IntelliSense.io and Antofagasta showcase mill optimisation project on Chile Day

To coincide with ‘Chile Day’ and Chilean President Bachelet’s visit to the UK as a guest of the government, the Newton/Prosperity Science and Innovation Program held a showcase of its innovative projects with their partners at the University College London on Friday, May 13. This flagship event was attended by Chilean government ministers including the Minister for Mining, Aurora Williams, among other guests representing the Chilean Senate and scientific and development agencies.

Cambridge, UK-based analytics technology specialist IntelliSense.io and Chilean mining major Antofogasta Minerals showcased their project, supported by the Newton-Picarte Fund, to deploy a instrumentation and predictive optimisation application that will increase efficiency and sustainability at the SAG mill and grinding circuit of Minera Centinela in the Antofagasta mining region in Chile. The project will deploy Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) technologies and simulation modelling to reduce energy consumption.

IntelliSense.io Founder and CEO Sam Bose and Non Executive Director Mark Mathias were joined by the AMSA team of Antofagasta PLC CEO Ivan Arriagada; Diego Hernandez, Advisor to the Board; Andrew Lyndsey, Director of Antofagasta PLC’s London office; and Marubeni MD Mokoto Toromoto, for the showcasing the project and greeting of the Chilean government delegation. The joint project was received with much interest from Williams, who expressed interest in learning how the innovative solution could be deployed on a wider scale in the Chilean mining industry.

“We were delighted to attend Friday’s event to demonstrate as a company our commitment to invest in innovations that yield greater efficiencies, reduce operational expense and encourage greater sustainability, not only across the Antofagasta Minerals mining portfolio, but also throughout Chile,” said Arriagada. “This project exemplifies our efforts to be industry leaders in sustainability and optimised operations through our ‘Mine to Mill’ operational efficiency program.”

IntelliSense.io technology is used to optimise processes and systems through a combination of sensors, software and simulation delivering “Optimisation-as-a-Service” with no upfront capex, fast deployment and continuous solution upgrades delivering rapid return on investment to mining operations across the world.

For the project, the Minera Centinela team, led by AMSA Development Manager Cesar Jimenez, will work closely with the IntelliSense.io team to provide technical knowledge by aiding IntelliSense.io with their existing technical and working knowledge of the SAG mill, coupled with assisting the modeling team in evaluating the mathematical models to ensure the end solution meets the project objectives.

“This project will allow Minera Centinela to run their SAG mill with greater accuracy in an continuous optimised state, based on the predicted material type,” said Bose. “Minera Centinela will reduce operational variability, improve energy efficiency and extend liner wear rate through the application of real-time diagnostics, simulations and predictive controls.” He added, “To have such great feedback from the Chile delegation for our work in mining innovation reinforces our belief that modern computing, communications and advanced data analytics can make a fundamental change in the operational economics of the mining industry that is critical in an ever changing commodity market landscape.”

The SAG Mill Optimisation and Innovative Instrumentation Development (SMOID) project for Antofagasta Minerals, Minera Centinela Operations, is funded by the Newton-Picarte fund. The Newton-Picarte fund is a joint fund between the UK and Chile to promote scientific research and innovation in order to contribute to the economic development and social welfare of Chile. There is a designated budget from CORFO, the Chilean funding agency and through Innovate UK, the UK funding agency, to support partners.