AUTOMATION
Both Komatsu (left) and Caterpillar (right) celebrated major autonomous haulage milestones in November 2018
Vale, Rio Tinto), copper (Teck’s Highland Valley
Copper) and oil sands (Imperial Oil Kearl).
Initial development of Cat autonomous mining
trucks began more than 20 years ago. “In 1996
Caterpillar debuted the first autonomous mining
truck at MINExpo,” said Michael Murphy, chief
engineer of Cat MineStar. “Caterpillar was an
early adopter of GPS guidance technology, and
we had success with it in a number of
applications. At that time, Caterpillar focused on
developing the building blocks for automation.
These technologies are now the core of MineStar
capabilities, which assist onboard operators and
enable teleremote, semi-autonomous and
autonomous machine operation.”
Currently, Cat autonomous trucks are
operating in Australia, South America and North
America. A fleet of 70 Cat autonomous trucks in
Australia has achieved productivity increases of
30% at significantly reduced costs. Driven by
additional process improvements, greater
productivity gains are possible.
The current Cat autonomous truck fleet is
primarily composed of Cat 793F trucks, which
IM spoke to Brendon Cullen, RCT Product Manager Automation & Control, for an in-depth view on its market
position and plans
Q In surface mining the focus has moved from new fleets of new
“autonomous” machines, to retrofitting automation capability onto
existing machines, is underground going the same way?
A The underground mines typically will operate with a combination of new
and old machines as well as some mixed manufacturers because of the
specialised nature of some of the machinery. In the past underground
loaders were used in a development capacity until a certain time when
they were put onto teleremote. The reasons behind this were the amount
of damage the machines sustained on tele remote, with the introduction
of RCT’s Guidance technology, keeping the machines in the optimal travel
path, this damage has been largely reduced. We now often see brand new
machines being installed with Guidance as well as older gear and rebuilt
machines. As automation is increasing and personnel are being moved to
the surface, niche applications such as blasthole rigs and high pressure
water sprayers are having to also be tele-remote controlled which is
where RCT can provide a fully integrated and interoperable platform
across multiple machine types and fleets.
Q What are the reasons? Cost savings, ability to trial automation first on
existing machines to prove its gains before making bigger investments?
A The reasons for automation underground are predominantly based
around safety, moving personnel out of the working area, in the comfort
of a temperature controlled office on the surface. This increases
productivity and efficiencies by enabling the machines to be operated
over times where typically they would have to be parked up such as shift
changes and blasting times. Multiple machine and multiple fleet control
also allow one operator to control more than one machine such as a
loader and rockbreaker again increasing the efficiency of the operation as
the loader will still be able to tram under automation, with the
rockbreaker operated during this time period.
Q Do you find you have better inroads with many small to mid-cap miners
because you offer them a better customised route to automation than the
big OEMs?
A The understanding of the level of change management involved in
deploying automation to site is increasing, we are finding that all miners
16 International Mining | APRIL 2019
regardless of size see RCT as having a highly advanced offer that is able
to be tailored to their particular set of circumstances. Our customers
understand that they are entering into a partnership with RCT and that
working as such helps achieve their goals much faster. The fact that RCT
has over 40 years in machine integration experience lends us to be able to
offer a whole fleet solution. RCT works with multiple mining companies
around the world regardless of size. As our technology is OEM agnostic
we have the ability to integrate with multiple machines of any make or
model on a single mine site. Our specialised Custom department has vast
experience creating bespoke solutions to the unique requests of mining
companies regardless of their size.
Q 10-15 years ago the prediction would be that we would have wholly
automated “mine factories” by now with fully automated fleets…but we
haven’t – why not?
A Automation has shown sometimes exponential increases in damage
reduction and efficiencies, however, at times it has produced unexpected
results which has then moved the constraint in production to another
area. In one instance RCT found that by introducing Guidance to
underground loaders operating in retreating stope application, that the
material is able to be moved faster, filling up the stockpile quicker. The
trucks weren’t able to keep up pushing the constraint to trucking capacity.
This forced a the customer to increase their stockpile sizes to keep the
loader working. At times though to change the mining method in an
existing mine potentially is very difficult, the manned and unmanned
vehicle interactions need to be carefully managed and systems such as
personnel and machine movement need to be taken into consideration. To
do this the mine will also need a very robust digital communications
system underground, which can also become very expensive. That said
developing mines are taking these learnings into consideration and
designing their mines around automation, including dedicated hauling
loops, large extraction levels and orepasses with multiple machines able
to pull from different areas and tip into single passes.