Tag Archives: South Africa

Sandvik OptiMine to boost safety, productivity at Vedanta Zinc’s BMM operations

Automation, Base metals, Communications in mining, Equipment maintenance, IoT, Mine operation news, Mining equipment, Mining safety, Mining services, Mining software, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Sandvik is to deliver a full OptiMine® platform to Vedanta Zinc International’s Black Mountain Mining (BMM) operations in South Africa’s Northern Cape Province.

The company will commission OptiMine for trucks, loaders and drills next year, accelerating BMM’s data-driven operation for world-class mining safety, efficiency and productivity, Sandvik said.

The OEM-independent OptiMine digital platform includes equipment/asset location tracking; planning and task management; scheduling; monitoring equipment and operations and OptiMine Analytics with IBM Watson IoT.

Andre Trytsman, General Manager, BMM, said: “OptiMine gives us end-to-end visibility and control over our underground mining operations. It was important to us to have the full scope, from scheduling to analytics, to ensure we’re optimised for the safest and most productive operation possible.

“The OptiMine platform is the next step in Black Mountain’s digital journey, delivering efficiency and increasing operational performance allowing us to unlock more value. We are excited to partner with Sandvik and incorporate the OptiMine technology into Vedanta Zinc International’s exciting digital strategy.”

Last year, Vedanta Zinc signed an agreement with GE South Africa to collaborate on digitalisation at the Gamsberg zinc project, part of the BMM operations.

Sandvik says OptiMine integrates all relevant data into one source, delivering powerful real-time and predictive insights to improve operations. It is open and scalable, providing flexibility to grow as needed, and incorporate other equipment, systems and networks, the company added.

BMM’s current operations are comprised of two underground mines – Deeps and Swartberg – and a processing plant. The Deeps shaft produces copper, lead and zinc, with silver as a by-product, and the Swartberg mine produces primarily copper and lead, with silver as a by-product. BMM is also developing Gamsberg in the Northern Cape.

Patrick Murphy, President, Rock Drills and Technologies, Sandvik Mining and Rock Technology, said: “Sandvik is proud to work with the BMM team to integrate and optimise their mining processes with OptiMine, developing a world-class, data-driven operation and accelerating their productivity and safety.”

DRDGOLD gears up for Far West Gold Recoveries commissioning

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DRDGOLD says commissioning of the Far West Gold Recoveries project, previously the West Rand Tailings Retreatment project, is set to start on December 6.

Commissioning of the South Africa project will begin with the pumping of reclaimed tailings into the carbon-in-leach circuit. This comes just four months into the construction of Phase 1.

Far West Gold Recoveries was acquired from Sibanye Gold, trading as Sibanye-Stillwater, at the end of July. Stage 1 of the project involves upgrading of the Driefontein 2 plant to treat material from the Driefontein 5 dam.

DRDGOLD CEO Niël Pretorius said: “The project is on track to achieve full production of 500,000 t/mth from Phase 1 in the first quarter of 2019.”

As part of early-stage commissioning, a face has been established at the Driefontein 5 tailings dam reclamation site, from which pumping of reclaimed tailings through a new 2 km pipeline to the Driefontein 2 plant is set to begin. A parallel pipeline to return water from the plant to the reclamation site has been completed, DRD said.

Work to upgrade the plant’s retreatment capacity is well advanced, with carbon loading – also part of the overall commissioning process – set to begin immediately.

An 8 km pipeline to transport retreated tailings from the plant for cyclone deposition on the Driefontein 4 tailings dam and a parallel return water pipeline from the deposition site to the plant have also been completed.

Phase 2 of the project, which involves consolidation of what remains of Phase 1 material and the remaining tonnes of material acquired, envisages a monthly production rate of 1.2 Mt and is planned to be enacted within 24 months after the start of Phase 1 production.

Key features of Phase 2, feasibility of which will be tested over the next two years, are the construction of a large, centralised plant and an ultra-high volume deposition facility.

The acquisition of the project saw DRDGold increase its gold reserves by 92% to 5.75 Moz.

Kimberley Ekapa Mining chooses Epiroc MMI solution to go down digitalisation route

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Kimberley Ekapa Mining has agreed to use Epiroc’s Mobilaris Mining Intelligence (MMI) solution as it looks to embrace mine digitalisation and create a decision support system to boost safety and increase productivity.

With the use of MMI, Kimberley Ekapa Mining will be able to track assets in real-time; to integrate and visualise machine data, machine location and the shift plan together to close the loop between the plan and the reality, according to Epiroc.

Howard Marsden, General Manager of Kimberley Ekapa Mining, said: “MMI will help us start to modernise our old diamond mine and be the tipping point in terms of production optimisation.”

Marsden added MMI would allow the company to tag and keep better track of its mining personnel and equipment and provide access to real-time data, shedding some light into the “normally dark world of the underground mine”.

“We expect this is to be productivity game changer,” he concluded.

Thanks to its open architecture, MMI can be integrated easily with other systems in the mine, Epiroc says. Kimberly Ekapa Mining will rely on MMI to compile information from other systems and make all information searchable and easily accessible to decision-makers in real time.

Ulla Korsman-Kopra, Global Business Manager, Automation and Information Management Systems at Epiroc’s Underground Rock Excavation division, said: “The MMI is the world’s leading multi-role 3D location based decision support system, which enhances safety, productivity and efficiency in the mining operations.”

Users can access the web-based MMI interface from different devices to visualise the locations and movements of workers, vehicles and other equipment in real-time, Epiroc says.

Korsman-Kopra said: “When a problematic situation arises, and for example lives are at stake, MMI can be critical. You need to act quickly and make informed decisions to save time and ultimately save lives.”

Epiroc will supply Kimberley Ekapa Mining with an MMI hardware and software package that includes personnel training and support. The system installation will be operational by year’s end.

The Kimberley Ekapa Mining diamond operation in South Africa produced 755,645 ct in the year to end-June 2018. The Kimberley mines were at the heart of South Africa’s early diamond rush in Kimberley in the late 1800s, where the world’s first hard rock diamond deposits were discovered.

Anglo American’s OiS improving employee safety at Rustenburg base metal refinery

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Anglo American’s real-time data analytics platform, Operational Intelligence Suite (OiS), is helping its platinum subsidiary tackle potential health hazards at the Rustenburg base metals refinery in South Africa.

The company’s Occupational Health and Information Management teams worked in partnership to develop OiS, which is able to interrogate data feeds, manual uploads and events, Anglo said.

“The diagnostic results generated by the platform helps users make the right decision, at speed, when things go wrong, in terms of performance and health and safety at our mine sites.”

The information can then be used to do a “deep dive” analysis, to get to the root cause of problems and prevent repeat occurrences.

Cas Badenhorst, Anglo’s Occupational Health and Hygiene lead, said the company developed the product in response to a growing need in the business.

“Some of our key stakeholders needed a tool that would allow them to evaluate workplace and external environments and impacts on communities as well as monitor control performance,” he said.

The key difference between Anglo’s OiS system and other, off-the-shelf, products is its ability to receive, record, and analyse data such as air flow, gas levels etc. from multiple sources on to a single platform that also has analytical and reporting capabilities, Anglo said.

OiS is already in place at several of Anglo’s businesses including subsidiary Anglo American Platinum, where potential exposure to health hazards is being reduced by real-time monitoring of dust, noise, and gases.

“In fact, application of the OiS platform has assisted the Rustenburg base metals refinery (RBMR) team to achieve significant reductions in personal exposures to airborne pollutants within 12 months by optimising control measures,” Anglo said.

When asked about the value contribution of the OiS platform, RBMR General Manager Fortune Mashimbye said: “OiS informs me daily of health-related control performance and supplies me with data and information, so I can act on substandard conditions. Having access to real-time information on workplace conditions and control status empowers me and my team to actively protect the health of the RBMR employees.”

The system is currently being introduced at Anglo’s Kumba Iron Ore business, its Coal South Africa company and Copper division’s Chagres site in Chile. Further roll-outs are planned for Brazil and Botswana in 2019, the company said.

“The next phase of development will include predictive analysis that could, potentially, prevent control failures and health and safety incidents from happening,” Anglo said.

The system was recognised at the 2018 USA National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Awards, where it took the award for Technology Innovation in Health and Safety.

SANY 75 t excavator gaining traction in Africa mining market, GEM says

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Goscor Earth Moving (GEM), part of the Goscor Group, has launched SANY’s SY75 excavator into the Africa mining market and received a positive response from the continent’s miners.

The SY75 is a primary loading tool for the mining industry, from open pit to alluvial diamond mining.

The 75 t excavator is ideal for loading blasted material onto articulated dump trucks (ADT), as well as for stripping top soil and free digging, according to Andre Steenkamp, General Manager of the SANY range under GEM. For example, the 4.2 m³ bucket allows a 40 t ADT to be loaded in less than seven passes.

GEM, which is the official distributor in Africa for SANY products, is already registering significant interest for the SY75, with the second unit to be imported from China already pre-sold prior to delivery. In addition, a major Zambia copper mine ordered four units on a trial basis. This has since led to another six units being ordered, GEM said.

“The SY75 will definitely carve a niche for itself in the market, due to its reliable power source and impeccable back-up from GEM,” Steenkamp said. The Isuzu 6 W G1X engine delivers a maximum torque of 2,138 Nm at 1,500 rpm.

In addition, the SY75 features a self-diagnostic system that flags technical issues quickly, reducing downtime.

The excavator has a maximum digging depth of 7,620 mm, and a maximum excavating distance of 12,050 mm. The maximum digging height is 11,200 mm, while the maximum dumping height is 7,250 mm. It has a 7 m boom and a 3 m arm, which translates into a bucket digging force of 402 kN and an arm digging force of 345 kN.

While the SANY brand is fairly new to the South Africa mining industry, especially in open-pit mining, Steenkamp expects the addition of the SY75 to allow GEM to offer complete solutions for its mining customers, no matter the size of the operation.

“SANY is on a par with well-known competitor brands when it comes to technology, but at a fraction of the price. It also innovates constantly, and will be launching two new products at Bauma China in Shanghai in November,” Steenkamp said.

Epiroc, Murray & Roberts Cementation set for South Africa manganese mine ramp up

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Epiroc has won a significant mining equipment order from contractor Murray & Roberts Cementation, with multiple drill rigs and bolters set to be delivered to the Kalagadi manganese mine in the Northern Cape of South Africa.

The equipment, which includes Boomer 282 face drilling rigs and Boltec 235 bolting machines (one pictured), will be used for the underground production build up at Kalagadi, where Murray & Roberts Cementation is the contractor.

“The machines will ensure that the mine is operated with enhanced productivity, safety and cost efficiency,” Epiroc said.

The orders total more than ZAR160 million ($10.9 million), of which more than half was placed in the September quarter.

In addition to the drilling and bolting machines, Epiroc will supply rock drilling tools, spare parts and on-site service support to back up Murray & Roberts Cementation.

According to a Business Day report from earlier this year, the Kalagadi mine is expected to generate 3 Mt/y of ore to convert into 2.4 Mt/y of sinter at full capacity.