DIGITALISATION
My Sandvik Insight is an easy-to-use digital service solution that provides up-to-date knowledge about a fleet ' s performance – whenever and wherever needed. Through My Sandvik Insight, depending on the model, users can get a vital view of equipment, including needs for preventive maintenance, utilisation reports and location of the Sandvik equipment
If you think high-tech is only for advanced countries, you would be wrong. Africa is the current Fleet focus with two systems being put in: one for Resolute’ s Syama sub-level cave mine in Mali and one for Randgold at Kibali in the DRC. Both applications combine loaders and trucks working together to achieve high utilisation. At Syama it will automate a ramp truck application.
Located in the south of Mali, West Africa, Syama gold mine lies some 30 km from the Côte d’ Ivoire border and 300 km southeast of the Malian capital Bamako.
Highlights from the Syama underground DFS( June 2016) include: n LOM All-In Sustaining-Costs of $ 881 / oz and strong LOM margins n Initial operating life of more than 12 years n Total Syama gold mine production will grow to 250,000 oz / y n Pre-production capital of $ 95 million is being fully funded from current balance sheet and future operating cashflows. Kibali comprises 10 permits covering an area of about 1,836 km ² in the Moto goldfields of the northeast DRC, some 560 km northeast of the city of Kisangani and 150 km west of the Ugandan border town of Arua. Kibali is a joint venture between Randgold( 45 % and operator), AngloGold Ashanti( 45 %) and the Congolese parastatal SOKIMO( 10 %), and represents an investment of more than $ 2.5 billion by the partners.
The mine is serviced by a 751 m shaft, 8 m in diameter, with a capacity of 3.4 Mt / y. Automated Sandvik LHDs feed from ore-passes to the crushers. There are two sets of crushers underground with 1,000 t capacity for coarse and fine bin, each.
There is also a decline with a 600,000 t / y trucking capacity.
Kibali employs a high production, large multilevel transverse longhole and longitudinal longhole open stoping mining method. Like Syama, it breaks away from the traditional African mining model with an integrated automated ore handling and hoisting system: n Multiple driverless Sandvik LHDs operating in full automation mode n Single haulage drive with high strength rollercompacted concrete hauling surface improves efficiencies.
Data gathering and management
The growth in onboard instrumentation and data gathering capabilities in heavy equipment presents opportunities to employ advanced analytics and models to identify and resolve productivity issues and improve process optimisation and performance.
Deployment of digital technologies is expected to create as much as $ 100 billion value to resource-producing companies by 2035, according to a report from analyst firm McKinsey. n Smart and connected equipment will be the norm n Conquering a new( IoT) technology infrastructure will be critical for success n Sensor-based features and services will transform industry. Sandvik’ s business area Mining and Rock Technology has teamed up with IBM to jointly develop new offerings in data-driven productivity and predictive maintenance services for the industry.
The first wave of work has been done on loaders and trucks, connecting up to 15 units and integrating live data from multiple on- and off-board systems to run the analytic algorithms.
“ Sandvik has been working with mining customers on mine automation and remote monitoring of machines for more than 20 years. Our OptiMine ® and AutoMine solutions are also important systems for data collection and
consolidation that provide us with a great platform to get off to a flying start with IBM analytics solutions. So it is a natural step for us to collaborate with a company like IBM – experts in advanced analytics cognitive computing and modelling – to create even more value to our customers,” says Lars Engström, President, Sandvik Mining and Rock Technology.“ This collaboration fits well with our service portfolio, which is based on traditional lifecycle, enhanced technical, and business services, all of which are aligned to improve safety, secure competences for mine operations and increase our customers’ productivity.”
Combining information services, remote data collection and data analysis will enable greater effectiveness by improving productivity, saving cost and reducing time wastage.
It helps mining companies make wellinformed decisions regarding production plans and maintenance schedules, and provides the opportunity to monitor and improve upon general machine utilisation levels. This will lead to higher yield at lower cost of ore per tonne.
Sandvik has already seen cost per tonne decreases of 20-50 % with some of the latest digital technologies, and aims to push that even further with this new analytical capability.
Anders Fredholm at IBM Europe says the two companies aim“ to build collaboration around innovation and delivery of smarter digital services offerings.”
OptiMine is a modular set of digital tools from Sandvik delivering transparency and control to underground mining operations. It is evolving with a new performance-enhancing data analytics solution.
OptiMine Analytics is the next generation of OptiMine, transforming data into process improvements via predictive insights and actionable dashboards embedded into a mine’ s operation management systems.
It enables mining companies to gain operational improvements in their mining process, providing easy-to-use real time and automated dashboards with comprehensive process overview to drive process improvements. OptiMine improves planning through data-driven simulations and then continuously optimises production cycles with real-time data. By drilling down into the Overall Equipment Effectiveness, OptiMine Analytics intuitively pinpoints bottlenecks and areas for fleet and operation improvement in terms of mechanical availability, utilisation and the quality of production. Insights into operator actions improve safety by identifying areas for training proactively.
OptiMine Analytics draws and uses data from other OptiMine digital tools including Monitoring, Location Tracking, Scheduler and
10 International Mining | MAY 2018