Tag Archives: Rail-Veyor

Railveyor brings in Cat MineStar GM Jim Hawkins as new CEO

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Rail-Veyor Technologies Global Inc (RVTG) has welcomed James “Jim” Hawkins as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), effective October 1.

Hawkins takes over the executive duties from Jim Fisk who filled the role during a year-long global search. Fisk remains as Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors.

During a career spanning 35 years at Caterpillar, Hawkins led various parts of the organisation in the functional areas of Engineering, New Product Development, Sales/Marketing, Dealer Administration and Product Management. Most recently he served as General Manager of the MineStar technology business, where he was responsible for the development, sales, implementation, operations and support of technologies developed for the mining industry to aid customers in enhancing their safety while increasing productivity and efficiency.

Notably, he led the organisation to develop and commercialise autonomy for mobile equipment – a project which created unparalleled customer value and positioned the company as a leader in this transformational technology, RVTG said.

Hawkins said: “I was attracted to Railveyor by the potential of this technology to improve the safety, efficiency and environmental sustainability of how material is moved in the mining industry. We have a great team of people with tremendous experience in solving customer problems, and I am honoured to lead them as a part of the Railveyor organisation.”

Fisk added: “The product continues to prove its value to more and more customers around the world and so, again, we’re at a turning point in the life of Railveyor as a company. I have no doubt that Jim Hawkins has the experience, insight and character to wisely lead our accelerating enterprise into the next chapter of Railveyor.”

One of the latest Rail-Veyor contracts is at PJSC Sukha Balka’s Frunze underground iron ore mine in Ukraine.

Hawkins is a graduate of the University of Nebraska with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and has completed the Executive Leadership Program at Stanford University.

Yamana Gold retains electrification path for Wasamac in new study

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Yamana Gold has reiterated a plan to minimise the amount of carbon emissions generated with the development and operation of the Wasamac gold project in Quebec, Canada, in its first study since acquiring the asset from Monarch Gold.

Monarch, prior to being taken over by Yamana Gold, had laid out plans for an underground mine at Wasamac producing 6,000 t/d, on average, with an expected mine life of 11 years. It expected to use a Rail-Veyor® electrically powered, remote-controlled underground haulage system in addition to an almost entirely electric fleet of production and development equipment.

The December 2018 feasibility study by BBA indicated the Wasamac deposit hosted a measured and indicated mineral resource of 29.86 Mt at an average grade of 2.7 g/t Au, for a total of 2.6 Moz of gold, and proven and probable mineral reserves of 21.46 Mt at an average grade of 2.56 g/t Au, for a total of 1.8 Moz of gold. The study forecast average annual production of 142,000 oz of gold for 11 years at a cash cost of $550/oz.

With drilling, due diligence and further studies, Yamana Gold, in studies forming the new feasibility level studies, has come up with baseline technical and financial aspects of the Wasamac project that, it says, underpin the decision to advance the project to production.

This has resulted in a few changes to the Wasamac plan.

For starters, the company plans to use the extract the now 1.91 Moz of reserves quicker than Monarch’s strategy, with a rapid production ramp-up in the first year followed by sustained gold production of approximately 200,000 oz/y for at least the next four years.

Including the ramp-up phase, average annual production for the first five years of operation is expected to be 184,000 oz, the company said, with life of mine production of 169,000 oz/y. Mill throughput has been increased to 7,000 t/d, on average, but the plant and associated infrastructure were being sized for 7,500 t/d. Production could start up in the December quarter of 2026, the initial capital expense was expected to be $416 million and all-in sustaining costs over the life of mine had been calculated at $828/oz.

The use of a conveyor is still within this plan, but a company spokesperson told IM that Yamana was now considering a conventional belt conveyor rather than the Rail-Veyor system.

Yamana explained: “The optimised materials handling system uses ore passes and haul trucks to transport ore from the production levels to a central underground primary crusher. The haul trucks will be automated to allow haulage to continue between shifts. From the underground crusher, ore will be transported to the crushed-ore stockpile on the surface using a 3-km-long conventional conveyor system in two segments.”

Yamana added: “Using a conveyor rather than diesel trucks to transport ore to surface reduces CO2 emissions by 2,233 t/y, equivalent to taking 500 cars off the road. Over the life of mine, the company expects to reduce CO2 emissions by more than 20,000 t.”

The aim to use electric vehicles wherever possible remains in place.

“The Wasamac underground mine is designed to create a safe working environment and reduce consumption of non-renewable energy through the use of electric and high-efficiency equipment,” the company said. “Yamana has selected electric and battery-electric mobile equipment provided that the equipment is available at the required specifications.

“Battery-electric underground haul trucks are not yet available at the required capacity with autonomous operation, so diesel trucks have been selected in combination with the underground conveyor. However, Yamana continues to collaborate with equipment suppliers with the expectation that the desired battery-electric equipment will be available before Wasamac is in operation.”

In tandem with this, the company plans to use a ventilation on demand solution and high-efficiency fans to reduce its power requirements. This will likely rely on an underground LTE network.

“Heating of the underground mine and surface facilities is designed with the assumption of propane burners, but an opportunity exists to extend the natural gas line to the project site,” it added. “Yamana has initiated discussions with the natural gas supplier and will study this opportunity further as the project advances.”

The site for the processing plant and offices is confined to a small footprint strategically located in a naturally concealed area, and the processing plant has been designed with a low profile to minimise the visual impact as well as minimise noise and dust, according to Yamana.

The primary crusher, previously planned to be located on surface, has been moved underground, with the crushed material transported to surface from the underground mining area using conventional conveyors and stored on surface in a covered stockpile to control dust.

Several design improvements to the previous Wasamac plans have also been made to reduce consumption of fresh water to minimise the effect on watersheds, according to Yamana. Underground mine water will be used in the processing plant, minimising the draw of fresh water and reducing the required size of the mill basin pond.

The Wasamac tailings storage strategy is designed to minimise environmental footprint and mitigate risk, it added.

“Around 39% of tailings will be deposited underground as paste fill and 61% of tailings will be pumped as a slurry to the filter plant located approximately 6 km northwest of the processing plant and then hauled to the nearby dry-stack tailings storage facility,” Yamana said.

Strategic phasing of the tailings storage facility design allows for the same footprint as previously planned, even with the increase in mineral reserves, the company clarified. Also, the progressive reclamation plan for this facility minimises the possibility of dust generation and expedites the return of the landscape to its natural state.

Automation, electrification, alternative haulage weighed for GSR’s Wassa UG expansion

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A preliminary economic assessment (PEA) on the potential expansion of Golden Star Resources’ Wassa gold mine in Ghana has flagged the potential for applying alternative underground haulage methods, and autonomous and battery-electric equipment at the operation.

The PEA provides an assessment of the development of the Southern Extension of Wassa and the increase in mining rates to fully use available process plant capacity. While the study itself represents a conservative plan that excludes exploration opportunities from the scope and adopts the current mining practices and equipment, the “opportunities” section of the technical report outlines some more innovative approaches to expanding mining rates and filling the plant capacity.

Wassa, which Golden Star owns 90% of, produced 168,000 oz of gold in 2020 using the sub-level longhole open stoping method.

The PEA is focused on the development of the large inferred mineral resource (just over 7 Moz) which comprises the Southern Extension zone. Around 50% of the total resource was included in the PEA inventory, which showed off a life of mine of 11 years, with total gold production of 3.5 Moz. Average annual gold production of 294,000 oz represented an approximate 75% increase on the current production rate.

The mine plan considers a production rate targeting the processing capacity, at or close to 2.7 Mt/y run-of-mine material, after a five-year ramp-up period. The plant has previously operated at these rates with feed from both Wassa and the Bogoso-Prestea operation (since sold).

Mining would be by underground trackless decline access (1:7 gradient), with access from duplicate access ramps and independent ventilation infrastructure on each side of the deposit to support the increased mining rate and provide efficient access across the mineralised footprint (circa-850 m along circa-300 m across strike). Truck haulage will utilise the dual access ramps.

The mining method proposed for the expansion is bottom-up long hole open stoping with 25 m level spacing and nominal stope sizes of 25 m length x 30 m width x 25-100 m height with cemented paste backfill. Stopes will be mined in a primary-secondary sequence down to around 1,000 m depth, transitioning to pillarless retreat below that point to account for increasing in-situ stress, which will need to be further investigated in future work.

The PEA assumes average recovery of 94.8%, which is supported by current plant performance and metallurgical test work on a small number of samples that suggest processing performance for the Southern Extension feed will be similar to material currently treated. This will be evaluated in the next phase of work.

Capital expenditure is expected to total around $790 million over the life of the PEA mine plan. Of this total, 29% is growth capital and 71% is sustaining capital. The PEA mining method relies on paste fill, with Golden Star confirming the paste fill plant was constructed in 2020 and commissioning is expected to be finalised this quarter. Capital has been allowed for an expansion of the paste fill system in the PEA mine plan.

Based on a $1,300/oz gold price, the expansion project is expected to generate a post-tax net present value (5% discount) of $452.2 million.

So far, so conventional…

The company said it planned to complete option and trade-off studies to optimise the project plan ahead of a feasibility study on the expansion, due in early 2023.

Just some of the innovations being considered in these trade-off studies include the use of automation, electrification and alternative haulage.

In terms of increasing machine productivity through technology, the study listed off the potential use of semi- or fully-autonomous vehicles to increase shift operating time and remove operators from hazardous areas. It said the highest likelihood applications were in production drilling and drawpoint loading.

Golden Star confirmed current projects included in its in-development technology roadmap were the introduction of tele-remote loading and digitalisation of production data.

In terms of haulage infrastructure opportunities, Golden Star said it was considering the replacement of truck haulage with an infrastructure system like shaft hoisting, conveyor, or Rail-Veyor. The capital demand for such options would be offset by a large reduction in operating costs with automated systems, reduced diesel consumption and reduced ventilation demand, it noted.

These haulage options were being studied to design different systems, estimate capital and operating costs, then complete a trade-off analysis, the company said.

The current mine design assumes loaders digging from open passes to load trucks, but Golden Star said feeder systems could be installed to automate loading, increasing efficiency and reducing operating costs.

And, of course, the company said it was considering options for clean energy technology applications, particularly battery-electric trucks. As part of this, it was assessing available systems and developing fleet selection criteria. This will have knock-on benefits to the mine’s ventilation requirements.

Autonomous loading and hauling pays off at Agnico’s LaRonde, Kittila gold mines

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Increased uptake of autonomous loading and hauling technology at the LaRonde (pictured) and Kittila gold mines has helped Agnico Eagle Mines post a record quarter of production for the last three months of 2020.

Payable gold production in the fourth quarter of 2020 was 501,445 oz at all-in sustaining costs of $985/oz, the company reported. This compared with 494,678 oz at an AISC of $1,039/oz in the prior-year period.

Homing in on LaRonde Complex (including the LaRonde mine and the LZ5 Mine), in Quebec, Canada, Agnico put the good performance at LaRonde – production of 105,729 oz during the quarter, down from 112,704 oz in the prior-year period when gold grades were 7.3% higher – down partially to the automation strategy that, the company said, had helped improve productivity and allow continuation of mucking activities during non-entry protocols related to seismicity.

In 2020, 13% of tonnes mucked from stopes at the LaRonde mine were carried out in automation mode and, in December 2020, a record 39% of the production mucking at the LaRonde mine was carried out from surface, which included 100% of the production mucking from the West mine area.

At LZ5, in 2020, 14% of tonnes mucked and hauled to surface were accomplished in automated mode with operators based on surface. This surpassed the 15% target the company had set. For 2021, it is expected 17% of the tonnage will be mucked and hauled remotely to surface and the production rate is expected to be sustained at around 3,000 t/d. “The LZ5 automation team will continue optimising the automated mining techniques,” Agnico said.

Agnico said the target for 2021 is to muck over 17% of the total tonnage for the LaRonde Complex from surface. The company said it is also carrying out work to perform production drilling using automation.

In a January presentation, Agnico stated that 10 LHDs and four trucks had been equipped with Sandvik’s AutoMine® system. Back in 2018, Sandvik announced that the LaRonde mine would become the first operation to use AutoMine with LTE communication network underground on a production scale.

To continue tailings deposition through the LaRonde Complex life of mine, Agnico is also constructing dry-stack tailings facilities, which are expected to be operational by the end of 2022. Dry stacking will help limit the footprint of the new tailings facility and improve the closure of the main tailings ponds, Agnico said.

Moving to Finland at the Kittila gold mine, the use of automation also paid off.

The company said Kittila continued delivering strong performance in the December quarter of 2020, with production above forecast by around 6,000 t. This also coincided with the commissioning of the expanded mill at Kittila, which is now ramping up towards the design capacity of 2 Mt/y.

The mine delivered a record full-year ore production of around 1.85 Mt in 2020, according to the company.

“This performance (in Q4) is driven by an improved fleet management and an increased usage of automation,” Agnico said.

Kittila has been testing autonomous hauling trucks and tele-remote equipment and is targeting to achieve 50% of production drilling and 15% of hauling remotely in 2021, it said.

On top of this, Agnico said the mill had consistently increased availability and the company was evaluating the implementation of advanced process control in 2021.

Optimize Group teams up with Rail-Veyor for alternative haulage modelling

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Optimize Group says it is supporting innovative material handling system company, Rail-Veyor, with a series of South America initiatives, including the development of a conceptual trade-off study model comparing truck, conveyor and Rail-Veyor scenarios over a life-of-mine plan.

The model considers technical, financial and environmental metrics and is suitable for both open pit and underground operations, the company says.

Optimize Group added: “We look forward to applying the model in future projects, while unlocking economic and environmental value!”

Rail-Veyor, a low cost-in-mine haulage system has, to date, mostly been used underground, with one of its most successful installations the one at Agnico Eagle’s Goldex operation, in Quebec, Canada, which recently set a new quarterly performance record.

Eldorado Gold weighing BEVs, vertical haulage tech for Lamaque expansion

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With production at the Lamaque gold mine, in Quebec, Canada, now in full swing, Eldorado Gold is looking at a potential expansion underground that could involve the use of battery-electric vehicles, or vertical haulage with conveyors, according to Chief Operating Officer Paul Skayman.

Speaking to IM last week, Skayman said the company, following the declaration of commercial production at Lamaque earlier this year, was in the process of working on a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) to expand Lamaque. This study will evaluate increasing throughput from an average of some 1,800 t/d to 2,500 tpd, with a resultant boost in annual average production to 170,000 oz, from close to 130,000 oz.

The expansion PEA is expected to be completed by the end of year and, subject to the results, a prefeasibility study on the expansion will begin, due for completion in the second half of 2020.

While the expansion is over a year away, Skayman said the deepening of the mine could see the company look at the potential for either battery-powered haulage or vertical haulage with conveyors. This would see the mine install a decline to access the orebody, as opposed to sinking a shaft.

Skayman said the provincial government offered incentives to employ such technologies at mine, while power was relatively inexpensive, “so, we are in the right place to be looking at this”. Indeed, Agnico Eagle Mines has employed a Rail-Veyor system at its Goldex mine in Quebec, while MacLean Engineering has delivered at least one battery-powered unit to an underground gold operation in the province.

Eldorado is not currently running any battery-powered units, instead, waiting for the technology to mature to a point where machines can run for a whole shift and the charging infrastructure has been proven, according to Skayman. He said the company was watching projects such as the recently opened Borden mine in Ontario to see where miners were pushing the “technology envelope” in the electrification arena.

Eldorado has other underground operations across the globe, but Skayman said Lamaque was the prime candidate for the use of battery-powered equipment.

“[This technology] is probably more likely to be used at Lamaque than our operations in Europe; Lamaque is a vertical stacked set of lenses and the deeper sections we know of go down to 1,500 m,” he said. “We’re nowhere near that in Turkey at Efemçukuru, which is relatively mature. We eventually get down to deeper sections at Olympias, but nothing like the depth at Lamaque.”

HydraGEN technology receives top prize at Mining Cleantech Challenge

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dynaCERT Inc and H2 Tek have taken home the $5,000 top prize at the Mining Cleantech Challenge in Denver, the Colorado Cleantech Industries Association (CCIA) has reported.

The two companies’ technology was chosen by mining executives and investors in the industry as the best among a competitive field of 12 total companies representing the US, Canada and Israel, the CCIA said. An international team of judges reviewed and voted on the winners, the CCIA said.

dynaCERT’s HydraGEN™ turns distilled water into H2 and O2 gases on-demand and introduces these gases directly to diesel engines’ air intakes. H2 Tek Vice President of Sales and Marketing, David Van Klaveren, said: “Our technology, HydraGEN can actually improve significantly those carbon emissions, reduce them and, along the way, pay for the capital cost of all this through fuel efficiency savings.

“We can’t ignore the fact that clean technology is an important part of our responsibility as participants and members of this industry, the mining industry,” he said. “I think it’s remarkable that an association considers this a priority: bringing together companies that have innovation for an extremely important cause.”

Hydrocarbons and CO2 are reduced due to the absence of carbon in hydrogen fuel and also due to better combustion of diesel fuel with the aid of hydrogen which has a higher flame speed, dynaCERT said.

“Although CO values for neat diesel operation is relatively lower, by inducting H2 & O2 into diesel the CO amount is further reduced,” dynaCERT said. dynaCERT has created partnerships to perfect a technology that would deliver on the promising findings with H2 & O2 injection. Not only have we developed patent-pending technology, we have completed testing and have validated that our technology works.”

Some of the features delivered through the technology, dynaCERT said:

  • “Our patent-pending electrolysis system and Smart ECM provides a reliable and adjustable delivery of H2 & O2 concentrations. Not all engines are the same and having the optimal ratio of gases provides increased benefits;
  • “Our technology is scalable allowing use with Class 6-8 on-road vehicles and transition to applications with rail, marine, off-road and power generation;
  • “Our technology is leading edge and provides solutions without drawing excessive power to perform the task;
  • “It is designed to work with OEM manufacturer’s and compliment technological improvements.”

Second place in the cleantech competition went to Earth Alive Clean Technologies, a microbial dust control technology that is non-hazmat, 100% organic and has biodegradable properties, while Rail-Veyor and its light rail solution rounded off the top three.

Alumbrera underground copper-gold mine to benefit from Rail-Veyor haulage

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The Alumbrera copper-gold mine in Argentina will soon be going underground and, with this, will come the installation of an electric Rail-Veyor haulage system, Goldcorp has confirmed.

Open-pit operations are due to cease at the end of this month, but during the most recent June quarter, the project partners (Glencore – 50%, Goldcorp – 37.5%, Yamana Gold – 12.5%) agreed on an underground extension of the mine.

The underground operation is set to start up in late-2019 and will be mined using the sub-level caving methodology, Goldcorp said earlier this week in its June quarter results.

The company added that an electric Rail-Veyor haulage system will be used to transport material to the “existing infrastructure, with the processing plant expected to process 20,000 tonnes per day over an expected 10-year mine life”.

The project is expected to be fully funded through Alumbrera’s operating cash flows.

Glencore is no stranger to Rail-Veyor technology having introduced South Africa’s first surface mine installation at the Eland platinum operation some years ago. Last year, Northam Platinum acquired Eland.

Rail-Veyor is an electrically powered series of two-wheeled interconnected mini rail cars that can operate 24/7 and travel along a light rail track at speeds up to 8 metres per second. The remote controlled Rail-Veyor technology is comprised of simple components that allow continuous material haulage without diesel emissions and with significantly less capital and maintenance costs than other options.