Consolidated Mining & Civil (CMC) has acquired a Maptek Sentry monitoring system, primarily for use at Havilah Resources’ Portia gold mine in South Australia. The Sentry solution is an active monitoring system for tracking movement and notifying stakeholders about potentially unsafe areas of an open-pit operation. A long range I-Site 8820 laser scanner and dedicated software help sites measure and analyse unpredictable wall movement.
The I-Site point cloud data which is used in the Sentry solution can also be processed and modelled for survey reconciliation, stockpile volumetrics, geological mapping and kinematic analysis. Sentry allows several areas to be monitored within a single scan extent. Animations, continual analysis and graphical reports provide comprehensive information for reviewing results to guide future monitoring.
CMC is responsible for removing all of the overburden and bringing the ore to the surface at the Portia gold mine which lies 100 km northwest of the Broken Hill regional mining centre. At Portia the gold occurs in a 2-3 m layer below 75 m of clay overburden (about 7 million m3), which is being removed to access the ore.
At Portia the Sentry solution will be applied to track movement and stability of walls in the open pit. The I-Site laser scanner will also be used for routine survey applications throughout the operation. A rugged Maptek mount attaching the I-Site laser scanner to the roof of a site vehicle, gives CMC greater flexibility for surveying large areas efficiently.
“We went with Maptek for several reasons. Price, local support, ease of use and the combination of survey and monitoring applications makes the choice obvious’, explained CMC Principal Steve Radford. “Prior to mining commencement we’ve remodelled and constructed 35 km of access roads and an airstrip as well as establishing infrastructure such as workers’ camp, on-site concrete batching plant and maintenance facilities.”
“In remote environments where you need to ensure worker safety, Sentry provides a diagnostic tracking tool with clear visualisation and analysis capabilities so we can make reliable engineering decisions.” he said.
The Consolidated Group of companies employs more than 450 people and owns and operates more than 700 items of plant in its general contracting business across Australia. CMC has a long term solid affiliation with the Broken Hill region in New South Wales, successfully conducting major earth moving contracts, specialising in open cut mining. Activities include contract crushing and screening, bulk haulage and open-pit mining.
