Tag Archives: lead

South32 adds Cat AD63 to Cannington underground trucking fleet

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Last month, Cat dealer Hastings Deering sent out the world’s first AD63 truck to South32’s Cannington silver-lead mine in Queensland, Australia.

With a 63 t payload, the AD63 is the largest underground truck in the Cat product line, and comes with best in class speed on grade, according to Hastings Deering.

Joe Russell, South32 Cannington Vice President Operations, told IM that since taking delivery of the articulated truck from Caterpillar, via Hastings Deering, the company had started work on tailoring the vehicle to the mine’s specific requirements.

“Once the truck enters full operation, it will replace an older vehicle in our fleet,” Russell said. “The AD63 will be used in conjunction with the rest of the underground trucking fleet to move material to various locations within the South32 Cannington mine site.”

Russell highlighted the vehicle’s Euro Stage V Cat C27 diesel engine when reflecting on the recent fleet addition.

“The AD63’s engine specifications will help us to further reduce emissions, resulting in good outcomes for the environment and underground air quality,” he said.

Released in April, the AD63 features a 5% increased payload and more torque for enhanced production capabilities compared with its predecessor, the AD60, Cat says.

Additional new features enhance operator ergonomics, maintenance access and safety, and data collection for machine health monitoring, according to the OEM.

South32’s Cannington underground mine produces about 3 Mt/y of ore.

Barminco wins 18-month, A$140 million contract extension at MMG’s Dugald River mine

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Barminco has agreed the terms of a variation and extension to its development and production contract at MMG’s Dugald River zinc-lead mine, in north Queensland, Australia.

In addition to several amended contract conditions, the variation extends the term of the contract by 18 months to December 31, 2022, with two, one-year options to extend further. The value of the 18-month extension for Perenti’s hard-rock underground miner is approximately A$140 million ($103 million).

Barminco has been operating at Dugald River since 2012. IM recently reported MMG and Barminco were trialling an automated Sandvik LHD at the mine to further boost production.

Barminco’s Chief Executive Officer, Paul Muller, said: “We are excited to continue our relationship with MMG, which began in 2001 at the Rosebery mine in Tasmania. Dugald River has been a significant project for Barminco since commencement during 2012, and this extension will take our valued relationship with MMG to over 20 years.”

Perenti Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mark Norwell, said Perenti had a “robust” tender pipeline of A$8.8 billion and its Underground Industry Sector Group had secured more the A$540 million in contract extensions this financial year.

Atlas Copco light towers illuminate JRC’s open-pit mining opportunities

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Atlas Copco says Peru-based mining development, construction and infrastructure services business, JRC, has recently purchased six HiLight V5+ light towers to ensure continuous and efficient operations at the Iscaycruz zinc-lead mine in Oyón province.

Iscaycruz, owned by Empresa Minera Los Quenuales SA (majority owned by Glencore), is a polymetallic deposit with four mines in production: Limpe, Chupa, Tinyag 1 and Tinyag 2. Due to its altitude of 4,700-5,000 m above sea level, the mine is situated in one of the most challenging areas of Peru.

“The survival in this area is very hard, both for people and equipment: we worked with light towers from another manufacturer for a while and they did not work out,” Julio Tello, JRC Equipment Manager, said. “The three-cylinder engines shut down after two hours working and the lamps broke easily.”

The tough working conditions and the lack of having the right light tower for this project led to heavy losses for JRC, due to the impossibility of starting the night shift, according to Atlas Copco. To solve this issue, the company tested on site a HiLight V5+ light tower from Atlas Copco to ensure the unit was the right equipment for the project. After carrying out the test, JRC purchased six HiLight V5+ light towers to be used at Iscaycruz.

Atlas Copco’s HiLight V5+ light tower has been designed for the most demanding conditions, according to the company.

Featuring a HardHat® canopy as standard, which ensures maximum protection of internal parts, the design includes directional optic lenses that maximise practical light coverage while minimising dark spots. A single light tower has four LED floodlights each projecting 350 W of light and the HiLight H5+ can illuminate an area of up to 5,000 sq.m, providing an average brightness of 20 lux. The LED lamps offer users higher durability without any deterioration in lux level and have a life expectancy of more than 50,000 hours, according to Atlas Copco.

Additionally, the HiLight H5+ light tower offers low fuel consumption, offering a run time between refuelling of 260 hours and consumption of less than 0.5 litres/h of fuel.

“The acquisition of Atlas Copco’s HiLight V5+ light towers with two-cylinder engines changed the whole picture for us. It’s a solution that has been radical,” Tello said. “Until now, JRC’s expertise has been mainly in underground mining projects, however the operations at Iscaycruz is showing that we are the right fit for open-pit operations; that is why we are preparing seven mining projects in Peru and one in Mexico. The HiLight V5+ light towers are helping us to operate this type of project perfectly.”

Nelson Batistucci, Atlas Copco Business Line Manager for the Andean region, explains: “In order to deliver the right solution for our customers, we need to understand their needs well. In this case, considering the challenges of working at extreme altitude, as it is common for many of our mining customers in Peru, helped us choose the right light tower for JRC. At Atlas Copco, we are strongly committed to technological innovation and have a highly skilled team to analyse the challenges and provide the best solution for our customers.”

Orica’s WebGen cuts cycle time, reduces dilution at Nexa Resources lead-zinc mine

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Orica’s fully wireless initiation system, WebGen™, has another achievement under its belt, this time helping Nexa Resources’ Vazante underground mine reduce ore dilution from 27% to 20%, resulting in a net benefit of $1.59 million.

The single blast event achieved a smaller hydraulic radius by keeping the pillar during the stope extraction which, in turn, resulted in a reduced cycle time to 20 days, down 70% from an expected 90 days, by maintaining two mucking access points to the main stope. This was only possible due to the wireless capability of WebGen, Orica said.

“The unique blasting approach dramatically improved safety by pre-loading the pillar with WebGen, minimising the exposure of personnel and removing the need to re-enter the area,” the company said.

WebGen allows for groups of in-hole primers to be wirelessly initiated by a firing command that communicates through hundreds of metres of rock, air, and water. This eliminates the need for down-wires and surface connecting wires, enabling new mining methods and blasting techniques that are safe and reliable, according to Orica.

In addition to Vazante, WebGen has improved performance and safety at several other mining operations, including Newmont’s Musselwhite operation (Canada) and First Quantum Minerals’ Kevitsa mine (Finland).

Nexa Vazante Chief Mining Engineer, Mateus Ribeiro, said: “Thanks to this technology and partnership, we recovered an island rib pillar, which is a pillar kept in the open stope for dilution control. After all the ore from the block was extracted and the pillar had completed its requirement, the pre-loaded holes were successfully initiated remotely.

“We went through a series of improvements in the evolution of blasting technology with Orica, from the first detonators until nowadays using 100% wireless detonators. The blast happened two levels below us, so we are 400 m away, above the shot. All encoded signals were sent through the rock with the safety protocols to fire the blast being followed.”

Vazante is a zinc-lead mine owned by Nexa Resources, located in northwest Minas Gerais, Brazil. Using vertical retreat mining (VRM) and long hole open stope as the main methods for ore extraction, the mine has traditionally deployed wired initiators in the recovery of ore, typically yielding around 60% ore recovery in the pillars. The application of wired initiators also required increased resources and time in the mine, according to Orica.

In 2019, Orica proposed the implementation of WebGen wireless initiating technology at Vazante to support the team in mitigating the operational and safety challenges of the mine. Enabled by the wireless technology, ore within the pillars can be recovered through pre-loading without the need to return to the open stope. With the introduction of WebGen, the mine was able to gain time in the sequencing of the blast and extract ore previously inaccessible while improving its operating productivity, according to Orica.

Orica’s Latin America Wireless and Electronic Blasting Systems Specialist, Wesley Andrade, said: “The Nexa Vazante crew and our team conducted extensive site signal surveying and applied best practices to ensure the drill pattern in the pillar was accurately loaded with WebGen 100 units, encoded and positioned as planned.

“This achievement in recovering a pillar through wireless initiation while protecting people from hazards is made possible only by the strong partnership between Nexa Vazante and Orica. We are thrilled to have Nexa Vazante successfully implement wireless blasting with our WebGen initiating system.”

The pillar pre-loaded with the wireless initiators was safely fired after 33 days of sleep time, with several ore blasts taking place alongside the pre-loaded pillar. A second application is currently being studied to allow pre-loading of an entire stope, which will reduce operational risk, the number of cycles and increase ore production and therefore profitability for Nexa Vazante, Orica says.

The new generation of wireless initiation system, WebGen 200, is set for commercial release in early 2021. A newer, improved version, WebGen 200 harnesses digital technology to allow advanced reprogramming and digital inventory management, offering mine operations an integrated user interface with improved quality assurance, according to Orica.

MICROMINE’s Pitram solution takes control at Greece mine

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MICROMINE says it is making a strong foray into Europe’s mining sector with its Pitram fleet management and mine control solution now operating in Greece.

Already used at more than 50 mining operations across six continents, the installation at the Greece mine is Pitram’s third deployment in the Aegean region, following installations at two production projects in Turkey.

“Greece has a wealth of mineral and ore deposits including gold, silver, lead, zinc, copper, nickel and bauxite – and a history of mining that dates back to ancient times,” Pitram Product Strategy Manager, Chris Higgins, said. “Turkey also has abundant source of industrial raw materials, rare earth minerals and precious metals including gold, copper, zinc, chrome, nickel, iron, lead, mercury, tin and magnesium.

“As a result, international operators and miners are developing projects across the Aegean and Pitram is providing the data insights needed to ensure the operations are well controlled.”

More than 10 mining operations in Europe are currently using Pitram to record, manage and process mine data in real time, according to the company. The scalable solution has now been deployed at the three underground gold, copper and zinc mines in Turkey and Greece.

The Greece project is well advanced with Pitram playing a crucial role in a major refurbishment and expansion of existing operations, the company says.

“Comprising 11 modules – including materials management, OLAP analysis, shift planner and fleet management – Pitram is a sophisticated mine control and management reporting application enabling the miners to capture data, make quicker, evidence-based decisions and allocate resources more effectively,” MICROMINE says.

As production ramped up at the Greece underground mine, the operators chose Pitram, according to MICROMINE, because they needed a solution that would enable them to:

  • Improve development and production mining cycles;
  • Accurately track materials from source to processing;
  • Provide OLAP reporting and analysis;
  • Enhance reactions to, and minimise the impact of, unplanned events; and
  • Increase equipment availability and utilisation.

The implementation of Pitram voice and materials management modules ensured these objectives were met by adapting the solution to meet the specific needs of the site, the company said.

Higgins added: “At MICROMINE we committed to working with our mining clients to deliver the tailored software solutions they need to meet local requirements.

“This includes providing our solutions in the languages needed – that’s why Pitram has been translated into Turkish and Greek. So, with the functionality to switch between English and the local language, all staff on-site can use the application.”

NQ Minerals upgrades Hellyer processing plant, aims to maximise recoveries

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NQ Minerals says it has successfully increased plant throughput at its flagship Hellyer gold mine, in Tasmania, Australia, following an upgrade and circuit optimisation exercise.

The plant now has a capacity just over 1.3 Mt/y (1.2 Mt/y at 92% plant availability), up from the 835,877 t throughput level achieved in 2019, NQ said.

“The new production rate of 150 t/h (1.314 Mt/y) is now being achieved after a June plant upgrade and circuit optimisation exercise,” the company said. “This new rate compares to 2019 Hellyer full year plant throughput totalling 835,877 t (average 103 t/h at 92% plant availability).”

A spokesperson for the company said the exercise in June saw a lot of work carried out on upsizing existing pumps and pipework to handle the extra flow rates of the various process streams. This saw the installation of bigger pumps and pipes, and the replacement of worn components in the plant.

“Process optimisation works are now underway to ensure that the plant achieves maximum recoveries and concentrate specifications at these new higher production rates,” NQ Minerals said. This could see new automation equipment installed on some of the process circuit, according to the spokesperson.

“Engineering assessments will continue to plan for further production rate increases later in the year, should higher production rates be required,” the company added.

David Lenigas, Chairman of NQ Minerals, said the Hellyer plant upgrade exercise had been successfully brought in some six months ahead of expectation.

“The increase in saleable mine product will have a very positive effect on the company’s top and bottom line revenues going forward, and will assist NQ greatly with its ability to service ongoing debt obligations and strongly position the mine for increased profitability as commodity prices improve with the world emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.

NQ Minerals purchased the Hellyer operations in 2017, and as Phase 1 of its Hellyer operational plan, re-opened Hellyer in late 2018 with a tailing retreatment operation designed to last for at least 10 years. Production will initially focus on lead and zinc recovery from the reserves with gold and silver credits.

Phase 2 of Hellyer’s re-opening plan is to re-open the underground mine, which has 1.175 Mt of underground JORC resources grading 8.6% Zn, 4.9% Pb, 96 g/t Ag and 1.66 g/t Au.

MMG, Barminco trialling Sandvik autonomous LHD at Dugald River

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MMG and Barminco are trialling an automated LHD at the Dugald River mine, in Queensland, Australia, as both miner and contractor look to further boost production at the zinc-lead operation.

While still early days, Barminco (part of the Perenti Group) has a fully autonomous Sandvik LH621i LHD running at the mine, having introduced the loader to increase output.

Sandvik says the AutoMine®-ready LH621i is an intelligent 21 t loader designed for rapid mine development and large scale underground mine production.

“With superior hydraulic power for fast bucket filling and drivetrain power for high ramp speed, the Sandvik LH621i is designed to quickly clear tunnel headings for rapid advance rates,” the OEM added.

MMG’s Dugald River produced 35,505 t of zinc concentrate and 4,277 t of lead concentrate during the March quarter of 2020. While both numbers were lower than the same period of 2019 and the December quarter that preceded it due to lower grades, mining and milling volumes of 462,570 t and 443,378 t, respectively, were both in line with plan.

In this same results release, MMG said of the Dugald River operations: “After an aggressive and successful ramp up during 2019, work in 2020 will continue to focus on opening up new operating areas, to ensure a steady feed of ore to the mill.

“The optimisation of recoveries will be a major area of focus in the processing plant. This work will be key in ensuring Dugald River remains on track to deliver annual mine capacity of 2 Mt and targeted zinc-equivalent production in excess of 200,000 t per annum, by 2022.”

The mine, which achieved commercial production in May 2018, is expected to produce 170,000-180,000 t/y of zinc concentrate in 2020.

Sotkamo Silver chases processing efficiencies with Outotec-TOMRA XRT solution

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Sotkamo Silver is looking to reduce the amount of material it grinds and floats at its silver operation in Finland through the introduction of X-ray Transmission (XRT) ore sorting technology.

The company said it began pilot testing of the XRT machine in May after the unit was supplied and successfully commissioned at the mine by Outotec and TOMRA. Outotec and TOMRA have been cooperating on the supply of Outotec-branded sorting solutions for the mining and metallurgical industry since 2014.

Sotkamo’s trial pilot testing builds on previous test work at TOMRA’s testing facilities in Germany.

Previous XRT ore sorting test work carried out by TOMRA on 2,200 kg of Sotkamo samples showed the silver content from low-grade ore increasing some 1.9 x to 116 g/t Ag, while the average silver content in ore rose 1.43 x to 195 g/t Ag. In addition to this, about 60% of the rock previously classified as low-grade ore was removed as gangue with the testing, with some 43% of rock reporting as gangue from the average grade ore samples.

Following this work, back in 2018, Sotkamo Silver said it was looking to install an Outotec-TOMRA XRT ore sorter in the process flowsheet after two-stage crushing (jaw and cone crushers) had taken place and the rock was some 30-70 mm in size.

In the update today, Sotkamo Silver said the XRT technology can scan every feed particle to identify the relative atomic density differences within particles and then separate desired high-grade particles from the barren material pneumatically.

It said sorting of marginal ore would be carried out after primary crushing and it was expected to reduce roughly 50% of non-ore material going into the grinding and flotation process.

“This improves significantly the energy efficiency as less material is grinded, and also material efficiency as marginal ore can be exploited and processed to mill feed,” the company said, adding that leftover barren material would be used as rock-fill in the underground mine.

During the first three months of 2020, around 129,000 t of ore was processed at the silver mine, yielding some 391,000 oz of silver, 462 t of lead, 958 t of zinc and 998 oz of gold in the concentrates.

AGQ Labs to keep environmental tabs on Glencore’s Contonga polymetallic mine

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AGQ Labs’ mining division has been awarded a contract to carry out the environmental monitoring of the quality of soil, water, plant and hydrobiological tissue at Glencore’s Contonga polymetallic mine, in Peru.

The Contonga mine, in Ancash, is owned by Glencore subsidiary Compañía Minera Los Quenuales. It is a polymetallic underground zinc, lead, copper and silver mine with more than 100 years of operating history, according to AGQ Labs. Glencore acquired the asset from Nyrstar back in September 2017.

The mining company, as part of its environmental commitment at the mine, performs environmental monitoring of its components to determine their chemical stability and the potential for acid mine generation, as well as their characterisation through complementary studies, AGQ Labs said.

AGQ Labs Mining will provide the sampling service and technical analytical support through a specialised service for the characterisation of soils, waters and plant tissue. This uses selective analytical techniques for the characterisation of the matrices under study.

For this, AGQ Labs uses a set of tests to define the quality of the soils under study through fertility tests and characterisation of the profiles.

Mobilisation of the different analytes under study are also characterised through leaching tests such as methodologies proposed by Tessier and the Flask Extraction Test. The characterisation of its acid generation capacity with ABA methodologies and mineralogy analysis is carried out with Thin Sheet Microscopy.

AGQ Labs said: “The characterisation works are complemented by the taxonomic classification of the most representative flora and the study of the waters through laboratory analyses of physicochemical and hydrobiological parameters.”

XRT ore sorting shows promise at Vendetta Mining’s Pegmont project

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Following positive X-ray Transmission (XRT) ore sorting test work on the Pegmont asset, in Queensland, Australia, Vendetta Mining is looking to apply this technology in its next mining study at the lead-zinc project.

The test work, conducted at TOMRA’s testing facility in Sydney, Australia, concluded that the XRT sorters could distinguish between high-density/high-grade feed and lower-density waste material at Pegmont, the company said.

Vendetta said: “At Pegmont, the potential advantages of XRT material sorters is that they could allow plant feed material to be screened prior to grinding and flotation, removing lower density external dilution (waste) and lower-grade internal dilution (material below cutoff).”

Potential capital cost savings occur through the reduced mill throughput while potential operating costs savings occur through reduced water and reagent usage, less pumped tails and lower energy requirements, it said.

The test work envisages that sorted waste product would be ejected and stacked for dry disposal (dry stack tailings).

Vendetta said: “Flotation recovery often improves with increasing head grade. Such a relationship exists in the metallurgical test work performed at Pegmont to date. The higher head grades obtained from the ore sorted product are anticipated to result in enhanced flotation recovery.”

The testing involved material from two drill hole intersections from Zone 5 and one from Zone 2 at Pegmont. The sulphide intersections were selected in order to test different lead to zinc ratios (Zone 5 vs Zone 2) and internal grade distributions, it said. All samples included diluting quartzite material from the hangingwall and footwall.

The conclusions of the XRT ore sorting preliminary test work on the three drill intervals are it can successfully remove the external dilution from the samples; and successfully remove internal diluting material from within the higher-grade intervals.

The total mass tested amounted to 139.2 kg, with the mass pull (weight % of feed recovered) ranging from 44.3% to 70.6% (a weighted average of 62.3%).

The lead grade improved from 18% to 88%, a weighted average of 42%; zinc grade improved from 21% to 72%, a weighted average of 38%; lead recoveries ranged from 83.2% to 90.2%, a weighted average of 88.5%; and zinc recoveries ranged from 76.4% to 92.2%, a weighted average of 85.9%.

Vendetta said that while these results were highly encouraging, they are preliminary. “In order to apply material sorting results in an updated preliminary economic assessment (PEA) study, pilot scale test work is necessary,” the company said.

TOMRA recommends 600 kg of material is required for each ore type at Pegmont. Vendetta plans to pursue this test work and expects these samples will be obtained from the next drilling program. Samples will be obtained from Zone 1 transition, Zone 2-3 sulphide and Zone 5 sulphide.

Michael Williams, President and CEO, said: “At Pegmont, the XRT sorter can clearly differentiate between high density/high grade feed from lower density waste material at Pegmont. We are excited by the prospects of advancing to pilot scale test work and applying this commercially available technology to the next mining study.”

The existing Pegmont PEA contemplated a production rate of 1.1 Mt/y, which corresponds to two TOMRA COM XTR 1200 – generation one ore sorters, Vendetta noted.