Tag Archives: Sudbury

NORCAT and Glencore launch technology innovation programme

Automation, Base metals, Equipment maintenance, IoT, Mine operation news, Mine shafts and equipment, Mine surveying, Mine ventilation, Mining consumables, Mining equipment, Mining maintenance, Mining safety, Mining services, Mining software, Power supply for mines, Sustainable mining, , , , , , , ,

NORCAT and Glencore’s Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations have launched a technology and innovation programme to facilitate and enhance the mining company’s capabilities to bring new, state-of-the-art technologies into its operations and accelerate the rate of technology adoption across the industry, NORCAT has reported.

NORCAT, which calls itself a global leader in the development and provision of skilled labour training and innovation services, is the only innovation centre in the world that owns and operates an underground mine designed to “enable start-ups, small/medium enterprises, and international companies to develop, test, and demonstrate innovative technologies in an operating mine environment”, it says.

This facility has seen NORCAT become a global destination for mining companies to “see and touch” emerging technologies poised to transform the industry, it said.

Kevin McAuley, Director Sustainability, Technical Services and Innovation at Glencore’s Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations, said: “We are excited to partner with NORCAT to implement this technology and innovation programme. This partnership not only provides us a unique opportunity to access a wide range of emerging technologies that will help us deliver on our broader business strategy, but also it continues to support the vibrant mining technology ecosystem at the NORCAT Underground Centre.”

Don Duval, NORCAT’s CEO, said the company was working hard to continue its leading role in “all that is the future of mining”.

“NORCAT’s portfolio of mining technology companies using our state-of-the-art operating mine as an ‘active laboratory’ has created an ecosystem like no other in the world,” he added. “We are excited to partner with Glencore and continue to build and support Canada’s global reputation as a market leader in the mining industry.”

NORCAT says it will continue to identify and engage with mining technology companies from around the world to support the implementation and demonstration of their products at the Underground Centre. “By doing so, NORCAT helps to connect and broker relationships between mining technology companies (the ‘builders of innovation’) and global mining companies (the ‘buyers’ of innovation), creating a vibrant tech ecosystem unique on the global stage.”

NORCAT’s Don Duval will be presenting a paper titled, The NORCAT Underground Centre – the world’s one-stop shop for the future of mining technology, at The Electric Mine conference in Toronto, on April 4-5, 2019. For more information on the event, please click here.

MacLean Engineering boosts R&D efforts with former MTI test facility acquisition

Automation, Base metals, Coal technology, Energy minerals, Equipment maintenance, Mining equipment, Mining services, Power supply for mines, Precious metals, Steel and iron ore, , ,

Underground utility vehicle specialist MacLean Engineering has purchased the former MTI test facility in Sudbury, Ontario, and intends to use it as the company’s new innovation hub.

The facility on Magill Street, less than a 10-minute drive from the MacLean sales, service and support centre on Kelly Lake Road, includes an approximately 300 m underground ramp down to a depth of some 40 m, at an average grade of 15%.

The underground facility also includes an excavated cavern where shaft jumbo mucking training had previously been conducted, along with a 4,500 km² building on a three-hectare site footprint.

MacLean President Kevin MacLean said: “We intend to utilise this facility as an innovation hub for our company, just as Bob Lipic Sr did with MTI when the test facility was originally developed in 2012.

“I want our activities at site to honour the tradition of mining entrepreneurship that Bob embodied in the Sudbury mining industry.”

Stella Holloway, General Manager for MacLean’s Sudbury operations, said the access to an underground facility provides the company with a “research and development test bed for new products and new technologies, a mine-equivalent setting for conducting quality assurance/quality control checks on MacLean equipment prior to shipping, a place where employees and customers alike can be given hands-on exposure to our equipment in the working environment, as well as a great location for conducting photo and video shoots”.

The new facility will allow the company to “ramp up” its product development and testing efforts, according to MacLean Chairman and Founder Don MacLean.

“I started my mining career in the 1950s working underground at INCO (now part of Vale), this city is where the first MacLean branch was established back in 1995 and we now have 100 employees locally, so the Sudbury basin remains at the core of the MacLean business just as it remains at the heart of mining activity in Canada.”

MacLean is currently embarking on a full electrification of its fleet, a programme that is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

Certain assets of MTI, meanwhile, were sold to Joy Global (now Komatsu Mining) in 2014.

Vale Canada set for Sudbury emissions cut with Clean AER operation

Base metals, Energy minerals, Environmental, Mine operation news, Mineral processing, , , , , , ,

Vale’s Sudbury, Canada, operations are set for an 85% reduction in sulphur dioxide emissions after the Brazil-based company completed its C$1 billion ($792 million) Clean AER (Atmospheric Emission Reduction) project.

The project is the largest single environmental investment in Sudbury’s history and, on top of the sulphur dioxide emission cut, will also see metal particulate emissions come down 40%, according to Vale.

Work began on the project in 2012 and included the construction of two new converters, a wet gas cleaning plant, a new secondary baghouse and fan building and reconstruction of the smelter converter flues. Due to close coordination between the project and operations, this construction took place safely while the Copper Cliff smelter continued to operate.

Ricus Grimbeek, Chief Operating Officer of Vale’s North Atlantic Base Metals Operations and Asian Refineries, said: “The completion of our Clean AER project is a historic milestone that demonstrates how far we have come as a company in reducing our environmental footprint.”

Emissions are set to come down so significantly with the project that Vale’s Sudbury operations will no longer require its iconic “Superstack”, according to Dave Stefanuto, Vale’s Vice President of North Atlantic Projects.

The Superstack is the tallest chimney in Canada and the Western hemisphere, measuring in at 380 m. It entered full operation in 1972.

Two new 137 m stacks are currently being constructed in the Copper Cliff smelter, which will require far less energy to operate than the Superstack and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the smelter by some 40%, Vale said. Following construction of the concrete shells, steel liners will be installed in the new stacks in 2019.

In 2020, the Superstack’s steel liner will be removed and the Superstack will be taken out of service and placed on care and maintenance. It is expected that removal of the concrete shell will begin thereafter and continue over several years.

Vale’s operations in Sudbury are home to one of the largest integrated mining complexes in the world with five mines, a mill, a smelter and a nickel refinery.

Breaker Technology and Creighton Rock Drill to collaborate in Sudbury mining market

Base metals, Equipment maintenance, Mining equipment, Mining services, Precious metals, Steel and iron ore, , , ,

Creighton Rock Drill (CRD) is to distribute and service Breaker Technology’s (BTI) underground mining vehicles, rockbreaker systems, and hydraulic breaker attachments in the key Sudbury market as part of a recently signed agreement.

The move comes as both companies look to improve their customer service and support in the mining industry, BTI said.

Under the terms of the agreement, CRD will sell capital equipment and parts, as well as service BTI equipment from its location in Lively, Ontario. CRD has been BTI’s distributor for construction and aggregate equipment for the past 18 years.

Al Creighton, Senior Vice President of CRD, said: “We’ve had a location in Lively now for over three years and are looking to grow our team with people that can understand our key values of service first as a way to promote sales. We will do that through attention to detail, local parts stocks for fast turnarounds on order fulfillment and by listening to our customers. It is important to us to build the BTI and CRD brands together as a symbol of quality and reliability in the mining sector.”

BTI said Creighton will be promoting BTI’s line of underground equipment including the extensive range of rockbreaker systems such as the MRHLP low-profile model and the PB series for rockbreaking directly at the grizzly ore pass.

CRD will also promote BTI’s mining vehicles including its latest mechanical underground scaler, ScaleBOSS 3D/ 3DE, the Mine Runner underground utility vehicle (pictured), RMS Scaler, Vibratory Pick Scaler and Hammer Feed Scaler.