Tag Archives: fleet management

Micromine introduces cloud-based AI capabilities to software suite

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Micromine has revealed its 2024 release, saying the update comes with new features and enhancements across the company’s entire product suite, further underscoring its mission to deliver state-of-the-art technology to reshape the industry.

Kiril Alampieski, Micromine’s Chief Strategy and Product Officer, said: “Addressing the ever-evolving needs and requirements of our clients is the driving force behind our relentless focus on innovation to ensure the industry can achieve more by integrating technology within the client operational workflows and reducing data errors and productivity bottlenecks.”

Powered by the company’s cloud-native data sharing and collaboration tool, Micromine Nexus, the 2024 release introduced two significant features: Micromine Origin Copilot and Micromine Geobank Panorama, enhancing the company’s exploration solutions.

Alampieski said: “The ground-breaking feature, Micromine Origin Copilot, is poised to revolutionise geological and resource modelling. The cloud-based AI companion can process data categorised or quantified and employs advanced machine-learning techniques to craft thorough and robust models autonomously.

“Micromine Origin Copilot plays the role of a skilled ally, offering a supplementary perspective to support and authenticate conventional resource estimation methods, thereby empowering geologists with greater confidence and peace of mind in their models. This AI journey begins with grade modelling and will be implemented to other features throughout Micromine Origin and the wider Micromine ecosystem.”

Micromine Geobank’s Panorama feature also benefits from AI and cloud-computing assistance, able to automate the labour-intensive task of creating a seamless down-hole image from drill core imagery, the company says.

The company’s three mine planning solutions received updates for the 2024 release.

Micromine Alastri, the company says, expands on its industry-leading battery-electric haulage modelling capabilities. The functionality allows mine planners to analyse, validate and implement robust decarbonisation strategies that describe what the mine of the future looks like in practice.

Micromine Spry evolved with a broader set of tools and industry-leading visualisation to tackle the demands of modern coal and soft-rock mine planning head-on. The updates are designed to provide a better understanding of mine data and more straightforward methods to communicate results.

Micromine Beyond improves strategic scheduling with new pit optimisation and materials management capabilities. The new functionality builds more confidence and certainty when developing life-of-mine plans.

Alampieski said: “Micromine’s mine planning and scheduling tools are engineered to meet the needs of mine planners at each planning horizon and primary mining method. The 2024 release is future-focused, delivering precise and dependable outcomes for today’s mine planners.”

Lastly, Micromine’s mine production, control and fleet management solution, Micromine Pitram, adds significant improvements, making it easier to track shift progress and gain valuable insights, as well as reducing time spent on data extraction and manipulation.

Datamine adds fleet management layer to offering with acquisition of Sodep

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Datamine has announced the acquisition of Sodep, a leader in the Brazilian fleet management market, as part of its plans to offer “one seamless package with a single source of customer support across the full value chain”, CEO Dylan Webb says.

Founded in 2011, Sodep is the a provider of affordable fleet management systems for mining, ports, steel, forestry, agribusiness and large construction sites in Brazil. Its solutions offer customers reliability, traceability, operational safety and cost savings in the production process, according to Datamine.

Dylan Webb, CEO of Datamine, said: “The Sodep acquisition is strategic for Datamine group, adding to our comprehensive mining software portfolio. Combining Sodep’s leading fleet management system with our MineMarket inventory management solution enables complete visibility and control of material movements from the blast to the end customer.

“Datamine is now in the unique position to offer dispatch, asset management, material tracking, metal accounting and product sales in one seamless package with a single source of customer support across the full value chain.”

The Minetrack solution from Sodep addresses fleet optimisation challenges, transportation cost reduction, production capacity increase, stockpile quality control and ore traceability. The fleet logistics system aims to control productive and effective hours of equipment, automate the allocation of work orders, as well as the real-time monitoring of services, providing management by vacancy, cost centre, equipment, operator and other levels of control.

Marcos Andrade, Sodep’s CEO, said: “We are excited to be joining Datamine group as we enter the next phase of our business. Sodep will now be part of Datamine’s comprehensive mining software portfolio that spans the value chain with global market reach. This will lead to the expansion of our business in geography and capability as we leverage the synergy offered by Datamine solutions to provide more value to our clients.”

Hexagon’s Mining division expands with dedicated underground mining portfolio

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Hexagon’s Mining division has, today, introduced HxGN Underground Mining, an integrated sensor-software portfolio built for the unique challenges of underground environments, at its HxGN LIVE Global 2023 event in Las Vegas.

Featuring what it says are robust systems for collision avoidance, drill optimisation and production planning, the new portfolio helps mines to achieve the best results while protecting drivers, pedestrians and equipment in the most demanding environments.

For Hexagon’s Mining division, meanwhile, it enables the company to further diversify its revenue stream, which is currently skewed towards the open-pit mining sector.

Hexagon says today’s announcement responds to industry demand as more mines push deeper beneath the surface for deposits and face ever more complex conditions. The aim is to provide mines transitioning from open-pit to underground operations – or those mining orebodies from surface and underground simultaneously – with a holistic solution for the life of mine.

HxGN Underground Mining, the company says, effectively creates a seamless technology transition from open pit to underground mining. Its safety suite, for example, leverages collision avoidance and operator alertness systems proven in more than 40,000 vehicles worldwide in open-pit environments.

Similar integration is at work in the portfolio’s operations suite, which helps mine operators and supervisors to manage underground fleet equipment and to optimise production in real time via a dynamic activity scheduler and fleet management system (HxGN MineOperate UG Pro fleet management system). Engineers, via the HxGN MinePlan Underground Engineering product, can avoid flawed mining processes and minimise downtime by using 3D visualisation, and CAD tools to create mine designs and activity-based schedules, the company says.

The portfolio’s optimisation software for production and development enables mines to achieve consistent blasting outcomes with high-precision drilling and optimal set-up processes. The company added to this portfolio recently with the incorporation of Minnovare. The Australia-based company has established four solutions – The Azimuth Aligner, Development Optimiser™, Production Optimiser™ and Minnovare Core – to improve the speed, cost and accuracy of underground drilling.

Beyond benefitting business, better drilling practices are good for the planet, reducing CO2 emissions and supporting sustainability goals, Mateus Quintela, Hexagon’s Head of Product, Underground Mining, said.

“We know mines are looking for ways to mine smarter, safer and in more environmentally and socially conscious ways,” Quintela says.

“HxGN Underground Mining will help our customers answer this search by increasing the efficiency of machines and miners throughout the operation. Well-choreographed scheduling will minimise the downtime of working areas, like headings and stopes, and there’s a real opportunity to reduce diesel emissions through better truck-to-loader planning.

“Perhaps most importantly, our new portfolio offers ways to ensure operators and supervisors are capturing and using safety data, so whether above ground or below it, everyone gets home safely.”

Main image for SFA May 23

FEATURE ARTICLE – Fleet Management Systems

Spotlight Feature Article

The IM Spotlight Feature Article for this month sees Paul Moore speak to providers of fleet management technology, big and small, on everything from FMS integration with AHS, surface versus underground and light, flexible versions for smaller operations. IM spoke with Hexagon’s Mining division on its leading HxGN MineOperate OP Pro fleet management system, which, the company says, comes with excellent GNSS positioning, peer-to-peer communication and fully integrated machine guidance and fleet management, and accurate data with minimal operator interaction.

Rokbak emphasises innovation, sustainability, connected services and efficiencies at CONEXPO

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Rokbak is highlighting its four product focus areas – innovation, sustainability, connected services and efficiencies – at CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2023, in Las Vegas, this week, as the articulated hauler manufacturer says it continues to prioritise the customer and environment to meet industry challenges head-on.

Rokbak is using its presence at CONEXPO to highlight four connected product focus areas that will continue to shape the company’s development journey and have been created from customer feedback, market research, technology advancements and product performance improvements. The four themes are innovation, sustainability, connected services and efficiencies – and they encompass everything from future product developments to reducing operational costs, it explained.

“We’re always innovating, designing and building to keep our haulers rock solid,” Rokbak’s Senior Product Manager, Scott Pollock, said. “Since the success of our rebrand 18 months ago, we are now moving into the next phase of the Rokbak development journey. Our four product themes will be used to develop both Rokbak’s future product and product services offerings, aligned to customer needs.”

Innovation

One of the future developments that Rokbak is currently working on is its next generation cab for the RA30 (30-t payload) and RA40 (40-t payload) articulated haulers. Key benefits of the new design include higher levels of operator comfort and improved performance, modern ergonomic layout and displays, ease of operation and future proofing functionalities for automation and connectivity.

Other areas under this theme include using technological advances, modern component specifications and fuel economy to reduce customer operating costs. These reductions have been achieved through things including extended time between scheduled maintenance, fuel efficiencies, longer life fluids and filter systems. This has led to an average cost reduction for the EU Stage V/US Tier 4 Final RA30 of 19%/h, and 10%/h for the RA40, the company claims.

Sustainability

As part of the Volvo Group, Rokbak’s long-term plans are aligned with the group’s sustainability values. This includes the Volvo Group target to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040.

Rokbak is reviewing technical solutions that will allow it to achieve its sustainability goals. All Rokbak haulers are built for low fuel consumption and global CO2 emissions compliance. Both the RA30 and RA40 are compatible with hydrotreated vegetable oil, which allows customers to significantly reduce CO2 emissions.

Connected services

Rokbak’s improved Haul Track telematics system is helping machine owners manage total cost of ownership by keeping an eye on everything from fuel consumption and machine usage, to problems that if neglected could lead to repairs or unplanned downtime. The bespoke system gives customers more visibility and control of their machines with live data viewable on desktop computers and mobile devices, according to Rokbak. This includes: locating equipment and monitoring productivity and operational costs by keeping track of everything from scheduled maintenance planning, early fault warning and performance management information.

Haul Track is now AEMP-enabled, allowing for mixed fleet management via a single communication platform, Rokbak says.

Efficiencies

Rokbak says its fuel-efficient drivetrains deliver powerful performance and meet worldwide emission standards with low cost of operation and low environmental impact. The high performance drivetrain has responsive, usable power with adaptive shifting for low fuel consumption and operating costs.

Another efficiency aspect of the Rokbak design is easy service access, making the RA30 and RA40 quick and simple to maintain with ground-level test points, electric-lift hoods and tilting cabs, enabling high uptime and productivity.

“Rokbak haulers deliver new benchmarks in both performance and total cost of ownership, and reinforce the company’s commitment to sustainability and journey to net-zero as part of the Volvo Group,” Pollock concludes. “Customer needs will continue to guide our product strategy and we will continue to invest in our Rokbak products and services.”

Hexagon and BUMA successfully deploy fleet management solution in Indonesia

Automation, Coal technology, IoT, Mining equipment, Mining services, Mining software, , , , , , ,

Hexagon’s Mining division says it has been awarded an eight-year fleet management project by PT Bukit Makmur Mandiri Utama (BUMA) in Indonesia.

As part of this project, Hexagon successfully deployed 150 units of HxGN MineOperate OP Pro to BUMA’s IPR site operation in Indonesia with the system optimally running within three months, the company said.

The phased deployment covers Hexagon’s fleet management, asset health and enterprise analytics solutions implemented by the Hexagon team on site from June to September 2022.

BUMA was established in 1998 as a family business and is currently the second largest independent coal mining contractor in Indonesia.

Delta Dunia Makmur acquired BUMA in 2009 and has since been overhauling it into a more streamlined corporation. It holds approximately 20% of the market share and provides coal mining services to many of Indonesia’s largest and longest-running names in the coal industry, according to Hexagon’s Mining division.

Simon Stone, Vice President of APAC, Hexagon’s Mining division, said: “We are looking forward to strengthening our relationship with BUMA and accelerating their digital transformation journey. Like BUMA, Hexagon firmly believes in safety and efficiency, which makes this partnership and collaboration highly valuable to both parties.”

HxGN MineOperate OP Pro, the company says, offers open-pit mines high-precision guidance for dozers, drills and loading equipment. The solution improves bench elevations, reduces dilution and decreases rework to improve site safety, efficiency and profitability. Hexagon’s enterprise integration enables BUMA a single source for reporting and support across their fleet.

PT Bukit Makmur Mandiri Utama President Director, Pak Sorimuda Pulungan, said: “In following management’s Technology Transformation Project outline, Hexagon’s suite of integrated products and industry proven technology solutions played a major role in the decision-making process. Hexagon has set the new standard of being a reliable technology partner supported by an expert local team.”

OZ Minerals navigating Carrapateena mine traffic issues with Mobilaris solutions

Automation, Base metals, Communications in mining, IoT, Mining equipment, Mining services, Mining software, Precious metals, , , , , , , , , , ,

OZ Minerals, through the implementation of Mobilaris Situational Awareness and Mobilaris Onboard, has improved traffic flows at its Carrapateena copper-gold mine in South Australia, according to a recent case study.

Having implemented the solutions from Mobilaris, owned by Epiroc, the mining company gained a better understanding of where machines and people were physically located underground – and operations became safer.

Since commencing production in December 2019, the Carrapateena mine has become, over the past decade, one of the biggest mining projects in the state. The ore must be hauled from the production levels to the crusher level via a short decline with limited passing areas, which poses challenges.

To optimise haulage flows, OZ Minerals deployed Epiroc’s Mobilaris Mining Intelligence decision support system to digitise the mine.

Daniel Bruce, Superintendent, OZ Minerals Carrapateena, said: “We saw potential to remove some of the constraints we have underground. You can’t see around corners, and you can’t see through rock, so understanding where things are – where people and machines are – is a lot more difficult than in a typical workplace on the surface.”

OZ Minerals rolled out the first feature in 2019: Mobilaris Situational Awareness, a solution for surface control room operators. Mobilaris Onboard, a solution for underground operators in vehicles, followed in 2021. Thanks to real-time 3D visualisation, anybody with access to a tablet or a PC can quickly understand where machines are operating, according to Epiroc.

“Mobilaris Situational Awareness allows you to see, live, at any point in time, where all the equipment and people are in the mine,” Bruce said. “It also allows you to navigate to locations, equipment and refuge chambers.”

OZ Minerals had initially installed Wi-Fi tags on all its vehicles, which provided accuracy to around 150 m. With Mobilaris Onboard, it can achieve location accuracy of 5-10 m without any extra infrastructure, and all that is needed are basic OBD2 adapters or a Doppler radar, Epiroc says. Implementation started with trucks and loaders, and now the entire underground fleet has been equipped.

This has significantly improved real-time position information, according to Amelia Schmidt, Senior Technician in the site operations team at Carrapateena.

“Everyone at the site operations centre – dispatchers, mine controllers and haulage control – is now using Mobilaris Situational Awareness,” she said. “Previously, it could take quite a bit of time to search for a piece of equipment, but it only takes seconds now to see its last location.”

The system also helps OZ Minerals with its fleet management – to determine where trucks are, for instance – thus becoming a tool in the decision-making process.

Schmidt said: “For those who are perhaps new to the mine, we’ve been able to insert points of interest on the map, for example where it is best to hold. Cycle times are well managed, despite underground operations becoming a lot busier.”

OZ Minerals then implemented a second Mobilaris feature: Mobilaris Onboard, a tablet in a vehicle that acts just like a car navigator but without any need for a dedicated tracking infrastructure. This provided everyone underground with a tool that enabled them to easily understand how equipment was positioned around them.

Bruce added: “This is another piece of information that the operator can use to make a decision – and all of these minute decisions add up to a more productive and safer workplace.”

For Carrapateena Truck Captain, Joel Dodd, everyday work has become easier thanks to Mobilaris Onboard.

“One of the main benefits is that we’re able to travel down and get to our locations a lot better,” he said.

OZ Minerals now has around 200 tablets in vehicles underground – in trucks, LHDs, face drill rigs and light vehicles – and the feedback has been very positive.

“When people can see more clearly where other people are, it helps them avoid unwanted interaction,” Bruce said.

This is an edited version of an Epiroc Customer story published here

BHP reduces vehicle ‘events’, hazards at Yandi iron ore mine with the help of MSD

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A BHP-developed system is harnessing data from a range of existing safety systems to improve safety in light vehicles (LV) and surface mobile equipment (SME) at its Western Australia Iron Ore (WAIO) mine sites, the miner says.

The Magnet Safety Dashboard (MSD) uses existing operator and equipment monitoring systems to quickly identify potential behaviours or job factors that might increase the likelihood of safety events occurring (‘at risk’ scenarios).

BHP explains: “Operations have historically used different hardware and software systems in isolation. MSD was developed to address integration potential between existing systems providing population-sized data sets on driver/operator behaviour.”

Events and hazards associated with LVs and SME can occur frequently at BHP, so the ability to quickly understand and influence human and job factors, which could contribute to safe outcomes, supports leaders to manage risk more holistically.

MSD harnesses a range of data from collision avoidance, distraction and alertness monitoring and fleet management systems, including location, speed, acceleration, braking and cornering. All selected information is monitored and assessed from a central location, which allows immediate access for relevant employees and medium-to long-term trend analysis, the company claims.

Over 800,000 metrics from more than 20,000 devices, using 300 instances of 60-plus data points, are collected.

Leaders are alerted if hardware, software and network controls are not operating as expected, while team members are alerted if acute intervention is required (where it is possible to achieve).

The system has also created efficient ways to record and display recommended response actions where chronic patterns are present, according to the company.

This accurate and timely notification of driver behaviour events, trends and hot spots requiring improvement has increased awareness and, in the Yandi iron ore mine site, resulted in reductions to the frequency of fatigue, distraction, error and non-compliance events, BHP says.

The Magnet Safety Dashboard program at Yandi Mine Site’s has contributed to a 58% reduction in overall reported vehicle events (December 2020 to April 2021) and a 70% reduction in reported speeding events (October 2020 to April 2021).

Following the program’s positive results and learning at the Yandi mine site, an MSD pilot will be implemented across all WAIO mine sites, BHP says.

NRW to leverage MaxMine tech platform at Dalgaranga gold mine

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NRW Holdings’ mining division has entered into an agreement with MaxMine to install its technology across the A$300 million ($216 million) Dalgaranga gold mine contract in Western Australia.

The MaxMine platform harnesses cutting-edge hardware, digital automation, advanced artificial intelligence-based analytics and human-powered coaching to empower mine sites to increase environmental efficiency and operationally productivity, according to the company.

NRW was seeking a mining technology provider who could provide reliable data-driven, automated optimisation of its operations on site, leveraging the existing teams and fleet to further its data and broader technology leadership ambition within the mining industry.

The Dalgaranga gold mine is owned by Gascoyne Resources. NRW reach agreements with Gascoyne to keep providing services at the mine back in 2020 after the miner’s successful A$125 million recapitalisation process.

NRW has invested in building out its internal data analytics capabilities and was ready to step up its approach to partnering with service providers that supply to industrial data quality and help solve big data analytics challenges, it said.

Additionally, a tight domestic labour market has increased operator turnover at all mine sites and is an especially challenging issue for the mining contracting segment.

MaxMine’s technology automatically captures, enhances and contextualises up to 10,000 times more data at open-pit mining operations, relative to the industry standard fleet management system products, according to the company. Its data processing pipelines automatically contextualise all equipment, operator, and site data relative to each other, and dynamically to the conditions within the shift, such as weather, or other external factors.

This contextualised site data (a digital twin) is translated, in tandem with implementation coaching, to generate tangible increases in asset productivity and reliability of equipment, through three primary improvement states. These are: (1) Get in control; (2) Optimise Performance; and (3) Ramp up production rates.

These outcomes are evidenced by existing customers who experience, on average, an 11% payload increase and halve tyre costs after implementing MaxMine, the company said.

NRW Operations Manager, Adam Harper, said continuous innovation and intelligent use of data is core to NRW mining division’s future, and another way NRW is consistently adding value for its customers beyond moving tonnes.

NRW General Manager Mining Division, Tim Abrahams, added: “NRW emphasises good data as a critical enabler of our operational effectiveness and partnering with MaxMine, who are a leader in fleet operations data, allows us to continuously improve our performance for our customers.”

MaxMine Chief Executive Officer, Coert Du Plessis, said the two companies were aligned in pursuing a more sustainable and reliable mining industry.

“The benefits from this cooperation extend beyond MaxMine or NRW; the global challenge of ‘Net Zero’ by 2050 cannot be achieved without an order of magnitude change in mining efficiencies. Working with NRW is another fantastic example of great partnerships helping transform a critically important industry into a safer, more efficient and environmentally-friendly component of the world’s economy.”

The announcement of the agreement with NRW comes one month after MaxMine officially launched MaxMine Carbon, a technology offering that, the company says, will enable mining operators to reduce their carbon emissions by 5-20%, depending on their existing efficiencies, with limited or no additional capital expenditure.

Hiber updates satellite-based fleet monitoring system for heavy vehicle tracking, analysis

Communications in mining, IoT, Mining equipment, Mining services, Mining software, , , , ,

IoT-as-a-Service scaleup Hiber has announced a new version of its satellite-based HiberEasypulse fleet monitoring system to support the tracking and analysis of heavy industrial vehicles and machinery anywhere.

Developed primarily for the mining, construction, agriculture and forestry sectors, this second version of HiberEasypulse includes new CANbus capabilities that deliver more detailed data from heavy vehicles in the field, according to the company. HiberEasypulse can connect to any vehicle with a CAN port and share data on a dashboard and third-party telematics services via APIs, enabling operators to manage a mixture of brands and models in a single system, Hiber says.

HiberEasypulse, introduced at at CES 2022, improves operating efficiency and maintenance scheduling of industrial assets and reduces emissions, thefts and downtime by analysing a wide range of information, from fuel level and vehicle location to engine errors and driver behaviour, the company added.

“The system can also provide production insights, such as the distance travelled by agricultural vehicles during harvesting or the quantity of material mined during a cycle,” Hiber said. “Data are summarised in a scorecard and a ranking system, highlighting asset performance trends and actionable insight into vehicles requiring particular attention.”

HiberEasypulse includes a CANbus Edge Station device that connects to a vehicle’s local data bus and transmits critical positioning and status data every 15 minutes via a global satellite network. The device can be attached to vehicles using magnets or custom mounting systems and is powered directly by the connected asset, according to the company.

Roel Jansen, CEO of Hiber, said: “Keeping track of valuable assets such as heavy vehicles in remote locations is near impossible without satellite-enabled IoT monitoring. We are using our expertise in IoT and connectivity to deliver global coverage and support a far wider range of industrial use cases with a complete solution that is affordable and easy to use.

“HiberEasypulse allows organisations to see where their remote assets are and how they are performing anywhere on earth. There will be nothing better suited to monitoring excavators operating in places like open-pit mines in Mozambique or river barges on the Amazon.”