Tag Archives: Angus Melbourne

Orica and FRAGTrack recognised for innovative streak in AFR list

Orica’s fragmentation measurement technology, FRAGTrack™, has again gained recognition in the innovation community after being named in the Australian Financial Review’s Most Innovative Companies List 2020.

FRAGTrack and Orica’s entrenched culture of innovation were behind the company’s second place ranking in the list under the Agriculture, Mining & Utilities Service sector.

The annual list, published by The Australian Financial Review (AFR) and Boss Magazine, is based on a rigorous assessment process, led by a panel of industry experts and innovation consultancy Inventium. From a pool of over 600 nominated organisations across Australia and New Zealand, Orica’s FRAGTrack was recognised as a pioneering technology in the Agriculture, Mining & Utilities Service industry, delivering significant value for customers, Orica said.

FRAGTrack, Orica’s automated fragmentation measurement device, accurately and reliably measures rock size and fragmentation following the blasting stage in mining and quarrying. While traditional methods are prone to operator bias and cannot generally operate in harsher mining environments, FRAGTrack captures, analyses and reports real-time data digitally, according to the company. Designed in collaboration with Design Anthology, Newie Ventures and Your Engineer Mechanical Engineering, the technology can be installed and upgraded remotely – creating safer, more accurate mining outcomes.

The latest award follows FRAGTrack receiving a Good Design Award accolade in the Engineering Design category in recognition for outstanding design and innovation earlier this year.

When judging the innovation, the AFR industry panel considered three key elements – how valuable the problem is that the innovation is solving, the quality and uniqueness of the solution, and the level of impact that the innovation has had. However, the organisation must also be able to demonstrate a truly innovative culture and a sustainable and repeatable approach to innovation across the business.

Orica’s Chief Commercial and Technology Officer, Angus Melbourne, said: “Innovation underpins everything we do at Orica, and it’s our pioneering spirit, amazing people and commitment to working collaboratively with our customers that allows us to continue to deliver products and technologies that are shaping the future of mining.

“Customer collaboration is key to our innovation process. By understanding our customer’s challenges and sharing their goals and aspirations, we can deliver better outcomes on site today, and use these insights to create new technologies that will deliver value tomorrow.

“FRAGTrack is an excellent example of this innovative spirit on show. This technology has evolved through collaborative innovation between our experts, customers, technology partners and the industry.”

He concluded: “At Orica, we’re proud to be leading the change in digital, automated blasting. The convergence of these technologies is allowing us to think differently, mine differently, operate more precisely and most importantly, remove people from harm’s way. FRAGTrack exemplifies all of this, while ultimately delivering significant value for the industry.”

Orica and Epiroc take first steps ‘towards automation of drill and blast operations’

Orica and Epiroc Rock Drills AB say they are working on a project to jointly develop a semi-automated explosives delivery system, enabling safer and more productive blasting operations in underground mines.

As mines go deeper and orebodies become more remote, the case for blasting automation becomes clearer, a case that Orica has continually made for the past few years.

Orica says its partnership with Epiroc will “bring together the deep expertise and experience of two global industry leaders” to address the growing demand from customers mining in increasingly more hazardous and challenging underground operations.

The first prototype system is expected in 2020, with the first commercially available systems to enter service in 2021, according to Orica, which said more details on the collaboration and technology will be communicated later.

Orica Chief Commercial and Technology Officer, Angus Melbourne, said: “This exciting partnership with Epiroc will allow us to leverage our exclusive wireless initiating system, WebGen™, to deliver the critical first steps towards the automation of drill and blast operations.

“Automation is a key pillar of our technology strategy and supports our vision of transforming drill and blast to unlock mining value by creating safer and more sustainable operations.”

Epiroc Senior Executive Vice President Mining and Infrastructure, Helena Hedblom, said: “This promising collaboration with Orica is an important first step on an exciting journey toward automating the whole drilling and explosives charging process.

“It is a vital part of both Epiroc’s and Orica’s vision of making the mining operation as safe, productive and cost efficient as possible.”

Orica says: “Orica and Epiroc are the ideal partners to optimise the explosives charging process for underground mining. Orica is the world’s largest provider of commercial explosives and innovative blasting systems to the mining, quarrying, oil and gas and construction markets, and Epiroc is the industry leader in developing innovative underground mining equipment, including face drill rigs and production drill rigs.”

Orica keen to collaborate on path to blasting automation

Orica’s Angus Melbourne told a packed Austmine 2019 crowd in Brisbane this week that the blasting specialist is committed to developing automated solutions for both the underground and surface mining sectors and is working with both customers and industry partners to make this aim a reality.

During his speech on Wednesday, Melbourne, Orica’s Chief Commercial and Technical Officer, walked delegates through a number of achievements the company had achieved over its 140-year history, but also looked ahead to how Orica is focused on revolutionising the drill and blast operations of the future.

“Blasting is one of the few processes in the mining value chain that remains largely untouched by automation,” Melbourne said. “As mines go deeper and orebodies become more remote, the case for blasting automation becomes clearer.”

Among a number of benefits of blasting automation were the ability to remove people from harm’s ways, grant access to difficult ore reserves and reduce operational delays, he explained.

“Due to the complexities associated with a typical blast operation, this is no trivial endeavour,” he said.

Melbourne said progress was already being made with Orica’s automation efforts, singling out its Orica’s WebGen™ wireless initiation technology, in particular. Launched in 2018, WebGen improves safety by removing people from hazardous situations and enhances productivity through the removal of constraints previously placed on operations by wired connections.

“Since its release, more than 130 WebGen wireless blasts have been executed globally across four industry segments,” Melbourne told delegates.

Newmont Goldcorp’s Musselwhite mine has been an advocate of the wireless initiation technology, recently saying the blasting tests it has carried out at the Ontario mine were “a decisive step on the path towards full automation of drill and blast operations in the future”.

The wireless initiation technology is leading to the development of new blasting options, according to Melbourne, who said, in the last 12 months, Orica has co-developed more than seven new techniques that are “revolutionising the way our customers are planning and executing their mining operations”.

On stage, Melbourne then played a short video from CMOC Northparkes in New South Wales, Australia, a miner that recently converted its entire sub-level cave copper mine to WebGen wireless initiation blasting; an Australia and world first, according to Melbourne.

He said Northparkes has seen significant improvements in safety, productivity and ore recovery since the transition. Melbourne’s words were echoed later that day when Orica received the Austmine METS Innovation Award for the use of WebGen at Northparkes.

Melbourne pointed to a second collaborative development that was helping shape the company’s blast automation efforts during his time on stage; this time with an original equipment manufacturer.

The company has been working with MacLean Engineering out of Canada to test the first fully-mechanised drawpoint hang-up blasting solution, he said.

Capable of drilling and charging up to eight blast holes remotely, the solution is underpinned by WebGen wireless technology and, once again, removes people from harm’s way.

“Hang-up blasting is a major issue for block and sub-level cave mines around the world,” Melbourne said. “In fact, at any one time, up to 30% of all drawpoints can be unavailable due to oversize material. All current solutions are either high risk mining activities or are highly inefficient to implement.”

He then played a video highlighting this industry-first solution, before remarking: “This is a significant step towards fully-autonomous production in underground mines. It’s an exciting time for everyone involved and is just one example of an industry collaboration to deliver blast automation.”

Melbourne concluded his presentation by saying, in the future, integrated, automated and intelligent systems will deliver the critical data necessary for executing real-time change and quantifiable impact on all parts of the value chain “through an ‘ecosystem of insight’ never seen before in mining.

“To capture the full potential of rapidly-evolving technology will require new ways of thinking, new ways of working, and a new spirit of collaboration across the industry.”