Cirrus Systems will deploy its Haul Truck Priority Service™ (HTPS™) system at a Newmont mine in Northern Nevada. The HTPS system is the initial mining development of Cirrus’ real-time control and management capabilities built around its successful Cirrus Systems platform, enabling users to monitor and control traffic systems concurrently. Real-time operational control, analysis and adjustments can provide users with significant gains in operational efficiency, cost controls, productivity maximisation, and enhanced safety. Additional applications beyond haul-truck priority are planned for the near future.
Reporting one case study, Cirrus Systems notes that “with stripping ratios usually at the edge of profitability, extreme efficiency is required for open-pit mining to be economically rewarding. To reach necessary operating efficiencies, mine operators make massive investments in capital equipment and manage that equipment with the goal of maximising Total Equipment Effectiveness Performance (TEEP).
“At the same time, severe hazards are part of every mine operating environment and require an uncompromising focus on safety. Haul truck efficiency is a critical operational component and the traffic they create plays a crucial role in mine safety. The hauling process is one of the key components of mining operations and represents a significant cost associated with fuels, tires, lubricants, oils, and the general maintenance of the haul truck fleet.”
In this example, Cirrus Systems was introduced to this accepted business cost and evaluated the ability to provide quantifiable haulage improvements attributable to the HTPS implementation, demonstrate added safety for the cross traffic at the instrumented intersection and identify additional problems and opportunities associated with the system.
A total of 18 vehicles from the mine’s haul truck fleet were instrumented with the necessary hardware to allow the Cirrus HTPS to collect the position and other relevant data from the haul trucks as part of a single-intersection program. The generated datasets were used to measure haul truck performance during regular haulage operation within the HTPS environment. The system is designed to work in medium to high-traffic intersections, replacing passive traffic signs with Cirrus’ proprietary automated system that allow haul trucks (and/or any other selected mobile equipment) to be continuously tracked in real-time, giving priority to the haul trucks at the intersection. Quantitative data included time and speed through the intersection, and a fuel consumption data logger was installed to estimate average fuel savings. Qualitative data consisted of an assessment performed to evaluate the operator’s work environment, potential human factor challenges, and safety issues while negotiating the intersection.
The overall results revealed significant decreases in time and increases in speed for all haul trucks going through the intersection in five of the six possible directions. The HTPS saved an average of 12.21 seconds and 0.1760 gallons of fuel per occurrence. In 546 passes through the intersection during the evaluation, for haul trucks traveling in the direction from ‘Open Pit’ to a ‘Main Street,’ the savings were the equivalent of 1.85 truck hours and 96.10 gallons of fuel. With a haul truck cost per hour at $300 and the fuel cost per gallon at $3.50, it is an equivalent of $555.56 saved in time and $336.34 saved in fuel. Using the mine plan for this intersection, these savings equate to estimates of more than $30,000 per year. When projecting these savings into a second intersection, with higher haul-traffic volume (~50 Mt/y), the total annual savings for that new intersection is estimated to be over $700,000, in addition to the non-quantifiable safety component.
Cirrus Systems, a private company headquartered in Northern Nevada, helps customers achieve productivity and performance goals by connecting devices, data, and people. Building on a proven platform that employs standards-based protocols, Cirrus Systems designs, builds and scales an array of systems providing businesses with vital information facilitating real-time management scrutiny and adjustments.
