Murray Macnab, Global Director, Mining & Mine Development at WorleyParsons, in his presentation at the 2014 International Mining & Resources Conference in Melbourne, Australia, argued that the rapid development and application of digital technologies, automation and mechanisation is fundamental to meeting the challenge of safety in future capital intensive shaft development projects.
“WorleyParsons is acutely aware of the safety issues that come with the development of new underground mines,” he said. “However, by applying learnings from other resource industry sectors such as oil and gas, and working in partnership with other stakeholders in the South African mining industry, we can challenge and potentially improve the current status quo within the sector. Our fundamental belief is that all work can be executed safely.”
Macnab challenged conference participants by asking how the mining industry can leverage the huge amount of data, information and knowledge that is now available both in the mining sector and in other industries to address technical challenges. “It’s a fact that today our shaft sinking industry achieves less than 50% of the peak productivity performances recorded 50 years ago,” he continued. “While we certainly operate in a technically sophisticated industry, there are industries where project delivery and engineering is further advanced. I believe there is an opportunity to extract learnings from these industries, which have seen improved performance across the whole of asset lifecycle with the extensive application of technologies. With the right know-how and industry experience, leveraging such technologies will return us back to the highs of the past, with a predictable safety outcome of zero harm.
“There have been shafts completed to 1,000 m and 1,700 m depths without a lost time accident. Then there have been subsequent shafts with multiple fatalities. This can’t continue.” Macnab pointed to mechanisation/automation combined with information technology as the answer. In the shaft build phase it is accepted that machines improve performance, but he mooted a step change in the mining industry to take machines beyond automation to full digital information management with automatic reporting. This technology is already available. He also outlined a scenario in which a digital design process allows specialists, vendors, suppliers, integrators and operators to interact within a virtual model that captures knowledge and previous design effort, with new work carried out once only, by the most appropriate partner.
“Imagine a virtual project build process that creates a ‘digital’ asset; then utilises a process that optimises for time and cost for the build of that asset, against multiple build scenarios before a ‘real’ asset is built,” he continued. “Risks are highlighted and procedures are available to operators and maintenance staff at the touch of a button. The operator’s actions are re-ordered automatically using positioning technology and he’s guided to the right place at the right time. This is also available, as is an evidence-based method to decide the best way to build a project with clear, credible progress reporting independent of human bias. “Throughput and unit operations could be optimised by simulating the operation through the digital plant, perhaps using a probabilistic approach to give your company the edge over competitors.”
Equipped with the digital interface, all employees could be safely guided through their day’s operations, warned, coached and located for recovery if necessary. It is possible to visualise and report the entire process for variation at the unit level. Each unit level can be visualised down to the component level for performance improvement investigation. This would make it feasible, at any given time, to simulate the likely scenarios for site closure or extension using current data. Through data integrity alone, Macnab said it is possible to achieve capital costs reduction of 3-5% through reduced leakage at the interfaces and removal of rework; increased speed to market through reduced project cycle time of up to 20% as a result of the re-use of data and design. There are also the benefits of access to resources and enhanced collaboration, irrespective of their location, through a common source of high integrity data. Other benefits are increased delivery certainty, optimal start-up and improved safety outcomes.
“These are just some of the benefits we believe are immediate opportunities for performance improvement,” said Macnab. “We have all seen and heard of the latest blind shaft boring machines being developed around the globe. So how do we take that forward and manage the risks associated with something that is new to us and integrate the different technologies into a competitive advantage? The immediate horizon, and possibly the most difficult, is centred on creating a common data platform or digital architecture either for the asset, the company or ideally for the industry. The broader the agreement on the architecture, the greater the benefit would be for the industry. This calls for collaboration with technology suppliers from other industries, combined with what has already been developed in shaft boring technology over the past decades. Achieving this has the potential to drive immediate savings in project delivery. Once we have access to a single data platform, we can apply advanced data analytics and bring to bear the many advances in visualisation available today. In combination with deep industry knowledge and experience that understands what it is looking at, this will allow us all to drive improved performance across the life of the asset.”
The next horizon would harness the significant computer processing power available today and translate this to real time support for all management aspects of the asset. This would make it possible to harness the digital asset model to derive innovation across the industry, creating new frontiers for productivity improvement. “Whether at the early stage of development, or well advanced, this framework can be applied to the most simple of projects — or to development of the most complex and sophisticated assets,” Macnab concluded. “All this will lead to a new, far more collaborative way of working. It’s about planning and building in the virtual world first, and having the opportunity to experiment in a virtual environment to achieve the best outcome in the real world. The initial goal is to provide an attractive measure of certainty around project delivery, but the future opportunities are really only limited, at this stage, by our imaginations.”