteristics, actual production performance often deviates from expectations. Reconciliation exercises to adjust mineral resource and reserve models and planning assumptions are performed with timely lags of weeks, months or even years. The key concept of Real-Time Mining promotes the change in paradigm from discontinuous intermittent process monitoring to a continuous process and quality management system in resource extraction. The framework includes a realtime feedback control loop that rapidly links online data acquired during extraction at the mining face, during material handling and processing with a sequentially up-datable resource model. This will allow near real-time optimisation of decisions related to long-term planning, short-term sequencing and production control.” To reach the status of an industrial proven concept( technology readiness level TRL 7 according to NASA scale), Real-Time Mining conducts active research and technical development to in two large demonstration cases, the Neves Corvo mine in Portugal and the Reiche Zeche mine in Freiberg.
Then there are the three mentioned European research projects, all funded by the H2020 Framework Programme, that were also the subject of papers at the event. Combined mineralogical and chemical analyses on drill cores are highly demanded by mining and metallurgical companies to speed up exploration, mining and define geometallurgical parameters for beneficiation. Furthermore, high quality coherent and complete drill cores are needed to obtain reliable analyses for more accurate geomodels, resource and reserve estimates. At present, analyses are done by exploiting only a single technique, such as hyperspectral imaging, XRF or LIBS. The coupling of different analytical instruments is still a technological challenge. The SOLSA project target is to construct an expert system coupling sonic drilling with XRF, XRD, hyperspectral imaging and Raman spectroscopy.
Secondly, UNEXMIN( Underwater Explorer for Flooded Mines) is developing a multi-platform robotic system for the autonomous exploration and mapping of flooded underground mines. The robotic system – UX-1 – will use non-invasive methods for the 3D mapping of abandoned underground flooded mines, bringing new important geological data that currently cannot be obtained by other means without having significant costs and safety risks.
Finally, already covered in IM previously, the project Viable Alternative Mine Operating System(¡ VAMOS!) project is the development of a prototype mining system to extract raw materials from a water-filled open-pit mine. These inland mines have been considered depleted in the past because with previous mining techniques it was not economically viable anymore to continue operations. Today, with rising prices of certain rare ores it might become interesting again to re-open abandoned mines, in order to access deeper seated minerals. However, conventional mining techniques require high treatment and dewatering costs. Moreover, from an environmental perspective it is desirable that the water table of these flooded inland mines is not changed. Therefore, the ¡ VAMOS! project aims to develop a new remotely controlled underwater mining machine and associated launch and recovery equipment, which provides a mining technique that is environmentally and economically more viable.
Paul Moore Editor paul @ im-mining. com
NOVEMBER 2017 | International Mining 3