Minnovare says that global underground mining contractor Byrnecut has implemented its Development Optimiser system at a project in the Goldfields region of Western Australia. Minnovare stated: “This significant milestone for the two companies, builds on the success of the Production Optimiser which Byrnecut has implemented at 10 of their projects, with 18 systems currently active globally.”

It adds that Byrnecut had confidence to implement the Development Optimiser based on successful field trials, where the system delivered positive results, yielding a reduction in their overbreak and underbreak over the course of the trial period.

Minnovare, part of Hexagon, says that Development Optimiser substantially improves drilling accuracy – leading to optimal blasts, reduced over-break/under-break and increased advance. Once the rail is aligned to the designed trajectory, the driller sets the ‘TARGET’ on the touch screen interface mounted inside the rig cabin – locking in the trajectory for every hole and removing all guess-work.

It also delivers superior setup accuracy – the primary cause of blast-hole deviation; maintains rail trajectory to designed target and parallelity between rails; and works independently of laserline, levelling and other on-board rig alignment systems. Minnovare says it also integrates seamlessly with rig and mine planning/drill and blast software – for direct import and export of drilling data.