Resolute Mining has shown off the cost benefits of incorporating Sandvik Mining and Rock Technology’s autonomous haulage solution into its planned underground gold mine at Syama in Mali.
The AutoMine® and OptiMine® systems for planning, analysis, process optimisation and automation, and a full fleet of Sandvik TH663 trucks, LH621, LH517 and LH514E loaders, have cut all-in sustaining costs to $746 per ounce, from $881/oz, according to an updated definitive feasibility study for Syama Underground.
This cost reduction also came about following a 38% increase in underground reserves to 3 million ounces of gold and a 40% drop in planned power costs.
Syama was commissioned in 2009 and Resolute has plans to commence sub-level caving at the underground mine in December of this year. Once in operation, the underground mine is expected to produce at a 2.4 million tonne per annum rate.
John Welborn, Resolute Managing Director and CEO, said the sub-level cave mine plan at Syama lends itself to automation: “Our partnership with Sandvik to deliver autonomous haulage and trucking enables major productivity and cost improvements over the original DFS.”
The company spelt out several advantages to using automation at the mine:
• Increased machine productivity and performance
• Reduction in number of machines required leading to capital and maintenance savings
• Reduced risk and better safety outcomes including reduced emissions, noise, and vibration
• Reduction in required personnel underground
• Lower production costs per tonne
• Greater control of mining with less variation which results in less dilution
• Reduction in equipment wear and damage
• Increased productivity and efficiency and optimised scheduling
• Greater machine life
• Opportunity for mining rate increases without requirement for additional infrastructure; and
• Ability to train the Syama workforce using new intuitive technologies.
As part of its partnership with Sandvik, Resolute will develop Syama Underground as an automated mine focusing on load and haul and semi-autonomous drilling with continuous operations. The LH414E tethered electrical loader has been selected as the main loader for stope extraction with the TH663 truck used for ore and waste haulage. The system is set for commissioning in late 2018.
Resolute has engaged Dr John Cronin to facilitate the Sandvik agreement and provide assistance with implementation of the automation. Resolute says Cronin is a globally recognised robotics expert in the mining industry and has “specialist expertise in complex technical project management and robotics in unmanned vehicles”.
He was previously Automation Project Manager at the CMOC Northparkes base metal mine in New South Wales, where he completed the full automation of the world’s most automated underground mine. Northparkes currently has fully autonomous 50 t vehicles roaming the production level 24 hours a day, seven days a week with no operators in the cabins.
Cronin said: “This is the mine we have been talking about building for over a decade. It brings together the automated truck experience from Finsch (Petra Diamonds underground diamond mine in South Africa) and the automated loader experience from Northparkes.
“Combined with a centralised scheduling and visualisation system and a mine-wide wireless network, we will have real-time, closed loop control of the entire underground production task.”
