In July 2012 Remote Control Technologies visited the OyuTolgoi mine, located in southern Mongolia around 80 km north of the border with China, to install and commission three CM2000D remote control systems onto three Komatsu D475A dozers. RCT also provided product skills training for operators, trainers and maintenance personnel at the mine. RCT had been approached by the customer’s engineers who wanted a solution for the safety of dozer operators who had the task of pushing the material into stockpile crushers. “There is a constant risk the dozer with operator can fall into the crusher,” RCT says.
The solution was to remote control the dozers doing this work, taking the operator from the dozer to a safe position. Control Master® CM2000D systems where installed into the new dozers. This Line of Sight system allows the operator to control the dozer from a safe distance, away from danger with greater overall visibility.
Control Master Level 1 Safe Operating Procedures Training and Level 2 Safe Testing and Maintenance Procedures Training for service people were conducted onsite with operators. A translator was provided to facilitate communication between trainers and operators. Once the system had been installed onto the dozers, the operators were given a test area to work the remote control units to develop their experience.
Elsewhere, African Underground Mining Services (AUMS) recently purchased for its mining contracts in West Africa the latest version of the Control Master suite of guidance technology used with tele-remote control operation of two underground LHDs. In both mining operations, AUMS was looking for increased productivity, safety and efficiency, using proven worldclass technology.
RCT supplied and commissioned the first of the two loaders in Mali, at the Gara Decline of the Randgold Resources-owned Loulo gold mine in July 2012. The system was installed on a Caterpillar R1700G SBR LHD, and Control Master components were installed and commissed to a Telecabin built by AUMS.
The Telecabin enables safe and comfortable remote control operation of the loader from a safe distance, using a system of cameras mounted on the loader. The cameras send images of the loading operation to the operator stationed inside the Telecabin. The operator controls the loader from a fully equipped tele-remote chair.
The second system supplied to AUMS was commissioned in August 2012 at the Kinross-owned Chirano mining operation in Ghana for the Paobase underground mine.
This project was for the supply and commissioning of the system onto a Caterpillar R2900G LHD, operated from a mobile Control Master Modular Teleremote Control Platform, also supplied by RCT. The mobile platform can be fitted onto a personnel carrier, which allows for increased mobility of the tele-remote mining operations.
This option allows for the operation of the loader on remote control from a personnel carrier parked in a crosscut, safely away from the danger of the loader in the open stope. The operator controls the loader with vision displayed on the video monitors.
The guidance system employs lasers to avoid the machine hitting the walls and major obstacles, whilst keeping it in the optimal tramming path or middle of the drive. RCT says “the numerous advantages of the guidance component of the Control Master suite of remote control systems include:
- Reduces machine damage, prolonging the life of the machine
- Increased productivity, more buckets each shift; faster tramming
- Real Time responsive
- Wall hug feature
- Allows the machine to travel at higher gears
- Allows the machine to travel at the correct speed to suit the conditions of the mine
- Reduces operator fatigue, and improves the operator’s working conditions.”