ALROSA continues to evolve its digital mining capabilities through adopting new technology and updating existing solutions into a consolidated digital twin model of its production complex. The company told IM this will allow it to further improve operating efficiency as well as enhance health and safety. Integrated digital models will also allow ALROSA to improve the quality of planning at the mines and concentrator plants, through managing all of its processes in real time.
One of the most important elements of ALROSA’s digital transformation it says is the continued development of its dispatch systems. The company already uses Wenco’s fleet management and dispatching system for its open-pit operations. The Wencomine system has been successfully implemented at Nyurba, the Aikhal Division and Severalmaz. In 2021, the company also started its implementation at the Verkhne-Munskoye deposit of Udachny Division.
At Nyurba Division ALROSA says it has taken the Wenco technology to a new level, having additionally added the Dynamic Dispatch system functionality as well as integrating it with its own Manufacturing Execution System (MES) system. This allowed ALROSA to process and analyse the wide stream of data from every fleet unit from the open-pit and to solve issues as early as possible. “For example, the system allows dispatchers to supervise road conditions in the open-pit. It divides the route of the truck on separate segments, and for each of the segment it indicates an average technical speed. If the MES data stream indicates that trucks are slowing down at some given segment of the route it may be a trigger to send a road service staff there. This allows increasing the speed of response time compared to the traditional situation with repairs initiated after a driver’s message or a scheduled survey of the open-pit infrastructure.”
In the future, ALROSA plans to implement a similar dispatching system approach to control and monitor its underground equipment. The digital project will provide video signal transmission, monitoring the condition of machines and the location of personnel and equipment in real time. Simultaneously, ALROSA is studying the possibility of introducing remote control technologies at its mines, for example for LHDs and roadheader mining machines underground in order to increase the equipment utilisation rate while ensuring personnel safety. Moreover, ALROSA is in course of implementing the GEOVIA MineSched mine planning system. This will help to make the process faster and more accurate, with an option of updating plans according to the changing environment.
