Rio Tinto is joining forces with CRCMining, Newcrest Mining and Elexon Electronics in the development of a cutting-edge, real-time tracking system for material within block caves, on target to be operational in 2014. For more effective caving based mining methods, technologies must be developed to better control the caving process in a manner that ensures good fragmentation and minimises ore dilution. The key to this is to measure the direction of flow of material within the caving zones as well as its degree of fragmentation. This information is necessary in order to control the ingress of waste material from outside the ore zone into the ore. It also provides necessary data to develop and validate caving models to improve cave designs and ensure improved cave performance.
The proposed technique attempts to track the location of beacons placed in the cave. The approach uses a modulated magnetic carrier approach to track the beacon through the caving rock. The cave tracking system has three major components:
- Beacons – devices that are placed in the cave and tracked during caving
- Detectors that measure the signal generated by the beacons
- Central Cave Tracking unit collects measurements made by each detector to determine the 3D location of the each beacon detected.
The system also requires a communication infrastructure to transmit the detector measurements to the central cave tracking unit. System benefits for the mining industry include:
- Real-time mapping of caving material movement
- Minimise dilution and maximise recovery from cave
- Test validity of existing caving models and develop new models
- Design better cave layouts using improved models.
CRCMining established the concept for the Cave Tracker before inviting Newcrest Mining and Elexon Electronics to develop the concept into a commercial cave tracking system. Commercial development of the Cave Tracker technology remains on track with Rio Tinto recently joining the partnership between CRCMining, Newcrest Mining and Elexon Electronics. This will allow continued progress towards cave deployment testing as a first generation commercial product in multiple operational mines by mid 2014.