Industry leading, fleet management and mine production solution, MICROMINE Pitram, has been rolled out at Kirkland Lake Gold’s underground Fosterville operation in Victoria to support the miner’s low-cost production growth strategy. The implementation brings the total number of sites in Australia using Pitram to 22, further extending Pitram’s presence in the industry. Pitram Operations Manager Daren Hinchliffe explained the system was selected over a number of other vendors due to the team’s in-depth knowledge and experience in mining and systems software, gained over more than three decades.
He said the software solution was ideal for Fosterville as it provided an intuitive, quick and highly reliable real-time data capture and analysis, which could bolster operational safety and efficiency and support the miner’s low-cost production and exploration strategy. Fosterville, which is 100% owned by Kirkland Lake Gold, was named Australian Mining Mine of the Year in 2018. The underground gold mining operation has increased its output rapidly since operations commenced in 2005 and in 2018 Fosterville Gold Mine produced a record 356,230 oz at an average grade of 24.9 g/t.
“Pitram is a flexible and robust solution that is relied upon by mining companies across the globe,” Hinchcliffe said. “Fosterville was a natural fit as we could use Pitram’s voice capture software to extract information received via two-way radio and plot that against schedules, targets and surveys. “The Fosterville team can now track results in real-time, analyse data, better manage start and end of shift control, pinpoint weaknesses in the production pipeline and even track lone workers to enhance safety management,” he added. “At a practical level, it removes time-intensive manual administration tasks.”
Kirkland Lake Gold has three key targets for its Fosterville operation – to deliver low-cost production, advance its exploration and development pipeline, and maintain a large resource and reserve base. “Pitram is a sophisticated, intuitive and cost-effective platform to support these targets,” added Hinchcliffe. “It also integrates with the multiple information technology systems already in place to aid information sharing between systems, saving time and improve the value and accuracy of all of the data collected.”
Kirkland Gold’s Mine Business Improvements Engineer Ben Edwards commented on the Pitram implementation: “We understood the benefit of having a single database and using Pitram’s Data Acquisition for managing our high grade ore movements. Once Pitram was selected, we really put the pressure on Daren and his team to have the system installed and operational as soon as possible. Daren and his team at MICROMINE pulled out all the stops and achieved this ahead of schedule.”
