Tag Archives: FutureSmart Mining

Anglo American and Finnish Minerals Group look to progress Finland’s battery strategy

Base metals, Energy minerals, Environmental, Mineral project development, Precious metals, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Anglo American and Finnish Minerals Group have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to work together to explore opportunities to, they say, further support Finland’s battery strategy.

Finnish Minerals Group is a holding and development company that manages the Finnish Government’s mining industry shareholdings and supports the development of the Finnish battery value chain. Among other assets, it holds the Terrafame nickel heap leach mine.

Alison Atkinson, Projects & Development Director at Anglo American, said: “Finland is a highly attractive investment destination and has a strong heritage in both mining and innovation. We look forward to working with Finnish Minerals Group, whose mission is to responsibly maximise the value of Finnish minerals, to explore the wealth of opportunities that our agreement could offer.

“This agreement further strengthens our commitment to Finland as well as to our Sakatti project, a true polymetallic orebody very much aligned to Finland’s and the EU’s critical minerals priorities. Sakatti is designed as the next generation of FutureSmart Mining™, building on what we have learned in terms of minimal surface footprint and using technology and innovation to deliver ever better environmental and social outcomes, whilst producing essential raw materials needed to transition to a greener, low carbon energy future.”

Atkinson said last year during a sustainability performance update that Sakatti was set to be “a remotely operated, low carbon-underground mine with an electric mining fleet using technology and mining methods that will create zero waste and enable high degrees of water recycling, contributing to a sustainable supply of critical minerals”. The company also sees the potential to use sorting technologies for coarse particle rejection and material recovery opportunities at the project.

Jani Kiuru, Senior Vice President, Raw Materials at Finnish Minerals Group, said: “Exploring joint opportunities with Anglo American is a natural choice for us as they already know the Finnish operational environment. In addition, the company has a long history in mining and is a forerunner in sustainability. We believe this collaboration reinforces both parties by combining local and global knowhow in sustainability and technological development, thus maximising the value of Finnish minerals responsibly. We see there is a mutual understanding on the vast possibilities and importance of Finnish minerals for the green transition.”

As a Finnish state-owned company with a mandate to foster the Finnish mining and battery industry, Finnish Minerals Group is a natural potential partner for Anglo American in Finland, Anglo American says. The company’s main assets are: Terrafame, a subsidiary that produces nickel and cobalt sulphates; project Sokli, a phosphate and rare earths deposit; and a 20% interest in Keliber, a battery-grade lithium project aiming to start production in 2025. Additionally, Finnish Minerals Group is advancing several greenfield investments further downstream in the battery value chain.

Sakatti-FutureSmart Mining

Anglo American highlights next FutureSmart Mining advances at Woodsmith, Sakatti

Automation, Base metals, Energy minerals, Environmental, Mine operation news, Mineral project development, Mining equipment, Mining services, Power supply for mines, Sustainable mining, Water management, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Anglo American has provided its latest sustainability performance update, highlighting a number of technological advancements the company is looking to take at its in-development Woodsmith polyhalite mine in the UK and its exploration asset, Sakatti, in Finland.

Anglo American says it has an integrated approach to sustainability in project development, helping secure its ability to deliver responsible long-term growth in future-enabling metals and minerals.

The company is moving towards its goal of carbon neutral operations by 2040, evolving its pathways as it progresses, learns and as technologies develop.

At the end of 2022, its Scope 1 and 2 emissions were 21% below the peak levels of 2019 – a significant reduction that, Anglo American says, reflects its transition to 100% renewable electricity supply across its South America operations, with Australia to follow in 2025.

In southern Africa, it is working in partnership with EDF Renewables to build a 3-5 GW renewable energy ecosystem of wind and solar generation capacity, designed to tackle its largest remaining source of Scope 2 emissions and support energy reliability and grid resilience while catalysing broad socio-economic opportunities.

While Scope 3 emissions reduction is largely dependent on the decarbonisation of Anglo American’s value chains and the steel industry, in particular, it is progressing towards its ambition to halve these emissions by 2040.

Tom McCulley, CEO of Anglo American’s Crop Nutrients business, provided several references to Quellaveco, Anglo American’s most technologically-advanced mine that uses automation, a remote operations centre and high levels of digitalisation, when looking at its FutureSmart Mining™ plans at Woodsmith, a 5 Mt/y operation that could ramp up to 13 Mt/y.

McCulley, who also led development of Quellaveco, said Woodsmith will be developed as a benchmark for sustainable mining. This includes plans for the mine to be a low carbon, low water and low waste operation, with no tailings generation and with a minimum impact design.

“We hope this can show a way of how mining can be done in the future,” McCulley said of this approach at Woodsmith.

When it comes to Sakatti, Alison Atkinson, Projects & Development Director, said the development could end up being “our next greenfield project”.

The project is a rich multi-metal deposit with not only copper, nickel and cobalt resources, but also platinum, palladium, gold and silver.

“High concentrations of metal combined with consistency of the mineralisation between the boreholes make Sakatti a unique deposit,” Anglo American says of the project. Its resources are estimated to be sufficient for mining operations to last more than 20 years.

Atkinson said Sakatti is being designed as the next generation of FutureSmart Mining, building on what it has learned from Quellaveco and Woodsmith, particularly when it comes to ensuring there is minimal surface footprint and “using technology and innovations to deliver even better sustainability outcomes”.

She added: “Sakatti is set to be a remotely operated, low carbon-underground mine with an electric mining fleet using technology and mining methods that will create zero waste and enable high degrees of water recycling, contributing to a sustainable supply of critical minerals.”

The company also sees the potential to use sorting technologies for coarse particle rejection and material recovery opportunities.

Woodsmith-MTS-Anglo

Anglo American lays out 5 Mt/y Woodsmith polyhalite plan ahead of full design review

Automation, Energy minerals, Explosives and blasting, Mineral project development, Mining equipment, Mining services, Sustainable mining, Water management, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This week, Anglo American hosted an investor and analyst day at its in-development Woodsmith project, in the UK, with several key technology takeaways cropping up from an in-depth presentation from Tom McCulley, CEO, Crop Nutrients.

In reviewing progress and the past, McCulley stated that Anglo has decided to start Woodsmith as a 5 Mt/y operation, with a staged ramp-up planned to the 13 Mt/y rate. The plan to sink 1,600 m production and service shafts, establish a mechanised mine, construct the 37-km-long underground tunnel and build a materials handling facility with priority access export facilities remain part of this. The potential to phase ventilation & production level development within the underground mine, potential to phase conveyor upgrades in the underground tunnel and the potential to carry out a phased expansion as required for the export facilities are all options for the 13 Mt/y blueprint.

This change has required some of the scope to go back to study phase – hence the reason why Anglo has been mooting detailed design reviews and non-critical path studies – looking at how to optimise investment and modularise the construction to get maximum value from each phase, McCulley said.

“I feel far more comfortable today about how we are setting up the project for the long-term success but managing in a capital efficient way,” McCulley said during his presentation.

Some of the elements keen observers have been watching at Woodsmith are related to mechanised underground development – both vertical (via shaft sinking) and horizontally (via tunnel boring machines (TBMs) for the 37-km-long tunnel).

TBM-led tunnel transformation

In terms of the latter, Anglo American is soon expecting to set a World Record for the longest TBM tunnel developed by a single TBM. This is currently set at 25.8 km, with the Woodsmith team having already reached the 25-km (25.3 km) mark.

“Beyond this we will pass our next intermediate shaft at Ladycross, where we will take a 3-4 month maintenance pause as we set up the TBM for the final push to 37 km, and we expect to reach the Woodsmith mine in late 2026,” McCulley said.

The machine used at Woodsmith is a Herrenknecht hard-rock TBM that, McCulley says, works similarly to the Shaft Boring Roadheaders (SBRs) being used for shaft sinking (more on that soon) in that it cuts the soils, without blasting, and the material is transported through the machine and out of the tunnel via a conveyor that is part of the TBM.

“In addition to excavating the material, the TBM also simultaneously lines the tunnel via pre-cast concrete segments (six segments make up a ring around the circumference of the tunnel); these concrete segments are fabricated at the Teesside port by a project dedicated facility,” McCulley said.

He said in every measure the tunnelling on the project to date has been an amazing success, aided by a solid team performance. This team is made up of contractors from Strabag, Herrenknecht and Anglo’s in-house personnel.

Progress has been aided by consistent ground conditions across the tunnel within what is called Mudstone strata, McCulley said.

“These conditions are very predictable and cutting is easy for the machine which minimises the bearing wear, which is a key risk area for the TBM,” he said. “This consistent strata has allowed us to switch our strategy from three TBMs to one TBM for the entire 37 km, which means we will not only pass the World Record, but we will also smash it when we reach Woodsmith in late 2026. This reduction in TBMs had a knock-on impact of saving significant capital over what was originally planned.”

Anglo is consistently seeing average rates increase to over 20 m/d and trending closer to 25 m/d, which compares favourably with about 16-17 m/d in late 2021.

Tom McCulley-Anglo American
Tom McCulley, CEO, Crop Nutrients

SBRs on the up

Mine development via TBMs is relatively proven when compared with the use of Herrenknecht SBRs for shaft sinking in mining, with Woodsmith representing only the third deployment of the technology in mining following Jansen (BHP) and Nezhinsky (Slavkaliy).

Anglo has two SBRs on site at Woodsmith, sinking the production and service shafts at the project. Redpath, which carried out the shaft sinking work at Nezhinsky, is steering developments at these two shafts, in addition to the material transport system shaft. Only the much deeper production and service shafts are being sunk via mechanised means with the SBRs.

Overseeing this and all developments at the operation is Worley as an engineering, procurement and construction management contractor.

Sinking of the service shaft began in September-October 2022, followed some six months later with activities at the production shaft. McCulley said these two were now around 550-m deep and 340-m deep, respectively.

“We typically see more daily meters from the production shaft due to the service shaft lessons being applied to the production shaft, so I’m excited as I think we may have a race to polyhalite!” he said. “We are very pleased with the progress made on both shafts since Redpath started sinking in 2022.”

On the advantages associated with using SBRs, McCulley said: “Some of the primary benefits of these machines is they are inherently safer than traditional sinking. They also eliminate the need for explosives, which is a huge benefit to us with the community as we don’t encounter noise complaints experienced in other mines. I expect these machines to be the future of shaft sinking. They are just safer, quicker and more predictable.”

The SBR is generally working in autonomous mode for most of the time following a program with pre-set parameters for cutting, according to McCulley, who said the company is expecting an average rate of 1 m/d in each shaft over the full 1,600-m length of the shafts.

“This 1 m/d includes all routine maintenance and what we call non-routine work, like installing water cubbies for pumping water out of the shafts, probe drilling, tubbing and grouting,” he said.

“Ultimately, this is the right machine for the job at Woodsmith and the cutting rates we achieve are 1.5-2 times what we would do with traditional methods.”

Looking at current sinking progress and plans to hit the orebody in 2027 in the service shaft (with the production shaft being six months behind that), McCulley pointed out a 250-m section of sinking in Sherwood Sandstone, which the company expects to reach next year.

“This 250 m of strata will see our rates reduced from our 1 m/d to something between 0.5 m and 0.75 m a day, and this will impact us for most of next year and early 2025,” McCulley said. “Once through that strata, we do not expect any further issues with the ground conditions significantly impacting production.”

The Sherwood Sandstone is characterised as a strata of highly competent rock, about 120 Mpa, according to McCulley, which is at the top end of the SBR rock hardness capacity given by Herrenknecht.

In addition to the hardness, this strata has the potential for some water fissures (ie cracks in the rock with high pressure water), according to McCulley.

“The good news for us is we hit a 2.5-m layer of this material a few weeks ago and we learned from this that we need to make some adjustments to our cutter heads and cutting picks, and now we are far more prepared than we would have been otherwise,” he said. “We are also prepared with alternative plans, including potential use of lasers, plasma blasting and/or microwaves if needed, but we expect our updated cutter head and next generation picks, developed by Element 6 of De Beers, will cut through the rock at the rates I previously mentioned. In addition, to the hard rock, this strata has a risk of high-water flows in small sections of the strata so we will need to seal the shaft via grout from the shaft. This means as we come across water, we will inject chemical grout into the fractures to block water bearing cavities and control water inflow.”

Adding to McCulley’s confidence is the fact that the nearby Boulby mine encountered the same strata some time ago, which that team progressed through via the same exact grouting technique Woodsmith is planning today.

In terms of priorities for 2023, McCulley said the team expected the service shaft to be between 650-700 m at the end of the year, versus the current circa-550 metres today, whereas the production shaft could reach 450 m by this point.

“Both shafts, if they hit the numbers noted will exceed our planned targets for the year,” he said.

“The MTS shaft and Ladycross shafts are both sunk, and we are working to fit them out during the remainder of the year. In the tunnel we have driven 4.3 km this year, we are at 25.3 km and we expect to reach 27 km, which is our stretch target for the year.”

For 2024, while Anglo continues to work through the studies, it doesn’t see any changes to its plans right now and still expects to be around the $1 billon capex number for the next few years.

McCulley added: “Our vision at Woodsmith with regards to technology is to ultimately develop a peopleless underground mine, where operations and maintenance are all controlled from the surface. This is a journey, but many technologies are already out there, we just need to put the system in place and the wherewithal to help the vendors take the next step. This will not happen from the start, but with our vision and with the team we have in place, I have no doubt that in the future this vision will become a reality.”

When at full production, Woodsmith will be a FutureSmart Mine with all the modern technologies, according to McCulley, with these characteristics ensuring the company has a low cost, high volume mine for many years to come. Continuous miners are expected to be used in a room & pillar mining application, combined with mine cars, shuttle cars or conveyors.

“On top of the mining/processing technology, I see some interesting parallels with the farming industry. They are rapidly adopting technologies, and we are very well placed to support this transition in areas like sensing, scanning, AI, etc. I think with our Anglo American Woodsmith project experience in technology we are uniquely positioned to help support this transition in farming and this is something that will have added value to our product for years to come.”

De Beers taking major technology steppingstone at Venetia Underground

Automation, Comminution of minerals, Communications in mining, Diamond mining, Environmental, Explosives and blasting, IoT, Mine shafts and equipment, Mine ventilation, Mineral processing, Mineral project development, Mining equipment, Mining project news, Mining safety, Mining services, Mining software, Power supply for mines, Sustainable mining, Water management, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Making the transition from an open pit mine that has been operating successfully for 30 years to an underground operation that could become one of the most mechanised and automated in the world is not something that happens overnight.

De Beers Group embarked on the $2.3 billion underground expansion of its Venetia asset in Limpopo Province in 2012, in a move that represented the biggest single investment in South Africa’s diamond mining industry in decades.

Underground production began at the mine back in June this year, at a point when construction completion was estimated at 70%.

The introduction of autonomous mining systems performing multiple mining processes to deliver up to 6 Mt/y of kimberlite ore – for circa-4 Mct/y of diamonds – is now beginning, with a ramp-up process occurring over the next four years, according to Moses Madondo, Managing Director of De Beers Group Managed Operations.

“The technologies we are implementing – some of which are under development themselves – will be gradually phased in,” he told IM. “Where appropriate, we will take advantage of ‘proven’ technologies first to ease the change management process, before advancing to less mature technologies thereafter.

“The process should see us start operating areas of the mine in autonomous capacity by 2027.”

De Beers has engaged Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions for its automated production machines, with the OEM delivering a 34-strong fleet made up of LHDs, ADTs, twin-boom drill rigs, roof bolters, cable bolters and production long hole drills. A further 12 units will be delivered in the future. These iSeries machines include 17- and 21-t payload LH517i and LH621i LHDs, 51-t payload TH551i ADTs, DD422i face drills, DS412i roof bolters, DS422i cable bolters and DL422i production drills.

Employee in the cab of one of the fleet of Sandvik machines

The underground mine will use sublevel caving to extract material from its K01 and K02 orebodies. Initially the ore will be hauled to surface using a combination of underground and surface haul trucks. As the operation matures, the hauling systems will transition to an automated truck loop in combination with vertical shafts for steady-state production.

Sandvik is also providing its AutoMine® system for the remote operation of loaders and trucks and its OptiMine® system for machine health monitoring, task management and location tracking.

Automation will be applied through a phased approach, beginning with manual operation and close monitoring of performance through data analytics. Automation will then gradually be introduced with the necessary training and experience in the operation and support of these technologies.

Madondo explained: “Our current fleet is made up of manually operated machines, which are optimised with automated task management. This process still requires an on-board operator, although many functions are automated.

“The next step would be autonomous machines, operated and overseen from surface, with our training centres already set up to deliver that.”

A pilot project to prepare the production team for the use of remote loading at the drawpoints and autonomous tramming to the tip is in the process of being established, with trials set for later this year and into 2024.

With sublevel cave mining, there is a risk of mud rushes and water ingress at drawpoints and remote loading will allow material to be loaded without putting operators at risk.

This pilot project will have a single loader operating under AutoMine Lite in a dedicated area on 46 Level that is isolated from other areas of the mine, with the machine controlled locally from a mobile tele-remote station just outside the autonomous operating area (ie not from surface).

An integrated operations centre on surface has been constructed and is in the final stages of commissioning.

Moses Madondo, Managing Director of De Beers Group Managed Operations

This is but a fraction of the emerging technology the company plans to employ at the mine, as Madondo highlighted.

“Of course, we will be integrating more technologies into the mix – digital mobility, data analytics, a cave management system, collision prevention, personnel alert systems, equipment location and tracking, production management through digital platforms, centralised blasting systems and digital twins,” he said. “All of these projects have people working on them to deliver our project objectives.”

For Madondo, the business case for employing such high levels of mechanisation and automation has only strengthened in the 11 years since the first shovel was placed in the ground for the underground project.

“This is a challenge with deep underground mining projects – they take a long time to develop and, in that period, technology and economics change,” he said. “It is, however, clear that mechanised mining allows you to take on these advanced technologies as the years go by.

“The investments are not just for technology’s sake. The business case must be built on our ability to improve safety and keep our people away from harm; as well as to make us more efficient and beat inflation, ensuring the margins we promised investors are realised.”

On the former, the company has partnered with Booyco Electronics on rolling out the South Africa-based company’s Level 9 – as defined by the Mining Industry Occupational Safety and Health (MOSH) organisation of South Africa – Booyco Electronics CWS850 collision prevention system at the mine.

“All of our Sandvik equipment is Level 9-enabled and we’re busy on this rollout,” Madondo said. “We’re already employing Level 7 (a system that warns pedestrians of their proximity to trackless mobile machinery) for this equipment. It’s now just a matter of getting to that new advanced level efficiently and safely.”

The company is also employing the Mobilaris Mining Intelligence platform for personnel location and situational awareness to help locate individuals in case of an emergency and notify them of incidents should they occur.

On the productivity side, the company is employing a cave management system to prevent overdrawing, Madondo says, linking the sub level caving mine plan with on-board LHD diagnostics and bucket weighing for efficiency and safety.

Process controller overseeing processing operations within the Venetia Mine

On top of OptiMine and AutoMine from Sandvik, the company is looking to integrate Howden’s Ventsim™ CONTROL system for monitoring, control and optimisation of underground mine ventilation in a ventilation on demand (VoD) application.

“We will gradually introduce VoD and Ventsim CONTROL as it allows us to 1) optimise the use of air and ventilation; and 2) retain the right condition and hygiene levels in the areas of the active mine,” Madondo said.

In an automated mining scenario, Ventsim CONTROL could potentially start ventilating an area of the mine in line with the expected arrival of the autonomous equipment, optimising the process and environment, and, as a result, reducing energy use.

Reaching the pinnacle

Also part of that discussion is decarbonisation – an area the company has already made significant progress on with its move underground.

“Transitioning from surface to underground has reset the energy balance,” Madondo said. “This has seen the site become far less reliant on energy from fossil fuel sources, with the big trucks and loaders from the pit replaced with smaller underground equipment and more electrical infrastructure.

“We predict by that, by 2030, 85% of all energy consumed will be electrical and only 6% will be diesel. That is a significant shift from the open-pit operation where nearly 85% of all energy consumed was from diesel.”

The company’s broader electrification work is currently in the review stage, but Madondo did provide some insight into the focus areas.

“We are looking at battery LHDs and trucks; we will consider trolley assist hauling loops and tethered electrical loading in some of the areas too,” he said. “It is all part of a progressive shift that will be integrated with the sourcing of renewable power for the mine.”

De Beers itself has set targets to become carbon neutral across its operations by 2030, Venetia Underground included.

The first electrification project the company is likely to embark on is a battery-electric retrofit of one of its light duty vehicles, Madondo said, explaining that this technology is relatively mature and comes with less infrastructure requirements due to the ability to charge the machines on surface.

“Our wider electrification plans are being influenced by the maturity of the technology; it may be more beneficial to wait until the adoption rate and learnings increase before we commit,” he added.

Even with the planned integration of such advanced technology at Venetia Underground, Madondo says De Beers still has some way to go to achieve the FutureSmart Mining innovation-led approach to sustainable mining that its parent company, Anglo American, advocates for.

“The pinnacle of De Beers mining expertise will probably be realised when we get to rollout our Diamond FutureSmart Mining, which ultimately is a mine design that we can use to develop future mines that make mining safer, more efficient, more sustainable and with a smaller environmental footprint,” he said.

“Of course, Venetia is certainly a steppingstone to that, but we will hopefully apply the learnings from Venetia for Jwaneng Underground (in Botswana) in the not-too-distant future. That could represent a different, more technologically advanced proposition where all processes are setup to benefit from the latest innovations.”

He concluded: “This will ensure we help create a healthy environment, that we catalyse thriving communities, and that we build trust as a corporate leader. We are shaping a future that creates shared value for all our stakeholders.”

Anglo American ushering in a new era of tailings disposal with Hydraulic Dewatered Stacking tech

Base metals, Environmental, Mineral processing, Mining equipment, Sustainable mining, Water management, , , , ,

While the El Soldado copper operation in Chile may be one of Anglo American’s smaller assets, it has a big part to play as one of the company’s FutureSmart Mining™ hubs, piloting some of its innovative mining and processing technologies, according to Phil Newman, Anglo American’s Head of Innovation.

Including in this innovative technology bracket is Anglo American’s patented Hydraulic Dewatered Stacking (HDS) technology.

Newman explained: “Mineral processing operations commonly use large amounts of water for the recovery of valuable minerals. This ultimately results in the production of large volumes of wet tailings which are disposed in conventional tailings storage facilities. If not safely constructed and maintained, they pose a major risk to communities and the environment. Eliminating these facilities is a key objective for a safe and sustainable mining industry.”

With 75% of Anglo American’s assets globally located in water-constrained areas, the company must reduce its dependence on water and it is working on technologies to help it achieve closed loop operations with respect to water, according to Newman. HDS is a key enabler of its FutureSmart Mining innovation-led approach to mining and a major step towards moving the company closer to water-less mining and reducing its footprint.

HDS demonstrates a new way to safely dispose of mining by-products and accelerates Anglo American’s progress towards the end of wet tailings storage. Ultimately, it allows the company to reclaim and reuse water, its most precious and undervalued resource, and create stable, dry, economically viable land long after mining ends.

The adoption of coarse particle recovery (CPR), another valuable FutureSmart Mining technology, was instrumental in the development of HDS, according to Newman. “It allows larger-size particles of material to be processed, reducing the need for grinding to a smaller size, thereby lowering energy consumption,” he said. “It also makes it easier for us to capture and drain water during the processing phase and recycle it.”

HDS targets the geotechnical and water recovery performance of filtered tailings but without the carbon footprint, Newman claims. Laboratory and proof of concept testing has proved the robustness of fines-free sand as a filtering medium – promising a safe, dewatered facility with the possibility of re-purposing otherwise sterilised land within months of closure. Through effective and permanent desaturation of the tailings, the geotechnical safety of the facility can be enhanced and deliver stability in excess of new Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management (GISTM) standards.

Anglo American has embarked on an ambitious demonstration of this technology, having built a bespoke 250,000 cu.m capacity HDS tailings facility at its El Soldado copper mine in Chile. The sand transportation and placement system was commissioned in August and tailings placement commenced at the start of November.

Data is being collected in real time on water balance, moisture content and consolidation, according to Newman, who said, by the end of the year, the company will be able to understand the degree to which tailings consolidation and dewatering is accelerated through the adoption of HDS.

“Our early results are already promising,” he said. “We have already measured water recovery at more than 80% (our initial target), and dewatering is continuing with up to 85% water recovery a possibility.”

Commencing the second layer of the sand drainage channel at the El Soldado trial, both Cell A and B have tailings with Cell A consolidated in less than two weeks

The trial will continue over the coming months with the second layer of the main sand berm being installed this month, followed by further tailings deposition.

Beyond the financial and environmental benefits, there is significant potential for the mining industry to leverage HDS to shift public perception on mining waste, according to Newman.

“Anglo American is keen to partner with other mining companies to accelerate the development and learning of this new technology and is open to synergistic licensing opportunities,” he added.

“We believe HDS could demonstrate that tailings can move from a risk which needs to be managed, to a safe, water-generating asset that, on completion, can deliver value-generating land to the perpetual benefit of our communities. By ushering in a new era of tailings disposal we are demonstrating how we are re-imagining mining to improve people’s lives.”

Anglo American kicks off commercial ops at Quellaveco copper mine

Automation, Base metals, Mine operation news, Mineral project development, Power supply for mines, Sustainable mining, , , , , ,

Anglo American has announced the start of commercial copper operations at its Quellaveco project in Peru, following the successful testing of operations and final regulatory clearance.

Quellaveco is expected to produce 300,000 t/y of copper-equivalent volume on average over its first ten years.

The milestone follows unloading of first ore to the primary crusher in June and the production of first copper in July.

Duncan Wanblad, Chief Executive of Anglo American, said: “Our delivery of Quellaveco, a major new world-class copper mine, is testament to the incredible efforts of our workforce and our commitment to our stakeholders in Peru over many years. Quellaveco, alone, is expected to lift our total global output by 10% in copper-equivalent terms and take our total copper production close to 1 Mt/y. At a highly competitive operating cost, Quellaveco exemplifies the asset and return profile that is central to our portfolio quality and our ability to provide customers with a reliable and sustainable supply of future-enabling metals.”

Ruben Fernandes, CEO of Anglo American’s Base Metals business, added: “We designed Quellaveco as one of Anglo American’s and South America’s most technologically advanced mines, incorporating autonomous drilling and haulage fleets – a first in Peru – a remote operations centre, as well as a number of Anglo American’s digital and advanced processing technologies. Drawing its electricity supply entirely from renewables, Quellaveco is setting an example of a low emission mine producing a critical metal for decarbonising the global economy – copper. In Quellaveco, we can see FutureSmart Mining™ in action.”

Anglo American expects that Quellaveco will ramp up fully over the next 9-12 months. Following a thorough commissioning and testing period, and receipt of final regulatory clearance, production guidance for Quellaveco in 2022 is revised to 80,000-100,000 t of copper (previously 100,000-150,000 t) at a C1 unit cost of $1.50/lb, previously $1.35/Ib. Production guidance for Quellaveco in 2023 and 2024 is unchanged at 320,000-370,000 t of copper.

Anglo American’s longwall automation milestone recognised in awards ceremony

Automation, Coal technology, IoT, Mine operation news, Mining equipment, Mining industry recognition, Mining safety, Mining services, Mining software, Steel and iron ore, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Anglo American’s innovation-led approach to sustainable mining, FutureSmart Mining™, and a willingness to collaborate with industry parties, has enabled it to achieve a major milestone in longwall operation: 100% machine automation.

This work was recently recognised at the Queensland Mining Awards where team members received the METS Ignited Collaboration Award.

Billed as delivering a significant step change in the safety and efficiency of underground mining, the ability to remove people from hazardous situations at the face and, instead, relocate them to a purpose-built Remote Operations Centre (ROC), has enabled the company to deliver a breakthrough in performance being recognised across the underground coal mining industry.

Anglo American says the development of industry-first systems and technology for this project were completed through working collaboratively with partners including Restech, Aurecon, Komatsu, Eickhoff, Marco and GTick systems.

The miner achieved its first longwall shear fully controlled from surface in late 2018 at its Grosvenor mine in Queensland, Australia, with this milestone achieved on its Komatsu Mining longwall equipment.

Yet, it was the Moranbah North mine that became the first of the company’s three operating longwalls to achieve the 100% automation mark (pictured above).

This mine uses SL 900 shearers from Eickhoff, with a team of operational and engineering experts monitoring the longwall mining process from start to finish. These operators, located in the ROC above-ground, are able to analyse the data and drive safer operations, better decisions and achieve mining excellence, the company says.

Head of Transformation for Anglo American’s Steelmaking Coal business in Australia, Dan Reynolds, said Moranbah North has now become Australia’s most capable remotely-operated underground steelmaking coal mine, with the company’s other mines – Grosvenor and the recently-commissioned Aquila – following close behind.

“All three underground mines are now fully remote-capable, allowing operators to work from state-of-the-art ROCs on the surface of the mine,” he said.

Aquila, Anglo American’s most recently commissioned mine, is also remote-capable, allowing workers to work from a Remote Operations Centre above ground

Step change

The key drivers behind automating longwall operations were to improve safety by reducing personnel exposure to underground hazards; reduce operational variability, to deliver more stable operations and improve efficiency; and improve sustainability of operations, through ensuring automation resilience in various operating conditions.

Much of the technology required to achieve these improvements did not yet exist when Anglo American was considering such a move, and previous industry attempts at achieving sustainable autonomous and remote operations had fallen down, Anglo American said, due to:

  • Enablers not being defined to the level required;
  • Key operational systems being unavailable;
  • OEM operating logic not providing the required operational solutions;
  • The technology enablers not being available; and/or
  • The workforce not being suitably prepared.

Anglo American saw collaboration as a key tool able to overcome these issues, recognising that significant leaps forward in technology were required, including the development of various automation-enabling applications.

“Working with operational teams, the Underground Technology and Automation team developed a leading practice target operating model for integrated remote operations and automation and technology enablers after extensive workforce collaboration,” Reynolds said.

Anglo American says its Steelmaking Coal business has delivered a breakthrough performance in the development and implementation of autonomous longwall technology and remote operations for the underground coal mining industry

“It was identified early in the project that a step change in the supply of systems and technology would be required to achieve project goals. This was reached through working with the OEM and third-party technology providers, which ensured the technology and the software systems provided the solutions that met our mining requirements.”

This work required the team to work collaboratively across its underground operations and corporate partners to develop a series of industry-first safety and production systems that were required to “unlock” autonomous longwall operations, the company said.

The list of innovative, industry-leading processes and systems that the partners have developed, include:

  • A longwall remote operations framework
  • Autonomous shearer:
    • Auto duck – system solution
    • Auto gate road entry – system solution
    • Anglo Seam Steering – system/technology solution
  • Integrated remote powered roof support (PRS) control:
    • Integrated face controller – system/technology solution
    • Remote strata control – system solution
    • Enhanced logic solutions – system solutions
  • A Remote Operating Centre longwall system manager:
    • Integrated central interface solution for longwall remote management comprising:
      • Auto gate road entry
      • Anglo Seam Steering
      • Auto alerts
      • ROC reporting
      • Auto blockage detection
      • Longwall positional control
      • Creep management.

The high levels of collaboration between internal teams and third-party providers enabled these systems to be developed, according to Anglo American.

“The outcomes of this work are significant,” Reynolds said. “It is delivering a significant step change in the safety, stability and sustainability of underground mining.”

The company shed a bit more light on these innovations – many of which have been spoken of by suppliers and mining companies as the missing pieces of the fully-autonomous longwall mining puzzle – in its Queensland Mining Awards application.

“Auto duck”, for instance, allows the shearer to automatically cut under roof supports in challenging strata conditions.

“Auto gate road entry” involves the longwall shearer becoming more “intelligent”, using existing data from scanned files, PRS height data or manual measurements to determine the next cut height for the gate road.

“Seam steering” identifies whether the longwall is in or out of the coal seam by automatically detecting the tonstein band position. This, Anglo American says, is a valuable stratigraphic measure.

“Blockage detection” is conducted using eight cameras across the longwall face, which automatically detect if a face blockage is seen, alerting a ROC operator as necessary.

Similarly, “longwall alerting” sees a ROC operator alerted of potential events or issues. “Tailgate lag control” automatically identifies if the tailgate drive is lagging the face line, while “strata management logic” enables automation of shields.

The company says its Steelmaking Coal business has delivered a breakthrough performance in the development and implementation of autonomous longwall technology and remote operations for the underground coal mining industry.

Anglo moves Los Bronces Pit Viper drilling operations to remote operations centre

Automation, Base metals, Communications in mining, Explosives and blasting, HOF, Mine operation news, Mining equipment, Mining services, Mining software, , , , , ,

Anglo American has launched the first Epiroc Pit Vipers operating at its Los Bronces copper mine in Chile to be remotely controlled from its Integrated Remote Operation Center (IROC) in Santiago.

These five drills are the first in Chile and Latin America to be operated from outside the designated mine site, with the company planning to have all five blasthole drills running by fully-autonomous means by 2022, Anglo American Chile said.

All five drills have automatic drilling systems, such as AutoDrill and self-levelling. These features allow the controller to set the target depth of a hole, with the machine automatically drilling, while the self-levelling function results in the machine automatically altering the hydraulics to level the equipment. The rigs are also fitted with a high-precision GPS system with automatic navigation system, which enables the drilling sequences to be carried out after the controller issues the relevant instructions.

The sensors and advanced control systems of this equipment allows the continuation of work routines with minimal human intervention, translating into increasingly safer operations, Anglo American Chile said.

These five rigs in question were previously operated from the Operational Management Room in the Los Bronces mine offices.

The automation initiative is part of a plan for the development and implementation of new technologies for mining at the Anglo American group level, all guided by the overarching FutureSmart Mining™ approach.

“With these innovations, the operation will become autonomous in its drilling cycles, without the intervention of an operator, manually or remotely, turning the operator into a system controller, and making this task much more efficient,” the company said (translated from Spanish).

Anglo has a 50.1% interest in the Los Bronces mine, which it manages and operates.

De Beers to boost southern Africa safety performance with advanced driver assistance systems

Communications in mining, Diamond mining, IoT, Mining safety, , , , , ,

De Beers Group says it is rolling out the use of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) across its operations in southern African, following two phases that saw the technology installed on buses and any vehicles that carry four or more people.

The world’s leading diamond producer places “Putting Safety First Everywhere” as its number one value and has been fatality-free for the past two years, according to Dr Urishanie Govender, De Beers Group Head of Safety and Sustainable Development.

“The application of ADAS aligns with our culture of pioneering brilliance as we equip our operations for FutureSmart Mining,” Dr Govender says. “This exciting initiative has provided another valuable tool for our amazing people on site who are constantly looking for ways to improve our safety performance.”

She highlights that the intervention contributes to the De Beers Group’s critical control management, one of the areas for advancement identified at the company’s regular safety summits.

“Driven by the chief executive officers across the group, the specific focus areas are Competence, Culture, Connectedness, and Cultivating Care to enable everyone to be Ready to Respond to Risks,” she said.

Head of Asset Strategy and Reliability at De Beers Group, Meshal Ruplal, says the first phase of the ADAS initiative saw the technology being installed on buses and any vehicles that carry five or more people. In a second phase, vehicles with four passengers were fitted with the equipment. The technology comprises a range of functionality, including cameras to monitor “harsh and distracted driving”, the company said.

“The camera software can also check on the driver’s eyelid movements and other indicators of drowsiness, and can transmit short video clips to a control room for improved monitoring,” Ruplal says. “It can register infringements like changing lanes without indicating, or crossing a solid barrier line.”

The technology – which has been proven in the trucking industry abroad – assists the driver by checking if there is a safe distance to the vehicle in front, recognising speed limit signs and detecting whether the seat belt is being worn.

“ADAS makes an important contribution to our coaching and training activities, as the data we gather is fed back to drivers to continuously improve their performance,” Ruplal says. “Used as a proactive warning system, the technology has generally received good support from drivers and their trade unions.”

He notes that De Beers Group’s contractors – who assume much of the company’s staff transportation function – have been quick to come on board and align with the ever more stringent safety standards.

Water treatment plant starts up at Anglo American’s Aquila met coal project

Coal technology, Environmental, Mineral project development, Steel and iron ore, Water management, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Anglo American’s Metallurgical Coal business says it is now operating the first of two state-of-the art reverse osmosis (RO) water treatment plants at its Aquila project in the Bowen Basin, Queensland.

The aim of the RO plants is to reduce the use of fresh water in its mining operations.

Chief Executive Officer of Anglo American’s Metallurgical Coal business, Tyler Mitchelson, said the A$5 million ($3.9 million) water treatment system was currently treating two megalitres of mine affected water (MAW) a day and supporting construction of the Aquila Mine, near Middlemount in central Queensland.

“A key target in Anglo American’s global Sustainable Mining Plan is to reduce our reliance on fresh water by 50% by 2030 across our mine sites, and I’m pleased to say Aquila is currently sourcing recycled water during construction of the mine,” Mitchelson said.

“A planned second RO plant will to be used to recycle a further 2.4 megalitres of MAW – once Aquila becomes operational in early 2022, more than doubling capacity and helping to reduce the reliance on water from local sources during times of drought.

“Aquila will be one of the world’s most technologically advanced underground mines and will showcase our innovation-led approach to sustainable mining. The project is currently supporting 500 jobs.”

Aquila, owned 70% by Anglo and 30% by Mitsui & Co Ltd, will extend the life of Anglo’s existing Capcoal underground operations by six years and continue to use the associated infrastructure at the Capcoal complex as its nearby Grasstree Mine approaches end of life, Anglo says. The mine will also continue to adopt Anglo American’s FutureSmart Mining™ program, which applies innovative thinking and technological advances to address mining’s major operational and sustainability challenges, the company said. One of the initiatives the company is working on as part of this is remote operation of the longwall; a process the company has trialled at some of its other Bowen Basin coal mines.

Aquila’s Project Director, Tony Willmott, said the A$240 million Aquila Mine was committed to awarding contracts locally.

“Our Aquila project is progressing well, with support from its Queensland-based workforce and contracting partners. More than 90% of our Aquila contracts have been awarded to Queensland-based suppliers,” Willmott said. “Aquila’s integrated network of pipes and pumps is securing the distribution of high-quality water which is necessary in metallurgical coal mining for equipment cooling and coal cutting operations.”