Tag Archives: Minnovare

Procon laying the change management groundwork for mining tech adoption

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Canada-based Procon has been implementing tried and tested technology for its employees and end customers for decades, resulting in improved operational safety and productivity outcomes.

It is now looking to make the leap and adopt new solutions from the mining technology sector, according to CEO John McVey, with the contract miner already into “phase three” of an “Industrial Supervisor training program”, focused on Procon’s front-line supervision and incorporating change management associated with this adoption.

Speaking to IM on the side lines of the HxGN LIVE Global 2023 event, in Las Vegas, and ahead of his panel appearance on Wednesday (in a panel titled ‘Down Under: Standing Up to the Challenges of Underground Mining’), McVey said the established contract mining model needed to change to accelerate the uptake of new technology in the market.

“Inherently when we bid for work it has to be competitively tendered in order to try and win a new contract,” he said. “You aren’t typically able to add many bells and whistles on if you want to win the work.

“This likely has to change at some point, with mining companies understanding the benefits that come with rolling out and applying these new technology ‘bells and whistles’.”

Procon has seen glimpses of an evolution – McVey references the introduction of battery-electric trucks at the Brucejack mine in British Columbia, Canada, where Procon is working, plus the use of autonomous load and haul equipment at the Kittilä operation in Finland (where Procon previously carried out shaft work) – but he said that today these were the exception, not the rule.

“Where we may also see more mining technology being adopted in the future is with these junior developers striving for higher ESG (environmental, social and governance) goals,” McVey said. “These clean, green metal developers – due to these ESG aims – are often backed by different types of investors that are less risk averse, or less tainted by the project capital and schedule blowouts experienced in previous commodity cycles.”

McVey’s appearance at HxGN LIVE Global 2023 this week is centred around finding out how the mining technology provider can help Procon’s workers and its clients underground, with safety- and productivity-led solutions coming high up the contract miner’s agenda.

“There is very rarely opposition to bringing in any initiatives that will enhance safety underground,” McVey said. “As a result, it is obvious to start here.”

When it comes to productivity, the company is interested in finding out how it could potentially deploy the Production Optimiser™ solution at certain sites. This advanced mining technology, developed by Minnovare, which Hexagon’s Mining division acquired last year, improves drill and blast efficiency and productivity in underground hard-rock mines by reducing collar deviation and, as a result, delivering superior setup accuracy at the collar. This increases the number of holes drilled to within tolerance at the toe, achieving optimum blasts and reducing dilution, according to Minnovare.

Production Optimiser has been deployed across the mining world, including at sites operated by contract miners Pit N Portal (owned by Emeco Group) and Barminco (part of Perenti).

In addition to productivity and safety, McVey is conscious the graduates coming through the pipeline that may enter the mining sector want to interact with the ‘new technology’ they have become accustomed to.

“They are used to playing computer games, interacting with apps and using technology on a daily basis,” he said. “If we are to encourage them to join the mining sector, we need to adopt some of this to increase our appeal.”

Here McVey mentioned the in-house development of an app, PSAFE, to log all incidents underground. This allows Procon employees to upload photos and reports in close to real time, to enhance reporting and analysis of these incidents.

“While a worker may be somewhat reluctant to write up a report after a long shift underground,” McVey said. “The app – which we are in the process of rolling out across all our sites – is enabling them to capture important information almost immediately, particularly ‘near-miss’ reporting which is critical in avoiding potential hazards and incidents.”

Again, this comes back to the change management piece that is so important to any new technology being adopted and used successfully.

McVey is hoping to learn from other mining companies and contractors at HxGN LIVE Global 2023 about how they are achieving ‘buy in’ from their employees for this new technology, to enhance Procon’s own change management processes and reduce the risk associated with applying new solutions at their sites.

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.”

Minnovare’s Production Optimiser gold output, sustainability benefits highlighted by Gangemi

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One of Australia’s leading decarbonisation and sustainability experts says Western Australian gold producers are not moving fast enough to reduce carbon emissions.

“Some are leading in the carbon space, but most are slow in implementation,” Adam Gangemi, Managing Director of Super Smart Energy, an environmental services company based in Perth, said. “It is time to see more action.”

Gangemi says there are cost-effective solutions to reduce emissions on mine sites that will impact the bottom line, but mining organisations aren’t taking advantage of the technology options that are available on their doorstep.

Speaking on a recent webinar, Gangemi said a Western Australian innovation, Minnovare’s underground drilling optimisation technology, the Production Optimiser, was increasing drilling efficiency, resulting in reduced CO2 emissions, and enabling companies to drill faster, cheaper and more sustainably.

“Minnovare’s Production Optimiser is one of the better solutions that’s come across my desk,” he said. “Even small projects can get big bang for their buck. This drilling solution is one example where a small investment can deliver a 10-fold return through increased production, and significantly avoid those mine site emissions simultaneously.

“Not having to haul or process waste material is a smart way to do this and it is delivering huge results not only from an emissions perspective (thousands of CO2 per year) but also increasing production. If we start to look at opportunities that will both increase production and have the benefit of reducing emissions, this will be a no brainer for underground mining companies.”

Gangemi compared a range of Western Australia Goldfields producers and found that most could be saving anywhere between 1,000 to 8,000 t of CO2 emissions each year by using the Minnovare technology.

“By using the Production Optimiser on site, you drill more accurately and that means more gold on the trucks, less waste and a significant reduction in emissions,” he said. “If we talk about avoiding even 1,000 t of emissions, a WA gold producer could be taking the equivalent of 300 Hilux utes (utility vehicles) off the road every year.”

To demonstrate the emissions savings, Minnovare has launched a new Environmental Impact Calculator, allowing mining companies to quickly compute the emissions they could avoid on site by using the technology.

The Minnovare calculator shows how CO2 emissions are reduced through improved drilling accuracy and uses the company’s own data to forecast emission savings across an operation.

Gangemi’s benchmarking of Australian gold miners showed a greenhouse gas emissions intensity range between 0.2-1.7 t CO2-e/oz of gold.

Mick Beilby, Director and co-Founder of Minnovare, said: “We know the industry wants sustainable outcomes. Through using our technology, companies will achieve less dilution and deviation from an increase in drill quality and this results in less waste.”

Gangemi describes the calculator as ‘very accurate’ and encourages Western Australian producers to use the calculator to understand the savings they can achieve implementing technology products such as the Production Optimiser.

Minnovare and LiveMine open up to collaboration, integration

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Minnovare and LiveMine have entered a collaboration that, they say, will enable their mine production clients to share data across the business’ software platforms.

The data integration will enable production drilling information logged via Minnovare’s CORE (Client Online Reporting Engine) to seamlessly sync with the LiveMine data management system.

The combination of both technologies streamlines the workflow for the drill rig operator, eliminates the potential errors and ensures accuracy at each stage in the clients drilling process, providing the confidence the client needs to make informed decisions on data they can trust, the companies said.

Chris Davidson – Underground Manager at Silverlake Resources, a customer of both companies – said: “We like to partner with businesses such as Minnovare and LiveMine who not only provide industry-leading technology but take into consideration our feedback and the specific needs of our operation. This collaboration will streamline our process and eliminate duplicate information, meaning our team can have confidence to make smarter, faster decisions on data we can trust.”

LiveMine is a data collection and management solution that integrates with existing operations to eliminate inaccurate reporting and wasted time. It eradicates hours of paperwork, unreliable spreadsheets, uncertainty in data accuracy and helps bring mining operations into the 21st century, the company says.

Coming in underground, open pit and exploration modules, LiveMine offers contractors and owner operators a way to collect and manage their operational data. Being able to use this online or offline means clients can collect crucial operational data directly at the source in real time.

Minnovare CORE is a software platform that serves as a data hub for clients’ entire drilling operations. The platform is central to Minnovare’s Production Optimiser, a drill and blast optimisation system that substantially improves production drilling accuracy and consistency, resulting in less re-work, improved dilution and recovery and an increase in stope turnover in underground mines.

“This secure cloud-based platform features digital drill plans and plods that sync seamlessly with existing mine planning software, providing accurate, reliable and real-time drilling data to mine operators,” Minnovare says. “Visibility and accountability are then ensured by displaying the recorded drilled information in the cloud.”

Live Mine Managing Director, Bud O’Shannessy, said: “This is an exciting collaboration in terms of the value and simplicity it brings to our client’s operations. Minnovare deliver an innovative solution and, when coupled with the LiveMine system, it centralises the drilling and operational data and generates a single data source and approval process. LiveMine share a large client base with Minnovare, and this collaboration is client driven. Our clients have been asking for it.”

Minnovare Managing Director, Callum McCracken, added: “We welcome the collaboration with a leading data management software company like LiveMine, as we see the strength of our joint offering for our clients in terms of immediate and downstream benefits in their operations.”

Pit N Portal equips refurbed Sandvik UG rig with Minnovare Production Optimiser

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Emeco-owned Pit N Portal says it has recently rolled out a freshly rebuilt Sandvik DL421 underground drill rig equipped with Minnovare’s Production Optimiser™ technology for use at the Marvel Loch gold operations in Western Australia.

The 10-week build at Pit N Portal’s purpose-built complex in Perth, Western Australia harnessed the collective skills of its specialist tradespeople, headed up by Phil Lipscomb, Workshop Manager.

In addition to the complete overhaul, the unit was fitted with Production Optimiser, which improves drilling accuracy, speed and QA/QC – resulting in optimal drilling patterns and improved stope performance, Pit N Portal said. “The flow-on benefits to the mine include reduced average dilution, increased recovery (reduced bridging) and a faster stope cycle time.”

The Sandvik DL421 is an electro-hydraulic, longhole drill rig engineered for large-scale production drilling in underground mines. It is designed for vertical and inclined plane rings and fans, as well as parallel long production holes and long single holes with a diameter of 64-115 mm, and a depth of up to 54 m, Sandvik says.

Mining Plus adds Minnovare’s Production Optimiser to ‘Mining Rocks’ strategy

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Minnovare and Mining Plus have entered into a collaboration that will enable Mining Plus to offer Minnovare’s Production Optimiser technology to its global client base.

The collaboration is part of the Mining Plus ‘Mining Rocks’ strategic pillar, which is designed to highlight and promote the latest value-add mining technology to Mining Plus clients at a time when the industry is experiencing advances in areas such as automation, digitisation and process QA/QC.

Mining Plus Managing Director, Ben Auld (pictured on the left), said: “We’re always looking for ways to add value to our clients. In line with this, one of our strategies is to actively seek out technology with the potential to provide material productivity improvements or cost reductions to the mining industry.”

The Production Optimiser is a system that delivers better production blasting outcomes in underground hard-rock mines by increasing blasthole drilling accuracy and consistency. The value that mines achieve varies depending on the commodity and mining method, however bottom-line improvements include reductions in dilution and/or improvements in recovery, Minnovare says.

Mines have also seen improvements in drilling productivity and stope cycle time, as well as greater QA/QC and command of their drill data, the company added.

Northern Star Resources, for instance, increased drilled metres by 17% at one of its Kalgoorlie gold operations by using the Production Optimiser.

Minnovare Managing Director, Callum McCracken (pictured on the right), said: “Minnovare’s Production Optimiser technology has been widely adopted already in the APAC (Asia Pacific) underground hard-rock mining market. We (Minnovare and Mining Plus) see its application globally.

“The collaboration enables Minnovare to leverage Mining Plus’s global network of highly skilled mining professionals to assist in the delivery and support of the Production Optimiser. This enables us to deliver our technology and the step change benefits it delivers in new markets, while ensuring we maintain the high level of service and ongoing support that our customers have become accustomed to.”

Mining Plus can work with mining companies and contractors to understand the applicability and value that may be achieved from implementing Minnovare technology, the companies said.

Auld added: “Our clients frequently approach us for guidance on their technology strategy. Many clients simply do not have the time or resources to conduct the required analysis or due diligence for a thorough valuation and implementation. This collaboration goes some way to helping to resolve this ‘pain point’ for our clients.”

Minnovare’s drill & blast optimisation software logs new milestone

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Minnovare’s CORE product has hit a milestone as the software component of the company’s Production Optimiser system continues to benefit from an increasing number of customers looking to improve their drill and blast operations.

CORE has now logged one million metres of drilling data since the platform’s launch just under a year ago, Minnovare said.

The Production Optimiser system, suitable for installation on all production rig makes and models, “substantially reduces blasthole drilling deviation – which in turn reduces average dilution and downtime (including reduced secondary drill and blasts), whilst improving overall fragmentation and ore recovery”, the company says.

The CORE drill data hub syncs seamlessly with mine planning and drill & blast software (including Deswik, Aegis and Vulcan/Maptek), according to the company, ensuring improvements are seen throughout the production cycle.

Ryan Stimpson, Minnovare Head of Engineering, said: “Every meter provides important insights for our client’s drill and blast operations – precise dates and times, precise drilling locations (compared to the design), and by which drill rig and which driller.

“Maybe best of all – the entire process is captured without the need to decipher questionable handwriting or water-smudged ink like under the old paper plan/plod system!”

With Minnovare CORE, engineers can import drilling assets (rigs), schedules and drill and blast designs from mine planning software – down to the individual hole – and then export them as a digital drill plan (Digi-Plan), accessible by drillers via a touchscreen-tablet mounted onboard the rig, according to Minnovare.

Drillers log actual drill data (including meters drilled) into the tablet and, at the end of each shift, a digital plod (Digi-Plod) is then synced back to CORE, ready to be analysed by engineers and charge-up crews.

“With Minnovare CORE, Digi-Plan and Digi-Plod, engineers and drill teams benefit from a more streamlined, more accountable, data-driven system that improves performance visibility and ultimately productivity across site,” the company said.

Stimpson added: “This level of uptake confirms that CORE is already a critical part of the production cycle for our clients. We’ll continue to listen carefully to feedback from Minnovare CORE users on how to improve the software in a way that positively impacts their role and the productivity of the mine.”

Mincor to leverage new EV, teleremote and production drilling tech at Kambalda

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Mincor says it plans to incorporate some of the most modern mining technology to enhance safety, boost operational efficiency and reduce costs at its integrated nickel re-start project in the Kambalda District of Western Australia.

Having released the definitive feasibility study on the project, the company is now awaiting a positive final investment decision from the Mincor Board. It hopes this will be made early in the September quarter. Should all go well, this could result in first nickel-in-concentrate production being achieved in the second half of 2021, it said.

The “Mincor Nickel Operations” DFS confirmed the potential to develop a five‐year operation producing 63,000 t of recovered nickel-in-concentrate for an estimated pre-production capital expenditure of A$68 million ($41 million). This could see the project, which is likely to feature a contract mining model, generate a post-tax internal rate of return of 88% based on the company’s estimates.

Mincor said: “Importantly, the DFS reflects a starting position only as potential extensions to the life of mine have been identified at Cassini, where recent diamond drilling returned a significant intersection of 17.6 m at 5% Ni, which is outside the current mineral resource boundary and has been excluded from the DFS.

“At the Northern Operations, underground drilling is planned once mine development commences targeting extensions and new discoveries in this well-endowed nickel mining area.”

Despite this remaining potential, Mincor has already kicked off an early works program at the operation, which has seen Hampton Mining and Civil Services begin a “discrete two-month program” focused on site clearance activities for infrastructure and services, plus the excavation of the box-cut at the high-grade Cassini orebody, Mincor said.

The mine plan at the project involves scheduling production from three distinct mining operations, Cassini, Miitel and the Northern Operations (Durkin North and the Long mines). The mine design physicals and associated costs for the three all feed into individual mine models, with the outputs from each model forming part of an integrated mining and processing plan to optimise mining and processing schedules. This is all geared around delivering annual average throughput of 500,000-600,000 t of ore to the Kambalda Nickel Concentrator, in line with a toll treatment pact Mincor has in place with BHP Nickel West.

With the start-up of Cassini and the re-start of the mines previously under care and maintenance, Mincor said it plans to incorporate some of the most modern technology at the operation.

An important aspect of the DFS, which the company has previously talked about, is the use of electric light vehicles underground.

Mincor said: “The use of these vehicles has been considered to improve air quality and reduce primary ventilation power costs within each of the mines.”

The company has tested this out recently with a trial of Safescape’s battery-electric Bortana EV at its Long mine.

In addition to this, underground Wi-Fi is set to be used in development and production areas for control of equipment and real-time monitoring of ventilation, pumping and fleet activity. Related to this, teleremote control and laser guided technology on loaders is likely to be employed.

And, lastly, production drills will be fitted with Minnovare’s Production Optimiser to ensure longhole drilling conforms to design, thereby minimising dilution, Mincor said.

The Production Optimiser system combines advanced hardware and software that enhances the speed, accuracy and reliability of long-hole production drilling. This leads to improved stope productivity and, ultimately, increased profitability, Minnovare says.

The technology has previously been employed with favourable results at Northern Star Resources’ Kalgoorlie gold operations.

Minnovare boosts Azimuth Aligner marketing in Peru with Core Tech deal

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Minnovare has signed on Lima-based Core Tech as its official sales and support agent for the Azimuth Aligner® product throughout Peru.

Used in mining exploration and civil construction, the Azimuth Aligner automates the drill-rig alignment process – substantially increasing accuracy and efficiency, while reducing downtime and costs by up to 90%, according to Minnovare. It has previously been tested out at LKAB’s Kiruna mine, among other operations.

Established in 1996, Core Tech offers solutions for mining exploration, surface mining, underground mining and construction, providing customers with the best products, brands, services and prices in the region, Minnovare said.

Minnovare Commercial Director, Mick Beilby, said: “We’re very pleased to be able to sign this distributor agreement with Core Tech. Core Tech have built a solid reputation in the Latin American mining sector over the past 20 years. Their cultural fit aligns well with Minnovare’s and we look forward to collaborating with them in the years to come.”

Minnovare has progressively been expanding the reach of its Azimuth Aligner. In June 2019, it signed an agreement with Geophysique TMC that saw the Quebec-based company become the official sales and service agent for these products throughout the Canadian province, while, in July 2018, International Directional Services signed on as a distributor in the US.

NSR transforms Kalgoorlie drill & blast ops with Minnovare Production Optimser

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A newly released case study from Minnovare and Northern Star Resources (NSR) has shown just how effective the Australia-based technology company’s Production Optimiser drilling solution has proven at the gold miner’s drill and blast operations.

The study, ‘Northern Star: 1-Year-On’, shows drill and blast productivity has increased significantly since implementing Production Optimiser in March 2018. At just one of NSR’s Kalgoorlie gold operations, the miner achieved 42,000 additional stoped tonnes, or around 8,300 oz/y of gold; increasing revenue by A$18 million ($12.2 million), according to the study.

In addition to this, the technology led to a cumulative 31% increase in drilling productivity, a 7% reduction in average stope cycle time and a 54% decrease in “bridged tonnes”.

Minnovare implemented the Production Optimiser system at one of NSR’s operations in March 2018 – running three long hole production rigs. This was followed by a second operation in August 2018, also running three long hole rigs, where NSR increased drilled meters by 33% – boosting average drill meters towards 10,000 m per rig, per month, it said.

Production Optimiser, which works independently of the rig’s on-board systems and can be retrofitted to any make or model of drill rig, uses Minnovare’s CORE software. This software digitises “drill plans and plods (Digi-Plan/Digi-Plod) for accurate drill-data capture and real-time transfer throughout the mine” to deliver greater speed, accuracy and reliability in rig setup – leading to greater drilling accuracy and optimum blasts, according to Minnovare.

Improved stope productivity and, ultimately, increased profitability follow, the company said.

Jeff Brown (pictured), Principal Innovation and Technology at NSR, said: “We’ve seen average drilled meters across our Kalgoorlie operations increase by up to 33%. That’s a significant impact, which has been underpinned by this technology.

“The follow-on from that increase is an equally significant impact to the productivity and, ultimately, profitability of our operations. It’s a prime example of a new technology can quickly add value to multiple areas – producing a better business outcome.”

Due to the success achieved from the Production Optimiser, NSR has entered into an official ‘Collaboration Agreement’ with Minnovare.

Brown said: “This [agreement] will help fast-track a number of new product developments currently in the pipeline, that we see as having the potential to make just as big an impact on our operations. That’s exciting and promising for us as we look to develop and expand on our assets.”

In addition to the work in Kalgoorlie, NSR has agreed to equip its fleet of long-hole drill rigs at the Pogo gold mine, in Alaska, USA, with the Production Optimiser technology.