Tag Archives: Antamina

Antamina, Barrick, BHP, Freeport, Gold Fields, Newmont, Teck and Vale form GeoStable Tailings Consortium

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Gold Fields Limited has announced a new consortium of eight global mining companies has launched a multi-year initiative to develop and implement new technological applications for managing tailings.

The GeoStable Tailings Consortium (GSTC) comprises Antamina, Barrick, BHP, Freeport-McMoRan, Gold Fields, Newmont, Teck and Vale, with external expert support provided by Dr G Ward Wilson of the University of Alberta.

The GSTC will study options to combine various blends of tailings with waste rock to create ‘geo-stable’ landforms that are stronger and more stable than conventional tailings deposition methods and are likely to reduce process water consumption. It will undertake a range of research and development activities, including laboratory testing, field trials and data analysis, and will collaborate to promote best practices in tailings and waste management and foster a culture of continuous improvement across the mining industry.

Martin Preece, Interim CEO of Gold Fields, said: “The management of our TSFs has as its ultimate goal zero harm to people and the environment through their full life cycle. This is in line with the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management, the new tailings storage facility (TSF) benchmark to which all members of the ICMM are committed to conform to. Having stable TSFs is a critical element of this standard.

“There is significant mining industry interest in developing geo-stable TSFs, but there is still a lack of a sound research and development including testing protocols to assess, compare and validate the performance of different technical approaches across different mineralogical and operational situations. Gold Fields is therefore a willing participant in this consortium and playing our role in becoming part of the solution.”

The new GSTC initiative builds on the work of a group formed to advance geo-waste and eco-tailings research previously pursued by Goldcorp, which was acquired by Newmont in early 2019.

JP Morgan-backed financing paves way for further MineSense growth

Base metals, Environmental, Mining equipment, Mining finance, Mining services, Mining software, Sustainable mining, , , , , , , , , , , ,

MineSense Technologies Ltd says it has closed a $42 million Series E financing led by J.P. Morgan Asset Management’s Sustainable Growth Equity team that, it says, will allow it to accelerate the commercial deployment of its solutions to drive further growth and profitability.

The funding round includes participation from new investor Evok Innovations, a climate technology and sustainability venture fund, and existing investors including Prelude Ventures, BDC Industrial Innovation Venture Fund, Cycle Capital and Chrysalix Venture Capital.

MineSense has been pioneering data-driven solutions that improve ore grade control, operational profitability and carbon intensity across the metals mining industry. It is doing this through a combination of its ShovelSense® and BeltSense® hardware, a digital platform and geoscientific insight that goes beyond purely grade-based orebody information.

ShovelSense provides precise ore/waste definition and unlocks unique, previously inaccessible data sets at the mine’s extraction face, according to the company. This real-time data enables removal of waste from ore and recovers valuable ore from waste by making smart routing decisions that also reduces the amount of waste processed, production of tailings, and energy, water, and reagent consumption. Metal recovery is increased materially, with production from operating mines increasing by 5-25% on existing infrastructure, according to the company.

The company has initially been focused on copper, with those mining companies that have signed up to use its solutions looking to maximise ore recovery, minimise dilution and enhance operational sustainability.

MineSense says it has tripled revenue over the last year, and was recently recognised as one of the fastest growing companies in North America by Deloitte.

It currently currently serves mines across North and South America, with notable deployments in British Columbia (Teck’s Highland Valley Copper, Copper Mountain Mining’s operation and Taseko Mines’ Gibraltar operation), Chile (Carmen de Andacollo) and Peru (Antamina).

The fundraising will allow the company to expand its coverage globally and extend into other critical metals such as nickel, cobalt, zinc and iron, it said.

Jeff More, CEO of MineSense, said: “We are pleased to partner with J.P. Morgan Sustainable Growth Equity and Evok to scale our ore grade data mining solutions. This funding and strategic support will allow us to continue executing on our strategy of delivering profit enhancement, operational efficiency, and carbon intensity reduction to critical mining operations.”

Torsa launches next generation collision avoidance system

Mining equipment, Mining safety, Mining services, Mining software, , , , , , , ,

Torsa has unveiled its next generation Collision Avoidance System for shovels, haul trucks, auxiliary and light vehicles, building on the first version of its system that was deployed at Antamina in Peru.

The Spain-based company says its latest CAS optimises loading operation, allowing the two trucks to be loaded simultaneously.

Gabino de Diego, the new director of Business Development for Torsa, explained: “For our first generation, our design team evaluated all the detection technologies available in the market. With the focus on reliability and operators’ safety, LiDAR became the technology of choice. Actually, Torsa were the first one in the market with a LiDAR-based CAS.

“Now, in our fourth generation, a new 3D LiDAR is able to scan more than 900,000 points per second, for an extremely accurate map of the vehicle’s surroundings. In addition to LiDAR, Torsa CAS system is equipped with cutting-edge detection technologies to provide maximum accuracy: ToF, UWB and high precision GPS.

“The combination of all those technologies allows our system to detect vehicles and other equipment with centimetric precision.”

Torsa has developed a user interface as part of this latest update, taking on feedback from users to streamline the information required for both the people running the vehicles and equipment and for the ones in the control rooms, “reducing the information noise and providing a minimal invasive system”.

“For example, in our fourth generation CAS system, we have incorporated a predictive algorithm to avoid false positives because we know that this is key for someone who is driving many ours every single day,” de Diego said.

He added that the company’s CAS system has clocked up millions of hours of operation to date in various mines, with plans to bring the technology to mines in US, Canada, Africa and Australia from this year onwards.

Like all TORSA solutions, the collision avoidance system for shovels, trucks and light vehicles is integrated into the TORSA Cloud environment, ensuring the correct interaction, operation and technical information management for all clients, the company says. The cloud-based platform provides real-time data and information that can be used to target specific issues in the mine, running campaings to optimise the operation.

“Thanks to the business intelligence modules included in the platform users are able, for example, to play back incidents and vehicle interactions for detailed analysis, or rank the operators based on multiple parameters to study and optimise behavioural KPIs,” de Diego said.

TORSA collaborates actively with the International Council on Mining & Metals (ICMM) where the company is involved in the Innovation for Cleaner Safer Vehicles (ICSV) program, which brings together 27 of the world’s leading mining companies and technologies suppliers to collaborate in a non-competitive space in order to accelerate the development of a new generation of mining vehicles.

“Our system is designed to perform at Control Levels 7, 8 and 9 according to the safety requirements based on the ICSV program by ICMM following the EMESRT (The Earth Moving Equipment Safety Round Table), where TORSA also participates defining the new ISO 21815 standard,” de Diego concluded.

MineSense continues growth trajectory with new South America HQ in Chile

Automation, Base metals, Comminution of minerals, Environmental, IoT, Mining equipment, Mining services, Mining software, Sustainable mining, Water management, , , , , , , , , , , ,

MineSense Technologies officially opened its regional headquarters and service centre for South America in Santiago, Chile, this week, in another move to capture growth across one of the world’s key mining hubs.

Attended by senior executives and a MineSense workforce of over 50 hired so far in Chile and Peru, the ceremony celebrated the opening of a 3,000 sq.m facility in an industrial park in the Pudahuel district.

The headquarters includes corporate offices and a manufacturing area that increases service and production capacity to supply ShovelSense technology to meet South American and global demand, the company said.

Jeff More, President and CEO (pictured on stage), was on hand to cut the ribbon. He was joined by Victor Aguilera, member of the Board of Directors of MineSense Technologies Ltd and General Director of Aurus Investments; Claudio Toro-Salazar, Executive Vice President, Business Development; and Monica Feregrino, VP Operations.

MineSense, through the deployment of its ShovelSense solution, has been gaining ground in the bulk ore sorting space across South America.

Earlier this year, it deployed a second shovel-based unit at Teck Resources’ Carmen de Andacollo mine, in Chile. This followed an earlier successful trial at the operation.

It has also recently gone live with a deployment at Antamina, Peru’s largest mine, and has been trialling the XRF-based technology at Hudbay Minerals’ Constancia mine, also in Peru.

The ShovelSense system, through a sophisticated suite of sensors and algorithms, improves orebody visibility bucket by bucket in real time during the loading process, according to the company. Trucks are then automatically diverted to the correct location, increasing value and revenue realised during the mining process. The technology also creates reductions of CO2 emissions per tonne of ore produced, consumption of processing chemicals and reagents, energy and water, while maximising metal recovery, MineSense says.

To support mine site operations and their ore decision making, MineSense also provides 24/7 data room technical support for continuous monitoring of all elements of system performance.

Antamina leveraging MineSense’s in-shovel ore sorting technology

Base metals, Comminution of minerals, Environmental, Mine operation news, Mineral processing, Mining equipment, Mining services, Sustainable mining, , , , , , ,

The largest mine in Peru, Antamina, has started using MineSense’s ore sorting technology as it looks to increase ore loading accuracy at the joint venture operation.

MineSense’s ShovelSense technology provides significant value to mine operators by identifying ore and waste, and classifying ore at the earliest stage possible in the mining process, the extraction face, using X-ray Fluorescence sensors, the Vancouver-based company says.

It has proved this technology out at multiple mine sites in North America, including Teck Resources’ Highland Valley Copper operations and Copper Mountain Mining Corp’s namesake mine, both of which are in British Columbia, Canada.

Enrique Parades Rivero, Mine Manager at Antamina Mine, stated at the recent Comasurmin 2021 conference that Antamina “plans to know what ore grades the mine is processing to the millimetre,” and this ore characterisation data is provided by MineSense’s ShovelSense technology. This technology, MineSense says, enables mines to generate more metal to increase profitability and improve operations, while optimising sustainability performance.

In terms of loading equipment, Antamina reportedly operates seven P&H 4100XPC electric shovels, four Hitachi EX5600-6 hydraulic shovels and two Cat 994F wheel loaders. Some of this loading equipment is interacting with the first fleet of electric drive 372 t class 798 AC Cat trucks in the country, which Ferreyros, the Caterpillar dealer in Peru, recently successfully put into operation.

The Antamina copper/zinc mine is owned 33.75% by BHP, 33.75% by Glencore 33.75%, 22.5% by Teck and 10% by Mitsubishi.

Orica leverages MWD data, AI to create new blast loading design benchmark

Automation, Base metals, Comminution of minerals, Explosives and blasting, IoT, Mining equipment, Mining events, Mining safety, Mining services, Mining software, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Orica is looking to set a new benchmark for blast loading designs in Latin America after deploying its Design for Outcome solution in the region.

The company, focused on integrating its digital blasting tools to improve outcomes, is leveraging its BlastIQ digital blast optimisation platform within this new solution, Angus Melbourne, Chief Commercial and Technology Officer of Orica, told delegates at Massmin 2020 last week.

In a presentation titled, ‘Blasting’s Critical Role in Extracting Ore’, Melbourne mentioned Design for Outcome as an example of where the company was delivering integrated digital solutions in Latin America.

“Design for Outcome is an automated continual optimisation solution that sets a new benchmark for blast loading designs,” he said. “It utilises data science to process both upstream and downstream data to automate blast designs. This produces tailored and optimised blast designs by reducing blast variability and explosive consumption while increasing productivity.”

Using machine-learning algorithms, Design for Outcome processes measured-while-drilling data to classify ground hardness throughout each blast hole and then match explosives energy to hardness domains to automatically generate tailored blast loading designs, Melbourne explained.

Through artificial intelligence, these algorithms are trained with the data received from the fleet control systems (FMS) and previous blast results. This enables final automation of the blasting design process and its execution in the field with Orica’s smart control systems and programming interfaces, loading the blast accurately according to the generated design. These elements combine to ensure the desired outcomes are achieved, Melbourne said.

“Digitally-enabled blasting solutions such as Design for Outcome are allowing us to work with customers in different ways, to think and act differently and expand our role in the mining value chain,” he said.

Such a solution is part of the company’s plans to automate its segment of the mining process. This goal was strengthened last month with the launch of the Orica and Epiroc jointly developed Avatel™ semi-automated explosives delivery system.

A key enabling technology of Avatel, which is built on the foundation of Epiroc’s Boomer M2 carrier, and Orica’s automation vision is WebGen™, the company’s fully wireless initiation system. When combined with Orica’s LOADPlus™ smart control system, specifically designed on-board storage, assembly, digital encoding capability and Subtek™ Control bulk emulsion, Avatel provides customers with complete and repeatable control over blast energy from design through to execution, Orica says.

While referencing the second key pillar in Orica’s digital strategy, Melbourne highlighted the use of the company’s Bulkmaster™ 7 smart, connected explosives delivery system in Latin America during the virtual event.

The new delivery systems not only improve productivity but begin to digitise critical workflows between design and execution in drill and blast operations, according to Melbourne.

The Antamina copper mine in Peru, a joint venture between BHP, Glencore, Teck and Mitsubishi, will soon be leveraging such a system, with Melbourne confirming seven Bulkmaster 7 units had been shipped to the mine and were undergoing commissioning.

Orica’s third digitalisation pillar is the measurement of downstream impacts of the drill and blast process, which is where FRAGTrack™, the company’s automated rock fragmentation measurement device comes into play.

This device captures, analyses and reports real-time data for optimising blast operations, improving downstream productivity and tracking overall operational performance in mining and quarrying, Melbourne explained.

This system is active across several key customer sites in Latin America, with Teck’s Carmen de Andacollo operation in Chile being one of the first to adopt the technology in the world, according to Melbourne. He said the copper operation is using the insights to deliver efficiencies across the value chain through digitally enabled optimised blasting.