Tag Archives: OK Tedi

Freeport senses PNG exploration opportunity with Minerva’s DRIVER AI solution

Base metals, IoT, Mineral exploration, Mining services, Precious metals, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Freeport Resources has signed a contract with Minerva Intelligence Inc that will see the artificial intelligence focused company deploy its DRIVER AI solution at the Star Mountains project in Papua New Guinea.

Freeport recently acquired Quidum Resources, which, through its wholly owned subsidiary, Highlands Pacific Resources Ltd, controls the Star Mountains project. The company thinks applying Minerva’s technology to the project will enhance its next phases of surface and sub-surface exploration of the extensive property, which is located close to the Ok Tedi mine.

“Freeport is committed to embracing new technologies to enhance the understanding of our portfolio of projects beginning with Star Mountains,” Nate Chutas, Senior VP of Operations at Freeport, said. “We believe that the advances in technology that DRIVER brings will provide deep insights into our project data and provide a better understanding for the development and prioritisation of high-quality exploration targets.”

DRIVER delivers these insights by evaluating all elements typically returned by modern laboratories, not simply the elements of direct economic interest, Freeport says. The work this requires is too time-consuming and complicated to be carried out by project geologists, according to the company.

Minerva’s cognitive reasoning platform is able to compare identified geochemical exploration vectors with its database of hundreds of past and present mines around the world, identifying those most similar to the explored target using the company’s proprietary AI technology.

The resulting similarity rankings can then provide reliable, explainable models upon which geologists can build their exploration strategies, Freeport says.

Gord Friesen, President and CEO of Freeport, said: “Despite having identified a very significant resource already, it is our assertion that Star Mountains is still vastly under-explored. We believe that utilising AI-based, deep-thinking tools such as DRIVER will exponentially hasten our understanding of Star Mountains’ true potential.”

The data analysis will involve three studies, the first two being 3D studies focused on the drilling results from the Olgal deposit where there is a current inferred resource, using a 0.3% copper cutoff grade, of 210 Mt grading 0.4% Cu and 0.4 g/t Au, for 2.9 Moz of contained gold and 840,000 t of contained copper.

The third study will be a combined 2D and 3D analysis of data collected from the remainder of the Star Mountains claims. All these studies will be integrated with interpretation of available airborne geophysics data, according to Freeport.

The first 3D study will be a geochemical cluster analysis to identify the lithogeochemical characteristics of the logged drill holes to use as a comparison against the interpreted logging, and for comparison with the lithogeochemistry of drilling results for other Star targets.

This will be followed by a second 3D study involving the use of Minerva’s DRIVER software to examine multi-element zonation patterns throughout the Olgal dataset.

The third study will apply Minerva’s SOLACE workflow to a combination of the surface and drilling data available for the rest of the Star Mountains claims for incorporation into Minerva’s Target target generation system.

OK Tedi boosts operator safety with new Immersive Technologies collaboration

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Immersive Technologies and OK Tedi have established the first fully-integrated Operator Performance Analytics (OPA) system as part of the Papua New Guinea miner’s focus on operator safety, Immersive says.

Following the successful delivery of continuous improvement projects and managed services by Immersive, OK Tedi opted to establish an OPA installation on-site with the dual goals of improving safety and machine care among their operators, Immersive, which is now part of Komatsu Ltd, said.

Using the OPA electronic operator scorecard, OK Tedi was able to drill down to individual operator performance indicators. These indicators can be used to see how an operator compares with their peers or are trending over time. “Ranking of all operators additionally provides a unique opportunity to motivate personal ownership of safety statistics and performance, while providing management an effective tool to identify training needs to improve overall mine site productivity,” Immersive said.

OPA data can also be filtered specific to machine errors, performance on different machines, performance over time and training history to locate the root cause of a performance trend. An initial dataset was analysed using six months of machine operational data from the field and simulator data, with this data used to identify outlier operators in terms of risk rating or performance against key metrics (such as spot time, average speed loaded and average tonnes per km/h).

Masket Siune, Superintendent Mine Business Improvement & Training OK Tedi, said: “OPA has enabled quicker analysis of mine operator performance to identify trends or patterns to mitigate risk relating to equipment reliability and operator productivity metrics.

“We now have a reliable operator data platform that gives real comprehensive data view to approach our operators and discuss training development needs or for reward and recognition for the outstanding performance based on both risk and productivity criteria.”

With multiple operational data sources integrated within OPA, OK Tedi easily identified a high incidence of high peak frame bias events, therefore prioritising simulator training for those operators contributing the highest error counts, Immersive said. Once underperforming operator groups or individuals are identified, these can be selected and assigned to a training needs analysis report.

Simulator training can then be conducted and training data automatically sent back to OPA —without manual intervention. Typical training scenarios for errors could require operators to navigate loaded trucks over rough road conditions or load and dump using the correct procedure. In turn, this can be used for assessment of training retention and impact.

Alex Da Silva, Global Professional Services Manager at Immersive Technologies, said: “At OK Tedi, analysis that previously took days or weeks, now takes minutes, integrating disparate data systems with simulator generated data provides a single, powerful platform for workforce development planning.”

OK Tedi, which mines copper, gold and silver in the Western province of PNG, plans to extend the use of OPA to additional machines types to further support its operations, according to Immersive.