Tag Archives: ASI Mining

Epiroc trusting its 6th Sense on mine automation, electrification, digitalisation developments

Automation, Communications in mining, Equipment maintenance, Explosives and blasting, IoT, Mining equipment, Mining maintenance, Mining people, Mining safety, Mining services, Mining software, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

During an enlightening Capital Markets Day, in Stockholm, Sweden, Epiroc backed up its credentials as a leader in the mine automation, digitalisation and electrification spaces, outlining its progress to date and its medium- and long-term plans to capture more market share.

A few weeks after putting on the investor showcase – but before Helena Hedblom was announced as the incoming President and CEO – IM spoke with President and CEO, Per Lindberg, and Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications, Mattias Olsson, to get some detail behind the presentation slides.

IM: Automation featured very widely in the capital markets day (CMD) presentations earlier this month: In general, how would you characterise the mining industry appetite for this new technology? Where is the average customer on your automation scale?

PL: First of all, the appetite is very large; most customers are looking at automation in one way or another.

It is hard to do a mathematical average when it comes to where the industry currently is, but the average miner is probably down on the left-hand side of that scale (pictured below) – somewhere in between tele-remote and single machine automation.

IM: Over the next five years, where do you see most potential growth for autonomous solutions in terms of underground or open-pit mining? What market dynamics are accelerating this uptake?

PL: Most likely it will happen in both surface and underground. The potential for productivity and safety improvements is probably greater in underground, though.

This trend is clearly driven by productivity, cost efficiency and safety. Those would be the key drivers for automation. It is about taking people out of the line of fire, as well as having close to 24/7 production.

IM: Following the 34% stake acquisition of ASI Mining last year, would you say the project Epiroc and ASI are working on at Ferrexpo’s Yeristovo mine is representative of how you envisage doing business together in the future?

PL: That is the reason that we initially acquired the 34% stake in ASI Mining; we wanted to go in that direction. In that respect, I think the Ferrexpo example is representative of how we will cooperate with ASI.

Of course, ASI can also offer a standalone solution without Epiroc being present on the automation side, so we are also promoting their offering too.

IM: How does Epiroc, as an OEM, balance its machine building and maintenance service offering? Does the ability to keep machines working longer through sophisticated monitoring systems and better manufacturing somewhat inhibit your ability to sell new machinery?

PL: To a certain extent, we are probably cannibalising our new machine sales with increased service intensity and improved servicing products. That is most likely the consequence. On the other hand, we also feel that it is only right to offer this type of aftercare and servicing.

Yet, you cannot continue to prolong the life of a piece of equipment forever. It needs to be replaced at some point.

Overall, the servicing offering works well for us and, we think, it is good for our customers in terms of increasing the life of their equipment.

IM: Factoring this in, what percentage of revenue is your aftermarket business likely to represent in the next 10 years (from 65% today)?

PL: It’s difficult to say if it is going to be higher, or not, but it is likely that the volume of service will increase. That is based on what we are talking about – the intensified servicing we are offering, the products we have developed and the fact that we are increasing the market share within our own fleet.

Whether it continues to be 65% of the overall business depends on activity in the rest of the group.

IM: Along these lines, how long does the company anticipate its new battery-electric loading fleets lasting compared with, say, the diesel-powered fleets you were selling 10 years ago?

PL: The wear and tear of the actual machine will be the same – that is not going to change because of the drivetrain.

But, having an electric drivetrain is different from diesel; we have to see what the long-term maintenance needs are compared with diesel. The life of the drivetrain also depends very much on the utilisation of the machine.

IM: Of the recent innovations the company has launched (or is about to launch) – 6th Sense, a semi-automated explosives delivery system (with Orica), Scooptram Automation Total, Powerbit, etc – which has the strongest business case in mining?

PL: I think 6th Sense is really a packaging of all of our different offerings within automation. In that regard, it is has the highest potential. Which components of 6th Sense have the highest potential? We’ll have to wait and see.

The semi-automated explosives delivery system with Orica is a very specific innovation, but we very much believe in automating this mining process because of the safety and productivity benefits it brings. But we are only just starting this development compared with 6th Sense, which has already launched.

Powerbit is, again, very specific, but…allows us to deliver a complete offering both in terms of machine and consumables that will enable higher productivity and automation. That should have a high potential in the market.

IM: What does the Epiroc mining roadmap look like for the next 10-30 years? I imagine wider adoption of hard-rock cutting, automation, electrification and digitalisation are in there, but what other technology evolutions are being planned for?

PL: We have to continue to work with all of those three – automation, electrification and digitalisation – as they will deliver significant benefits for the industry. That is where we need to focus over that 10-year timeframe.

These three also have the potential to further integrate the value chain in mining within the future digitalisation space. We need to both continue to work with these technologies and our customers to ensure we have greater market penetration in all these areas.

IM: And, hard-rock cutting? Is this as important as these three?

PL: For specific applications, mechanical cutting and the Mobile Miners have their relevance and work well. But we believe for the foreseeable future, the majority of hard-rock excavation will be carried out by drilling and blasting in the mining and tunnelling sectors.

IM: During the CMD there was mention of “cost per measure” contracts under the digitalisation heading. Could you go into some detail about how the company is offering these and if they are tied in with financing agreements for your equipment?

PL: In terms of cost per measure, one example would be cost per metre contracts in consumables and rock drilling tools.

MO: We also provide finance for equipment and it could be that the equipment is financed and we have a cost per metre contract in place. Those two are not connected or tied, though.

It could be that there is more of this ‘pay-for-performance’ type of contract in the future – where you charge per tonne of ore excavated, for example – but, if it does come, I don’t think it will happen quickly.

IM: Similarly Epiroc talked about “new business models” in 2020 for underground equipment at the CMD. What might these new business models be? What is the need for them?

PL: It could be revenue streams into software, to information management, to advanced service agreements, to Batteries as a Service for battery vehicles.

The reasons for establishing these models is the continuous development of software, new updates for machines, etc that require different models.

When it comes to Batteries as a Service, it is a different model again looking to transfer the energy cost of the battery from capex to opex in order to facilitate the timely decisions for customers and reduce the cost of operation for our customers.

These new models are all based on development of technologies.

Battle for greenfield mining autonomy

Automation, Equipment maintenance, IoT, Mine operation news, Mining equipment, Mining events, Mining maintenance, Mining project news, Mining safety, Mining services, Steel and iron ore, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The big two global giants in autonomous mining truck solutions continue to battle it out in chasing new contracts, especially for greenfield mines that offer a chance to supply more profitable “new” autonomous fleets as opposed to retrofitting autonomous capability onto existing fleets.

The main battle grounds remain Australian iron ore in Western Australia’s Pilbara region and Canadian oil sands in the Alberta production hub centred on Fort McMurray, though there are also surface haul truck autonomy trials ongoing in other mine types such as iron ore in other parts of the world, gold, coal and copper.

In iron ore the competition has turned traditional norms on their head.

Rio Tinto, traditionally a Komatsu truck user, announced earlier in 2019 that it had agreed to work together with Caterpillar to create an automated mine operation at the Koodaideri iron ore project, in Western Australia. The agreement will see Cat® and dealer WesTrac supply and support mining machines, automation and enterprise technology systems for the new mine. Rio, in a separate release, said this would see the supply of a fleet of 20 new autonomous 793F trucks.

Then in September, BHP, traditionally a Caterpillar truck user, turned the tables again by announcing that it will deploy 41 new Komatsu 930E-5 ultra-class autonomous haul trucks at its new South Flank iron ore mine in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, commencing in October 2019.

But OEM battles aside, autonomy comes with its own issues. This includes the mine having sufficient network capacity in place but also other practicalities like how it ties in with haul road design and how it affects OTR tyre performance.

This tyre angle is being delved into in some detail by Tony Cutler, Principal at specialist consultancy OTR Global, at the forthcoming inaugural Truck & Shovel Conference from International Mining Events, running 19-20 September in Singapore at the InterContinental, Middle Road.

His talk, “Factoring tyres into autonomous haulage”, will point out that since 2008, over 400 autonomous haul trucks have entered commercial operation on open-pit mines and, while autonomous haulage offers improved productivity, safety and operating cost, he argues that the main constraint to maximising these benefits is tyres. This presentation identifies the limitations associated with tyres – some inherent to the tyres, others to the autonomous systems and operating environments – and suggests solutions.

Cutler will be joined in an autonomy related session by Drew Larsen, Director of Business Development, ASI Mining, in a presentation titled: ‘Autonomous Mining – more feasible than you might think’.

The company, 34% owned by global mining OEM Epiroc, began work on a project with Barrick Gold to retrofit and automate a fleet of Komatsu 930-E Ultra Class haul trucks at the Arturo joint venture operation in Nevada, last year, and judging from Barrick’s commentary in its June quarter results, the gold miner is happy with how things are going.

Interestingly, Barrick said initially none of the OEMs wanted to engage in the project, “due to the mammoth task of retrofitting an autonomous system to a 20-year-old fleet of ultra-class trucks and the technological limitations that come with that age of machine”.

Barrick found another partner in ASI that specialises in autonomous solutions both inside and outside the mining industry and has now successfully completed a proof of concept (POC) utilising five haulage units “that have delivered over 5.5 Mt faster than any other similar POC in the industry”, it said.

These autonomous solutions require a lot of data to be effective and while there are no shortages of nodes on equipment nowadays, the haulage and loading industry is still coming to terms with how best to leverage this data.

Speakers from Komatsu will be confronting this issue head on at the event, with Jason Knuth, Senior Manager – Data Solutions, and Simon Van Wegen, Product Manager – Data Solutions, presenting a keynote titled, “Data-driven designs for dynamic mining environments”.

The two intend to reveal how OEMs are leveraging the plethora of data nodes on smart equipment to adapt equipment and design solutions for the modern mine environment.

To hear from more speakers like this, register for Truck & Shovel by clicking here.

Truck & Shovel conference gains Singapore Mining Club support

Automation, Careers in mining, Communications in mining, Equipment maintenance, IoT, Mining consumables, Mining equipment, Mining events, Mining maintenance, Mining safety, Mining services, Mining software, Sustainable mining, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The inaugural Truck & Shovel conference is now just over seven weeks away and the stage is set for an exciting event looking into the future of the global loading and haulage industry.

With topics such as automation, digitalisation, fleet management, and tyre and fuel optimisation on the agenda, there will be much to discuss at the 1.5-day event, taking place at the InterContinental Singapore, Middle Road, on September 19-20.

In addition to gaining the support of Komatsu Mining (Platinum Sponsor), Zyfra Mining (Gold Sponsor) and Mining Industry Professionals (Media Sponsor), IM Events is pleased to announce that the Singapore Mining Club has backed this global event.

Truck & Shovel 2019 will now be held in association with the Singapore Mining Club, an influential group that exists to promote development of Singapore as the pre-eminent regional hub for the management and financing of mining enterprises.

We chose Singapore for this global event for several reasons, including:

  • Many of the big mining companies have procurement and marketing hubs in this Asian metropolis;
  • It acts as a gateway through to key mining hubs such as Australia, India, China and Indonesia, and;
  • It has good transport links and an excellent reputation for event hospitality.

Taking place in Ballroom I and II of the InterContinental Singapore, this event has attracted a number of high-profile speakers that have masses of industry knowledge to share with delegates.

We plan to kick off the day with a keynote from Komatsu Mining’s Jason Knuth (Senior Manager – Data Solutions) and Simon Van Wegen (Product Manager – Data Solutions) on ‘Data-driven designs for dynamic mining environments’.

The duo, who have spoken at many high profile conferences around the world, are set to reveal how advanced mining original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are leveraging the plethora of data nodes on smart equipment to adapt equipment and design solutions for the modern mine environment.

Mikhail Makeev, Global Business Director, Zyfra Mining, is set to continue this digitalisation theme during his catchily-titled ‘How to make your mine “rock”’ presentation. The company has automation and fleet management expertise that it has applied across many mine sites, with Makeev keen to share details on these experiences.

Automation

For those focused on surface mining automation, Truck & Shovel tackles the concept from three different angles.

Drew Larsen, Director of Business Development, ASI Mining, will provide a business case for haulage automation with a presentation titled: ‘Autonomous Mining – more feasible than you might think’. The company, 34% owned by global mining OEM Epiroc, began work on a project with Barrick Gold to retrofit and automate a fleet of Komatsu 930-E Ultra Class haul trucks at the Arturo joint venture operation in Nevada, last year, and is expecting to issue news on projects with other miners in the near future.

Tony Cutler, Principal Consultant, OTR Global, will be tackling automation from a different stance in his ‘Factoring tyres into autonomous haulage’ presentation. Research from the leading mining OEMs offering autonomous haulage systems (AHS) indicates these systems have the potential to prolong tyre life, a claim Cutler will interrogate up on stage.

And Steve Russell, Director – Mining, Scott Technology Ltd, will be looking at autonomous refuelling in his talk. With a title of ‘Robofuel Robotic Refuelling – A safety and productivity initiative for the 21st Century Mine’, he will highlight case studies that showcase just how effective this process is in an open-pit mining context.

Equipment design and innovation

The look and feel of loading and haulage equipment hasn’t changed dramatically over the past few decades, but with mining companies and OEMs now receiving data in real time about how trucks and excavators are operating and interacting with each other, one would expect these design blueprints to, in the future, be altered in some way – for example Komatsu’s cabless haul truck concept.

Taking on this topic at the event will be Christopher B Althausen, Director of Sales & Marketing for Pioneer Solutions LLC, and Brad Rogers, CEO of Bis Industries.

Althausen’s presentation, ‘Mining truck design and development: challenges, hurdles and solutions’, looks at his and his company’s experiences approaching haul truck design over many decades. Rogers’ talk, meanwhile, focuses on ‘Innovation in minesite haulage’. With Bis Industries now having successful trials of its revolutionary Rexx haul truck in its back pocket, delegates will look forward to hearing all about the proven productivity benefits of using this 20-wheel machine.

Maximising payload

The first day of the event will finish with a packed session on truck bodies and excavator buckets where four speakers will highlight just how effective customised solutions can be in the open-pit mining environment.

Carl Samuelson, Global Business Support Manager, Metso Haul Truck Solutions, will talk about successes the mining OEM has had with its hybrid haul truck tray, the Metso Truck Body, while David Pichanick, Global Manager Market Development & Innovation, Austin Engineering, will reveal how thinking ‘outside the box’ and changing the way the company uses materials in dump bodies and buckets has had an impact on safety and productivity. Tom Smith, Engineering Manager at DT HiLoad, rounds out the truck body talk, presenting, ‘HERCULES: The Strongest Tray in Earth’.

Ian Cornfoot, Managing Director of G&G Mining, has the honour of closing day one with a presentation on the use of customised excavator buckets titled, ‘Moving Rocks Not Steel – “Productive innovations in earthmoving buckets”’.

Fuel efficiency and management

As has been well documented, fuel efficiency is key when it comes to open-pit mining, with optimised fuel selection and management often keeping the cost per tonne down.

This topic kicks off day two of the event, with Kevin Dagenais, CEO of Blutip Technologies, looking at the use of predictive modelling techniques to target mining inefficiencies in this space. Sean Birrell, Group Product Officer, FluidIntel, follows closely behind him on ‘Analytics opportunities in fuel and lubricant management – unseen risks & untapped value in your supply chain & operations’, with Joao Silveirinha, Chief Technology Officer of Banlaw, rounding out the fuel talk with a talk titled, ‘Digital Transformation and Automation as it relates to the management of Hydrocarbons in Mining’.

Safety and training

The last session of the conference is all on safety and training, with two speakers keen to talk up the benefits of these in open-pit mining where accidents can cost lives and machines.

Daniel Bongers, Chief Technology Officer of SmartCap Technologies, will present, ‘Zero fatigue incidents achieved – moving to alertness monitoring’ in his 30-minute slot, with Graham Upton, Director of Business Development at simulator specialist, Doron Precision Systems Inc, following him with ‘Shovel and Truck, side-by-side Coordinated Training’.

For details of how to register for this event, or access the full program, please visit the website: https://im-mining.com/truck-and-shovel/

Please note, all company delegations of two or more people are entitled to a discount. Get in touch with Editorial Director, Paul Moore ([email protected]), or Editor, Dan Gleeson ([email protected]), for more information.

Epiroc M&A likely to continue, Per Lindberg says

Automation, Equipment maintenance, Mining consumables, Mining equipment, Mining finance, Mining maintenance, Mining mergers and acquisitions, Mining services, Mining software, Power supply for mines, Sustainable mining, , , , , , , , ,

The President and CEO of Epiroc, Per Lindberg, says the mining equipment maker is likely to continue making acquisitions as it strives for long-term growth over the latest business cycle.

In the company’s first full year of operation, Epiroc has, among other transactions, acquired a minority stake in mining autonomy major ASI Mining, agreed to buy rock tools manufacturer Fordia, and purchased Sautec.

Lindberg said in the company’s December quarter results that Epiroc is targeting to grow at least 8% per year on average over a business cycle.

“While we grew well beyond that in Q4 and in 2018, we believe we continuously need to make acquisitions to secure long-term growth as well as access to new technologies, markets and geographies,” he said.

On the recent Fordia, New Concept Mining and Sautec buys, Lindberg said Epiroc expected strengthened positions in exploration, rock reinforcement and service, and an additional SEK 1.2 billion ($132 million) in annual revenues.

In the December quarter, Epiroc said its orders received increased 17% to SEK9.47 billion, revenue jumped up 25% to SEK10.56 billion and its operating profit went from SEK1.53 billion to SEK2.16 billion, including costs related to the split from Atlas Copco and change in provision for long-term incentive programmes of net SEK8 million.

Lindberg reflected on this quarterly performance, saying: “We have been able to ramp up our capacity in manufacturing and service to support our customers, and revenues reached a record SEK10.56 billion, up 19% organically.”

He added: “In our first year as Epiroc we achieved strong growth in both top and bottom line, in parallel to a successful split and introduction of the new company. Reported orders and revenues increased 16% and 22%, respectively. Our operating profit increased by 25% and the operating margin, adjusted for split costs and provision for long-term incentive programmes, increased from 19.4% to 20.3%.”

Lindberg said customer demand for Epiroc’s equipment, services and tools remained at a good level during the quarter. “In mining we continue to see that the majority of the equipment orders are for expansion, including also some orders for greenfield projects,” he said, while aftermarket business was supported by high activity among its customers, leading to strong growth.

During the most recent quarter, Epiroc launched the second generation of its battery-operated equipment at an event in Örebro, Sweden.

Lindberg said the event created strong interest from Epiroc’s customers and orders have already started to come in.

In terms of the future technology transition in mining, in general, Lindberg said: “Our customers are ready for a major technology shift towards more automation, digitalisation and battery power.

“While the complete transition will take time, it is exciting to already now see the positive customer reactions.”

Looking into 2019, Lindberg said: “We will continue to focus on improving our customer offerings, our efficiency, agility and resilience. These are, and will continue to be, the strengths of Epiroc.”

Epiroc deal to make ASI Mining a better company, Larsen says

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Epiroc’s investment in ASI Mining has been a big talking point over the past few months, with many observers keen to know how the two companies will interact going forward. IM Editor Dan Gleeson put some questions to Drew Larsen, Director, Business Development, ASI Mining, to find out what effect the investment will have on the US-based company.

IM: What does ASI get out of the Epiroc deal?

DL: It’s fair to say ASI has been looking for an investment partner for some time. There has been plenty of offers out there, but we have tried to be selective in finding an investment partner where there are lots of synergies and strategic alignment.

We felt Epiroc was not only a good equity partner, but an excellent strategic fit as well. What we get – in addition to the investment – is a lot of alignment with our OEM-agnostic approach and independence, which Epiroc is preserving. But, primarily, we get access to Epiroc’s global footprint from a service and support aspect; we’re able to support the needs of any customer around the world as Epiroc has customer centres in almost any area where there is active mining. Then, we get access to some of their best practices and know-how, which we will be able to leverage as appropriate.

We’re also looking at having tighter integration of some of their autonomous solutions with our Mobius solution.

IM: How will you continue to differentiate your autonomous solutions from others in the market?

DL: As competition increases, we have to compete on the merits of our system, capabilities and ability to provide service and support and attend to all the needs of our customers.
Regardless of our competition, our play is always to become the best provider in the space.

Epiroc is a great company, is very well managed, and has a great business model, vision and strategy. As we leverage some of their capabilities and work together in some of these areas, it will make us a better company for sure.

We would hope that our solutions are a better fit with the interests of our mining customers. There are several advantages – flexibility in terms of vehicle types, leveraging existing investments the sites have made and an ability to work on a more customised basis with our customers. We will continue to seek solutions that are predicated on customer needs. Because of our independence, it gives us some unique advantages to be able to play to those customer needs compared with some of our competitors.

IM: Automation seems to be getting a mention in the mining space every other day; how receptive are you finding companies to automation at the moment?

DL: My sense is that we are in a third wave, if you will. We had a first wave with some of the early adopters, then a second wave with adopters in Western Australia and some of the key Tier 1 mining companies. This third wave is pushing down into more of the mid-tier and junior miner space, which is showing a genuine appetite for leveraging some of the benefits of autonomous vehicles.

We definitely see more of a general acceptance to automation. I think there has been a notion that these systems are really expensive and difficult to implement, hence something only the Tier 1 mining companies have access to. Our message is we are trying to make this accessible to not just the Tier 1s but small miners too. As that awareness is gaining, we are seeing an awakening and acceptance that, a) automation would benefit their operations and, b) it is more accessible to them than they might think.

There are some sites out there dealing with labour or cost constraints. Where some projects might be marginal under traditional mining models, as they re-look at them through an autonomous capability, they may actually be able to justify the investment. We see some of that happening where folks are re-evaluating the viability of projects.

It’s not just cost reduction for existing operations; it is also looking to new opportunities through the lens of autonomy to make a marginal project more attractive.

IM: Anything else to add?

DL: I’m sure there is some curiosity around the market (in regards to the Epiroc deal) and what it means for our business. We’ve received a lot of feedback from customers saying this is a real smart move, and it will certainly complement and help the business. We talk about the fact that it will enable us to grow faster and part of that is by having access to an established global footprint and resources across the globe.

What we did not want to happen was to take on an investment from an OEM that simply gobbles our technology up and incorporates it into their own solution…Epiroc made it clear from the outset that it was not their intent. They valued our business model and wanted to help facilitate it. That was a real key consideration for us.

IM also heard Helena Hedblom, Epiroc’s Senior Executive Vice President Mining and Infrastructure, talk about the deal last month. You can read what she said here.