Tag Archives: Polar Division

Nornickel bolsters modernisation and automation efforts with new equipment, solutions

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MMC Norilsk Nickel says its Polar Division has received a new batch of equipment to improve the efficiency of operations as part of a group-wide program aimed at the modernisation and automation of its production facilities in Russia.

In addition to the new equipment deliveries at the Polar Division, autonomous vehicle devices have reached the second stage of testing at the Severny mine at Kola MMC, the company noted.

Under the equipment renovation program, the Polar Division received 25 units of mobile equipment for various purposes in 2020. The total value of the equipment delivered to the Polar Division amounts to around $8 million.

“This year, we received two Sandvik TH545 dump trucks, and they went into operation at the end of October,” Alexander Chistyakov, Deputy Director of the Severny Mine, said. “The third vehicle is under customs clearance and will soon be at the disposal of the miners.”

In addition, the company is also planning to purchase 20 55-t payload BELAZ 7555B mining trucks, plus seven Liebherr PR 764 dozers and two Caterpillar 990 Series II wheel loaders.

In all, Norilsk Nickel plans to spend about $20 million on the purchase of the equipment, with over 90% of the specified equipment to be transferred to the Taimyr region by the end of November.

Chistyakov added: “At the heart of the program for replacing self-propelled diesel equipment is an increase in the volume of cargo transportation, which is solved by increasing the volume of the cargo area. The new dump truck is distinguished by its structure and dimensions. The main advantage is the increased carrying capacity, which is 45 t.”

The fleet of self-propelled diesel equipment at the Severny mine is being replenished with various new types of machinery. Two Epiroc Boomer S2 face drilling rigs and an Epiroc Simba rotary drilling rig are expected to arrive by the beginning of 2021.

The total cost of the mining equipment expected to arrive by the end of 2020 at Severny is estimated at more than $6.5 million.

Meanwhile, the second stage of tests of autonomous vehicle devices has been launched at the Severny mine in the Kola region, Nornickel said.

The Nornickel Digital Laboratory is in the process of developing an advanced autonomous vehicle platform for deployment in the company’s mines. The project is being carried out within the framework of the company’s strategic goals, aimed at maximising automation and digitalisation of production processes, and ultimately achieving unstaffed mining operations.

Kola MMC has been closely cooperating with the Digital Laboratory since 2018. A joint pilot project – ‘Monitoring Compliance with Personal Protective Equipment’ – was launched as part of the cooperation effort. Further plans include the implementation of the ‘Remote control of self-propelled equipment at the mine’ project, Nornickel said.

Nornickel reveals ambitious technology – as well as production – plans

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Technology looks like playing a pivotal role in Norilsk Nickel’s ambitious growth plan to boost its mined ore volumes at the renowned Taimyr operation, in Russia.

After revealing a target to up production to 30 Mt/y by 2030, from 17 Mt/y in 2017, at its Capital Markets Day in London this week, IM spoke with First Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer, Sergey Dyachenko, to find out how technology was helping the company achieve this target.

Dyachenko listed off several impressive feats the company has achieved in the past 18-24 months that would pave the way for this growth.

First off, Norilsk has digitised nearly all of its operations as part of its Technological Breakthrough program – aimed at designing, planning and operational controls of its mining activities.

It has shifted its mine planning from a shift-based system to an hourly scheduling program, is carrying out dynamic simulations of mining activities on an as-needed basis to visualise the effects of mine plan changes, has installed proximity detection and collision avoidance systems (with a 50 m personnel detection range) at all of its underground mines, and has commissioned a real-time dispatch system to optimise its operations.

With digital centres built or being built in all of its major mining hubs, and Wi-Fi rolled out across its underground operations, all of its processes are now very much ‘connected’.

Dyachenko said these initiatives were already paying off, with a 7% increase in nickel-equivalent production between 2017 and 2019, partly attributable to the digitisation and automation programs. He could also point to a productivity increase – the output of nickel equivalent per employee rising 15% over this same timeframe.

While the company has come a long way since it started its Technology Breakthrough program in 2014, it is ready to leverage more technology over the next five years (and beyond).

Dyachenko spoke of transitioning from dynamic 3D mine models to the use of digital twins for mine plan optimisation at all of its mines and, excitingly, plans for a “fully autonomous smart digital mine” at its Skalisty nickel-copper-PGM underground project at the Polar Division, Norilsk’s key production asset on the Taimyr Peninsula.

Skalisty, at more than 2,000 m below ground, will be the company – and one of Russia’s – deepest underground mines. This fact is making Norilsk reconsider its normal mine development and operation route.

The company is currently engaged on a prefeasibility study at Skalisty, however it has already carried out 966 m of shaft sinking to bring the #10 ventilation shaft down to 2,056 m, and plans to start horizontal development at the project next month. Completion of the main shaft is scheduled for 2021.

“We have a task to make our Skalisty underground mine an autonomous mine,” Dyachenko said, explaining that the depth and accompanying temperature that comes with it made it a difficult environment to operate in.

Added to this, Dyachenko said the “demographics” of the future workforce and the need to provide an “interesting environment” at Skalisty made it a necessity to at least relocate machine operators to a control room on surface.

Norilsk will not be working on this ‘task’ alone. In addition to using consultants for the prefeasibility study, it is has also engaged an OEM with experience of automating underground operations in Mali and Sudbury (Canada) at this stage.

“We want to have a very clear concept…and find out the economic impact and best configuration for the mine,” Dyachenko explained.

The Norilsk COO said engaging such an OEM at this point in the mine development process also provided the manufacturer with the required time to “customise” a solution that fitted the Skalisty orebody and infrastructure.

“Not all of this will be off-the-shelf,” he commented on the equipment and infrastructure required for Skalisty, adding that battery-electric vehicles could also come into the mining equation.

Speaking of time, Dyachenko said the company expected to recover the first ore from development at the deep mine in 2023, followed by first “production” ore in 2024.

The new Skalisty mine is expected to eventually ramp up to production of ~2.5 Mt/y.

Nornickel’s digital mine plan taking shape

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Norilsk Nickel has recently launched a new operational control centre at its Oktyabrsky mine in Russia, leveraging the underground infrastructure investments the company has made in the past five years across its Polar Division operations as a way to increase its operational efficiency.

The Oktyabrsky centre, which cost around $1.6 million to install, monitors mining operations on a continuous basis, using communications infrastructure and positioning systems to locate equipment and people underground. It is part of the company’s Technology Breakthrough program, a project launched in 2014 to digitise and automate most processes at the company’s extensive mining and processing facilities by 2020.

By the end of 2019, similar operational centres will be built at all Norilsk Nickel Polar Division mines (Skalisty, Komsomolsk, Taimyrsky and Mayak, according to the company, with the five centres set to cost the company around $6.3 million in total.

Norilsk said: “The launch of the operational centre at the Oktyabrsky mine was possible due to long-term work on the creation of underground infrastructure, which was carried out at all of the company’s mines in the Polar Division as part of the ‘Technology Breakthrough’ project.

“The project installed radio communications and positioning systems to locate mining equipment, it also installed fibre-optic communication as well as Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi is now available in every mine. Every mine is also equipped with cameras.”

This infrastructure has enabled personnel at these mines to receive real-time data on shift targets without human intervention, according to Norilsk.

In addition to this, the company has developed a “Ten-day shift schedule” software, which helps schedule the work of miners over this period, Norilsk said, explaining: “The planning system’s algorithm distributes the amount of work and equipment per production and shifts, taking into account the cyclical nature of the process and the initial data.”

The use of this software has allowed Norilsk Nickel, in certain cases, to abandon a non-centralised and manual approach to mine planning. “The software functions from a database, which contains information on the performance of all the equipment, mining operations, distances from loading sites to ore chutes and skip shafts, etc,” the company said.

Mining operation plans from different phases and areas at the Oktyabrsky mine are now integrated into a centralised planning system, with the “Ten-day shift schedule” leveraging data from MICROMINE’s exploration and mine design solution, Micromine. This creates a 3D program of the ore being developed, helping optimise the mining methods and sequence of processing reserves.

In reference to the new operational centre, Norilsk said: “Transferring mine operation monitoring, management and planning functions to the operational centre, together with the installation of new technologies, will contribute to a 10% increase in labour productivity.” This will also make it possible to improve both the quality and consistency of the ore mined and shipped to the Talnakh concentrator.