Tag Archives: Remote Operations Centre

Hermosa

South32 selects Nogales location for Hermosa ROC

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South32’s Hermosa project has announced that it would construct its remote operations centre (ROC) in Nogales, Arizona, USA, with the facility set to be named Centro.

Hermosa is, South32 says, currently the only advanced mining project in the US capable of producing two federally designated critical minerals – zinc and manganese.

The ROC location decision follows two years of extensive analysis and careful consideration of Hermosa’s county-wide planning and employment goals to retain the economic benefits of the project in the Santa Cruz County area, it says.

As part of the location announcement, the Hermosa project is also debuting a new name for the ROC: Centro, a name chosen by the community in an online vote that took place earlier this year.

Hermosa Project President, Pat Risner, said: “Locating Centro in Nogales enables us to help transform the Santa Cruz County economy, by creating and training local residents without prior mining experience to fill high-skilled, good-paying jobs so the next generation has more opportunities right here at home.”

The selected location, just off Interstate 19 near the Mariposa Industrial Park, is approximately 70 miles (113 km) south of Tucson and approximately 28 miles to the Hermosa mine site. The building location will reduce commuter traffic to and from the mine site, as well as help build out local roads and infrastructure in the surrounding area, South32 explained.

Designed as a commercial building with an office-like setting, Centro will accommodate employees and the automation technology needed to remotely monitor and operate some of the underground and surface equipment located at the mine site. Centro will host around 200 full-time employees over several shifts in a 24-hour period.

Centro will be part of a 9 acre (3.6 ha) complex that will also include an employee parking lot, a park & ride service area to take employees and contractors to our other sites, and a garden. Construction will begin by the end of 2024.

In addition to Centro in Nogales, the Hermosa project is assessing the potential to site additional buildings, operational and/or job training infrastructure throughout Santa Cruz County.

As the first mining project added to the federal government’s FAST-41 permitting process, the Hermosa project aims to put southern Arizona in the driver’s seat of the clean energy race, supplying two critical minerals needed for the expansion of clean energy technologies and associated infrastructure.

Back in February, South32’s board gave final investment approval to develop the Taylor deposit, part of the Hermosa project, saying it would cost some $2.16 billion based on feasibility study results.

It is a project that is set to apply ‘next generation mine’ design principles using automation and technology to drive efficiencies and lower operational greenhouse gas emissions. This includes a plan to incorporate battery-electric LHDs, drilling and ancillary fleets. This strategy, included in the feasibility study, results in improved efficiency, reduced diesel consumption and greenhouse emissions compared with the prefeasibility study on the project.

Seabridge Gold weighs automation and trolley assist haulage for KSM project

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Seabridge Gold has completed an updated prefeasibility study for its KSM Project in British Columbia, Canada, that focuses on open-pit mining only, while planning for both autonomous mine operations and trolley assist haulage.

The 2022 PFS, prepared by Tetra Tech, shows a considerably more sustainable and profitable mining operation than its 2016 predecessor, now consisting of an all open-pit mine plan that includes the Mitchell, East Mitchell and Sulphurets deposits only, it said.

The primary reasons for the improvements in the plan arise from the acquisition of the East Mitchell open-pit resource and an expansion to planned mill throughput – to 195,000 t/d, from 130,000 t/d, the company said.

The many design improvements over the 2016 PFS include a smaller environmental footprint, reduced waste rock production, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, a 50% increase in mill throughput and the elimination of capital-intensive block cave mining, it added.

While total capital has been reduced to $9.6 billion (from $10.5 billion) – with increases from inflation and mill expansion being wholly offset by the elimination of block cave mining from the PFS plan – the initial capital cost has increased to $6.4 billion (from $5 billion) due to inflation.

Life of mine production (33 years) at KSM consists of 1.03 Moz of gold, 178 MIb (80,739 t) of copper, 3 Moz of silver and 4.2 MIb of molybdenum.

The open-pit-only mine production plan using ultra class mining starts in the higher grade Mitchell pit, Seabridge Gold says.  Production from the high grade upper East Mitchell zone is introduced in Year 3. Waste mined from the Sulphurets, East Mitchell and Mitchell pit is placed in the Mitchell rock storage facility (RSF) until Mitchell pit is mined out by Year 25. Final waste from East Mitchell is backfilled into the mined-out Mitchell pit from Year 25 onward along with some waste rehandled from the Mitchell RSF.

Autonomous mine operations where applicable and an integrated remote operations centre reduce on-site personnel, the company noted, while adding that electrification of the haul truck fleet with trolley assist would reduce carbon emissions and overall mine energy costs by replacing diesel with low-cost energy from electricity.

Codelco El Teniente to improve mine grid visibility with Hitachi Energy MicroSCADA X

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As part of Codelco’s drive to reduce its carbon footprint and boost sustainability, the company has looked to upgrade and modernise its energy automation system at El Teniente in Chile, with the objective to ensure the operational continuity of the mine as it continues to go deeper.

To achieve this, Codelco has to install a new supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system to manage the power grid within the mine. Taking this further, the company sought to expand the functionality of the system by deploying the solution centrally in its new data centre in the city of Rancagua, 70 km from the mine. The goal was to link the company’s divisions, starting with El Teniente, with the data centre to centrally manage the power grids of the twin projects related to the Northern Andes.

Codelco chose Hitachi Energy’s advanced MicroSCADA X solution to control and manage the power grid comprising 27 electrical substations in El Teniente; seven of them located on the surface and 20 inside the mine. With MicroSCADA X, Codelco will have better access to virtualised information and enable a more secure system for storing strategic data, according to Hitachi Energy.

MicroSCADA X is a user-centric energy automation solution, providing a modern and intuitive experience, the company says. As part of the solution, Hitachi Energy will provide engineering, remote terminal units, cabinet supplies, upgrade of the existing electrical SCADA system and operation, in addition to a five-year contract to maintain the systems at El Teniente.

IM put some questions to Marcio Ferraz, Hub Manager, Grid Automation Latin America, Hitachi Energy, to find out more about the project.

IM: Are you seeing more mining companies looking to centralise their SCADA systems into remote operations centres like Codelco? What special considerations need to be factored into such installations?

MF: Yes, it is possible to see a trend in having centralised operations centres for mining companies in the same model as installed in Codelco El Teniente. Within this kind of solution setup, it is possible to operate the full mining electrical system remotely or even from cities far from the mine location. Also, with MicroSCADA X, Codelco will have the possibility to deploy web-based solutions, making it possible to control the electrical system from a tablet or even from a mobile phone. All of this is aligned with the digitalisation efforts in the mining sector across Latin America.

IM: Is Codelco El Teniente’s setup – 27 electrical substations, with 20 within the mine and seven on the surface – unusual in terms of the MicroSCADA X work you have done in mining? Are you seeing mining installations become more complex of late?

MF: The robustness of Codelco’s El Teniente solution, both in terms of networking and MicroSCADA X configuration, brings a lot more reliability and flexibility to El Teniente’s operations. These are reflected by fully redundant networking and distributed MicroSCADA X servers based on IEC 61850, making use of physical and virtualised servers. As an example of this flexibility, it is possible to see the full electrical network in every station of the mine. The Hitachi Energy solution is also fully compliant with cybersecurity concepts and requirements. On this basis, the solution we have provided Codelco meets several requirements which are critical for 365/24/7 operations under harsh conditions.

IM: What allowances are you making for the El Teniente setup in terms of incorporating renewable energy solutions into the mix? Can MicroSCADA X seamlessly integrate these solutions?

MF: The delivered solution is able to incorporate expansions for renewable energy at every point of the connection. This scalability of the MicroSCADA X solution makes it fully compliant with all future requirements and demands to incorporate renewable energy solutions. This takes into account that the mining sector has a key objective to continue its contribution toward sustainable operations and continuing to be strong sponsors to investments in renewable energy sources.

IM: How ‘autonomous’ is the MicroSCADA X system at El Teniente? In addition to fault finding, does it also automatically adjust operations in response to these faults, or does it simply notify operators for manual intervention? Is this the most autonomous MicroSCADA X system you will have in place within mining upon start-up in 2024?

MF: The MicroSCADA X solution for El Teniente has all the alarms and notifications to allow operators to quickly solve faults in the mining electrical system. Additionally, the MicroSCADA X solution makes it possible to expand to an autonomous operation, using complex algorithms, when required by Codelco. In this respect, we can say that besides having a robust solution like MicroSCADA X, Codelco has a scalable system with all the possibilities to evolve according to operational needs in the future.

Deloitte builds out operational transformation services offering with Global IO

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Deloitte has acquired Global IO, a leader in integrated operations (IO) in the energy and resources (E&R) and mining sectors, as the Fortune 500 company aims to offer clients a “complete delivery of operational transformation services”.

Founded in Perth, Australia, in 2014, Global IO operates globally and has offices in Montreal, Perth, and Santiago, Chile.

In mining, specifically, companies have looked to leverage integrated operations to improve productivity and lower their cost base. Majors like Rio Tinto (remote operations centre, pictured above), BHP and Vale have installed remote integrated operations centres to coordinate iron ore production hubs in Australia and Brazil, respectively.

Global IO is joining Deloitte’s Consulting practices in Canada, Chile and Australia, more specifically as part of the operations transformation offering.

Anthony Viel, CEO, Deloitte Canada, said: “This addition is a key differentiator for our firm, and a major win for our clients who will truly benefit from a one-stop shop approach. Global IO’s strong reputation, deep relationships within the E&R and mining sectors, and credibility will allow us both to expand our efforts and provide dependable services to our clients from start to finish in a more agile and deliberate way.”

By joining Deloitte, Global IO will significantly expand its services, including how it engages in change management, project management, analytics, and digital strategy opportunities, as well as a range of unique operational productivity improvement projects.

“The collaboration with Global IO, which in the past has successfully worked with Deloitte on several large engagements with key clients, will also further the firm’s qualifications and capabilities in delivering end-to-end integrated operations projects independently,” Deloitte said.

With a team of qualified professionals in design, implementation, operations management process, and integrated operations deployments in the E&R and mining sectors, 17 Global IO employees will be joining the firm across offices in Montreal, Vancouver, and Calgary (Deloitte Canada), Santiago (Deloitte Chile), and Perth (Deloitte Australia). Global IO partners joining Deloitte include: Dominic Collins, Partner, Deloitte Chile; Pieter Lottering, Principal, Deloitte Australia; and Eamonn Treacy, Director, Deloitte Canada.

Collins said: “This is a great opportunity for us to not only better serve our clients under the banner of Deloitte, but to expand our services with new resources, to broaden our scale and scope. We’re now able to increase our efforts in areas like change management, digital strategy, and analytics, and deliver dependable services our customers, and Deloitte’s, have come to expect.”

Barminco turns Perth head office into remote operations centre

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Leading underground mining services provider Barminco, a subsidiary of Perenti, says it has successfully piloted a new operations centre that allows it to remotely operate underground equipment on a client’s mine site anywhere around the world.

In what the company believes to be a world first, Barminco operated a machine, working underground, from its head office in Perth at a client mine site in the Goldfields of Western Australia.

“The innovation was made more impressive given the remote operation occurred via the internet, instead of through a fibre-optic cable, which is the method that mine owner-operators have historically used,” the company said.

Barminco Chief Executive Officer, Paul Muller, announced the achievement at the third annual Sandvik Digitalization in Mining Event, in Brisbane, Australia, this week.

Muller said: “Barminco has cemented its place as one of the world’s leading underground mining service providers through the use of technology and automation.

“A key strategic initiative under our parent company, Perenti’s, 2025 strategy is to deliver a ‘technology driven future’, and our ability to remotely operate underground machinery from our head office is a significant achievement in delivering on that strategy.”

The Barminco Remote Operating Centre, or BROC, was successfully trialled in collaboration with Sandvik and Independence Group (IGO) back in July. It was trialled in the early morning at Barminco’s Head Office in Hazlemere for a machine located at IGO’s Nova nickel-copper-cobalt mine site, almost 1,000 km away.

Barminco General Manager Technology and Innovation, Darren Kwok, said the trial was a great success.

“Whilst many mine sites have operators remotely operating equipment from the mine’s surface, we are one of the first, if not the first service provider, to operate underground equipment on a client’s site from a much greater distance,” Kwok said.

“BROC enables us to connect multiple sites and operators at the same time, meaning if there is an issue at any point, we have contingencies in place.”

Barminco’s first trial involved the remote operation of a Sandvik LH517 LHD being operated in Perth by Barminco employee, Guy Gilbert, and Kwok said Barminco was now working with IGO to make BROC a permanent fixture at its Nova mine site.

“The advantages in improving the safety of our workplace and the efficiencies for our clients are enormous,” Kwok said.

Independence Group Chief Operating Officer, Matt Dusci, said the company was thrilled to be part of the successful trial, which is all part of the company’s ‘IGO – Smart Solutions’ initiatives.

“At IGO, we continually look for ways to improve how we do business and deliver operational excellence. By integrating innovative Smart Solutions at our operations, such as working with Barminco on BROC, we improve the safety and wellbeing of our people, realise step change opportunities, and optimise efficiencies and productivity,” Dusci said.

Kwok added: “Our future plan is to have a dedicated remote operating centre manned 24/7 where our team and our client’s people can work collaboratively side by side to deliver a world-class mine site.

“Clients who work with Barminco should expect more from our business along with the broader Perenti group of companies and BROC is one such example of how we are delivering on this promise.”

The Sandvik event concludes on December 4 and showcases best practice examples of industry leaders integrating digitalisation into their operations across the mining, construction and quarrying industries.

The announcement comes just over a week after Barminco was awarded Large Employer of the Year 2019 at the National Australian Training Awards in Brisbane.

Western Australia approves remote and autonomous operations training course

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The first formal qualifications in remote and autonomous operations has been approved by regulators in Western Australia, Rio Tinto says.

This means current and future workers in the resources industry will be able to gain accreditation in remote operations for the first time. This follows a collaboration between Rio, the Western Australia Government and South Metropolitan TAFE.

A Certificate IV in Autonomous Control and Remote Operations has now been approved by the Training Accreditation Council, in Western Australia, providing students with the knowledge and skills needed to work at facilities such as Rio Tinto’s Remote Operations Centre in Perth (pictured), Rio said.

“The course is the highest-level accreditation approved to date in a partnership struck between Rio Tinto, the Western Australia Government and South Metropolitan TAFE in 2017,” the miner said. “It follows accreditation earlier this year of a Certificate II in Autonomous Workplace Operations and a micro-credential course for trade-qualified, apprentices and technicians.”

About 30 Rio Tinto employees will take part in the initial pilot of the Certificate IV course, which will be delivered by South Metropolitan TAFE in 2020. The course work combines work integrated learning, giving participants the opportunity to apply the new learning and knowledge to work related scenarios in the Control Centre. Pending successful completion of the pilot, the first Certificate IV course may start in 2021.

Rio Tinto Iron Ore Chief Executive, Chris Salisbury, said: “The key to any technology is our people and that’s why training and development is so important. These qualifications will provide employees, both current and future, with the skills and training needed to thrive in our evolving industry.

“These courses give Western Australian workers the opportunity to gain modern, portable qualifications, with skills that can be used right across the resources industry.”

Rio Tinto has committed A$2 million ($1.37 million) to the development of these qualifications, according to Salisbury.

The formal qualifications “come at a critical time for the industry as we look to ensure vocational education and training programs keep pace with the rapid changes brought about by technology and innovation”, he added.

Chair of the WA Resource Industry Collaboration, Jim Walker, said: “Western Australia continues to lead the world in the development and deployment of autonomous technologies in our resources sector, with these developments creating the need for new skills and pathways from education to employment.

“The accreditation of Australia’s first nationally recognised courses in automation is significant in that it will help ensure local workers are equipped with the skills necessary for these jobs, now and into the future.”

The Resource Industry Collaboration was launched by Western Australia’s Education and Training Minister, Sue Ellery, in 2018 and includes Rio Tinto, South Metropolitan TAFE, BHP, Roy Hill, Fortescue Metals Group, Santos, Komatsu, South32, Yara, Department of Training and Workforce Development, Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science & Innovation, University of Western Australia, Scitech and the Chamber of Minerals and Energy.