WORLD PROSPECTS
Weir adds : “ Miners are increasingly focused on improving the safety , efficiency and sustainability of their operations . Motion Metrics has developed proprietary products and solutions that supports these critical ambitions leveraging innovative Machine Vision , distributed AI and machine learning . Motion Metrics produces smart , rugged cameras that monitor and provide valuable and timely data on equipment performance , faults , payloads and rock fragmentation . This data is then analysed using embedded and cloud-based machine learning to provide real-time feedback to the mining operation . This enables immediate identification of potential issues that could impact safety and cause expensive unplanned downtime . This includes boulder and foreign body detection to dislodged ground engaging tools that can critically damage crushing equipment if undetected . It also provides information that can be used to optimise asset efficiency , supporting
better decision making as miners seek to increase productivity while reducing energy consumption , particularly in areas such as comminution ( crushing , screening and grinding ), one of the most energy-intensive processes in mining .”
These technologies were initially developed for GET applications but have recently been extended into a suite of products and solutions that can be applied from drill and blast through to primary processing . Motion Metrics technology is currently used on more than 80 mine sites and its customers include some of the world ’ s largest mining companies . Its revenues are generated from the initial sale of equipment and subsequent recurring aftermarket revenues including subscriptions to its cloud computing platform , services and spare parts ; a model that is highly complementary to Weir ’ s aftermarket-based business model .
Motion Metrics was founded in 1999 by Dr Shahram Tafazoli . In addition to its headquarters
in Vancouver , Canada , Motion Metrics has offices in Chile , Australia , Brazil , Russia and South Africa . The business employs some 125 people focused largely on research and development , alongside sales and field support . Dr Tafazoli will continue to lead the business when it joins the Weir Group , overseeing the new Weir centre for excellence in AI and Machine Vision technology . Weir ’ s existing Canadian operations employ some 600 people and include manufacturing facilities as well as sales and service centres . https :// www . global . weir ; www . motionmetrics . com
Rio ’ s WTS2 achieves first ore
Mondium says first ore has been achieved at Rio Tinto ’ s Western Turner Syncline Phase 2 project ( WTS2 ) in Western
On July 18 , 2019 , Chinese and Ecuadorian government officials and shareholder leaders pressed the start button on the Mirador Copper Mine in Ecuador . It will operate for another 27 years at least , and is located in Tundayme in Zamora-Chinchipe Province , in the southeastern part of the Republic of Ecuador . The mine is held by Quito-based company EcuaCorriente SA ( ECSA ) which is part of a consortium called CRCC-Tongguan between two Chinese companies : Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group Holdings and China Railway Construction Corporation Ltd ( CRRC ) which also control the operating company China Railway Construction Copper Crown Investment Co Ltd .
The construction of the first phase of the project is aimed at the Mirador copper mine , which has been completed and put into production . The designed mining and processing production scale is 20 Mt of ore processed per year , with 60,000 t daily . The annual output of copper concentrate will be 354,000 t and the amount of copper metal
Australia . Rio Tinto awarded Perth-based Mondium a A $ 400 million ($ 276 million ) contract to design and construct the mine in early 2020 . This saw the company , a joint venture involving Monadelphous and Lycopodium , undertake all engineering and design , procurement and site construction works associated with the WTS2 development , including the process plant , overland conveyor and non-process infrastructure .
Celebrating the achievement , Mondium said it was a significant achievement for its EPC team , Rio Tinto and delivery partners .
Mirador continues ramp-up
It added : “ 593 days and more than two million
96,000 t . The second phase of the expansion will develop the north orebody and eventually see a production scale of 120,000 t of ore per day . Ramp up has been delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic including operation suspension between March 20 and August 26 , 2020 , but is now back on track .
Up until now , the mine has been using a large fleet of Sinotruk 70 t tipper trucks , similar to what is used in many Chinese mines but Chinese mining equipment major XCMG has recently shipped a fleet of equipment worth over $ 40 million to South America including a number of machines for Mirador , which includes a variety of models but among these its first large scale mining equipment including a 400 t XE4000 hydraulic mining shovel and a 260 ton class electric drive rigid truck – an XDE260 . The rest of the operation has also mainly
site hours worked culminated in the first loader bucket tipping high-grade ore into the WTS2 run of mine bin . Forty minutes later , the ore was discharged to the WTS1 belt and delivered to the Tom Price stockpiles .”
Back in November 2019 , Rio said it would invest $ 749 million in the development of WTS2 at its Greater Tom Price operations , facilitating mining of existing and new deposits and including construction of a new crusher as well as a 13 km conveyor . In addition to this , the haul truck fleet at the mine would be fitted with Autonomous Haulage System technology to enable autonomous haulage . This fleet has since been commissioned . www . riotinto . com ; https :// mondium . com
used Chinese supplied equipment including from CITIC Heavy Industries in Luoyang which supplied two sets of 10.97 m × 5.4 m SAG mills and 7.9 m × 13.6 m ball mills ; and Taiyuan Heavy Industry ( TYHI ) which supplied crushing stations and other large building fabrications . China ’ s BGRIMM supplied the flotation plant for the project – 16 sets of KYF-320 and 18 sets of KYF-70 flotation cells . http :// www . ecsa . com . ec ; www . xcmg . com
8 International Mining | NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2021