Industry intelligence
[4] MINING MIRROR JANUARY 2018
The big world beckons for Master Drilling
One of Master Drilling’s raisebore
drilling machines. The Fochville-based
company is expanding its operations in
India and Australia.
HARMONY THROWS WEIGHT BEHIND
ROCK ENGINEERING
In June 2013, the University of Pretoria
(UP) established a Rock Engineering
Chair in the UP’s Mining Engineering
Department.
The initial aim was to conduct research
on specific rock engineering issues, to
provide a safer working environment in
deep level hard rock mines. To facilitate
this research, Harmony Gold Mining
provided financial support required for
the initial research period between 2014
and 2016.
According to Navin Singh, the mining
and minerals resources manager of
the Council for Scientific and Industrial
Research (CSIR), the technical
challenges to mines today are even
more severe, compounded by economic
constraints and the increasing cost of
labour. “These concerns highlight the
need for renewed research in the mining
industry as expressed in the creation
of a Mining Resilience Research Centre
(MRRC) at the University of Pretoria.
The MRRC is an active participant in
the South African Mining Extraction
Research, Development and Innovation
(SAMERDI) strategy managed by the
CSIR,” says Singh.
Universities, the industry and
government work collaboratively to
research critical issues within the
mining industry – collectively called
SAMERDI. The aim is to develop
technological solutions to improve
safety and productivity to reduce costs
and extend the life of mines and their
benefit to communities. In the process,
mechanisation and non-explosive face
advance methods are two of the thematic
areas highlighted for research. In both
these areas of research, the increase in
advance rates to improve productivity
are critical. The impact of substantial
advance rates (continuous mining) on the
safety of personnel within the working
places, due to the perceived impact of
seismic activity, could be significant.
“The importance of this work in the
current and future hard rock mining
environment in the South African
mining industry – and to ensure safer,
deep level mining – has propelled
Harmony to extend their financial
support for this research to the end
of 2019 by R5-million. This support
allows the research to calibrate
the developed software with actual
underground closure and seismic
behaviour at selected Harmony
operations,” says Peter Steenkamp,
CEO of Harmony.
South African-based
Master Drilling is
increasing its global
footprint. The drilling
services company recently
announced that it will
support Indian diversified
miners Vedanta, listed
on the London Stock
Exchange. One of
Vedanta’s operations,
Hindustan Zinc, has
contracted Master Drilling
to do the raisebore drilling
work and the initial
contract is worth about
USD6-million.
In Australia, a large
raisebore machine will
be contracted out to an
underground mining
contractor on a gold project.
The rental contract, the
first such agreement which
sees Master Drilling supply
the machine without
manpower, will run for an
initial period of one year.
“These two deals mark
our entry into India and
Australia which are two
new geographies for Master
Drilling. Both contracts
are also in commodities
targeted in our strategic
plan, that is gold and
zinc. We will continue to
explore new geographies
and further diversify our
contracting approach to
maximise the utilisation
rates of our machines and
further develop our global
footprint,” says Danie
Pretorius, CEO at Master
Drilling.
Pretorius adds that
both contracts relate to
underground ventilation
works to be completed over
the next two years.
Mines must embrace digital revolution
The digital revolution
could help address the
operational complexities
mining operations have
been grappling with
for years, according to
Wilhelm Swart, vice
president for mining,
minerals and metals Africa
Business at Schneider
Electric.
“The digital revolution
could help address this
complexity and provide
a competitive advantage,
yet many companies have
not leveraged the latest
technologies available to
make their operations
more efficient,” says Swart.
Schneider Electric
recently announced
‘EcoStruxure for Mining,
Minerals and Metals’, a
new system architecture
and platform that
leverages innovative
digital technologies and
the Industrial Internet
of Things (IIoT). The
new system allows
companies to seamlessly
connect, collect, analyse
and act on data in real
time to improve safety,
efficiency, reliability and
sustainability.
“EcoStruxure is not just
another platform limited
to asset performance
analytics. It is a complete
set of digital technologies
and applications that can
improve the performance
of the entire organisation,
from people to operations
to supply chain,”
concludes Swart.