Mining Magazine's Future of Mining ebook, September 2016

Future of Mining

The

TOP stories ebook

Explore the Future of Mining

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September 2016

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Future of Mining

Contents

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Come explore the future with us

F

irst things first, let me welcome you to this special edition e-book! In May, Aspermont Media launched the Future of Mining, a new online content hub that serves as a one-stop shop for those wishing to stay up to date with the latest technologies, initiatives and projects that are shaping the future of our industry.

From cutting-edge products to research breakthroughs, hot investment opportunities and exploration advances, our editorial team scours the globe and channels industry expertise so you don’t have to.

While there are fresh stories being posted to the site every day, this e-book presents a snapshot of some of our most read articles, the ones that have caught the eye of our subscribers.

In this issue, learn about the latest battery technologies for underground vehicles, new techniques for copper exploration and how some of the world’s top miners are advancing the face of autonomy. Find out how liquefied natural gas is making inroads into load and haul operations, how to cool deep mines using ice and where top software firms see the next big digital gains.

In order to make this e-book happen, Aspermont teamed up with Future of Mining’s flagship sponsor and mining’s largest OEM, Caterpillar. The company’s subject leaders have also lent their expertise to this publication and for that, we thank them.

I’m sure you will enjoy reading this e-book as much as we have enjoyed compiling it. For more information on the Future of Mining and further articles, visit: www. miningmagazine.com/future-of-mining/ CARLY LEONIDA, EDITOR carly.leonida@miningmagazine.com Twitter: @MM_Ed_Carly

CONTENTS Innovation

Sustainability

What’s impacting productivity in your operation? 2 LNG makes inroads in mining CSIRO team develops breakthrough Here comes the sun battery technology 6 Rio’s autonomy advances Automation up in the air 8 Cooling underground mines with ice

Exploration

Investment

Change management makes automation work Underground direction needs to change Hexagon maintains mining R&D heat Zambian mines opt for solar power

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Breaking new ground in China 10 Digital mapping is here, there – everywhere 16 Frontier search driven by size of the prize 18 New method for copper discovery 21 developed

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What’s impacting productivity in your operation?

As mining companies look for ways to increase the productivity of machines, processes and people, they’re increasingly turning to technology to deliver maximum bang for the buck.

Contributed by Caterpillar Global Mining In today’s mining industry, companies are always on the lookout for new ways to lower costs and improve the bottom line. Over the last several years, mining companies have had to take a closer look at their operations and find ways to work more efficiently in order to keep operations profitable.

One of the most impactful ways to accomplish this goal is to increase the productivity of machines, processes and people. And one of the most impactful ways to address these challenges is the use of technology. Today’s technologies can help mine sites improve equipment utilization, hone operator skills and increase Return on Investment — all key contributors to productivity and profitability.

MAXIMIZING RETURN ON INVESTMENT As the mining industry has discovered in recent years, cyclical does not always mean predictable.

Today’s mines are focused on being lean and pulling more from the same capital resources. Gone are the days of throwing money at a process until productivity increases — an approach that ultimately raises long-term costs. The industry instead is attempting to make existing assets work smarter to reduce overall costs to produce. Every dollar invested must show returns, and those returns are often expected on a short timeframe.

“Large mining companies are shifting their focus to using every asset to its full potential, strategically allocating their capital reserves to maintain investor confidence,” says consultant Randy Schoepke, a consultant in Caterpillar’s Mining Technology Enabled Solutions organization. “There has been significant turnover in the top management of many major mining companies as they restructure to better suit this new approach.”

To get a better picture of the kind of returns customers are expecting to see, Schoepke illustrates a real Caterpillar

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customer’s situation. “We collaborated with a company in Latin America to reduce the cost of drilling operations. Working with both the customer and the local Cat dealer, we helped the site with a trial run of Cat MineStar Terrain for drilling, demonstrating the value of the technology and its impact on productivity,” he says.

During the two-month trial, this site saw a 30 percent increase in machine utilization. “Terrain enabled the drills to operate at night, opening up an entirely new shift,” Schoepke says. “Guidance replaced the need to survey before laying out the drill pattern, previously impossible due to survey restrictions on the night shift.”

Depth accuracy also improved, which resulted in about a 5 percent reduction in cost per hole when combined with the elimination of survey supplies. Other benefits of this system have yet to be quantified: Reduced consumable costs, the effect of improved fragmentation on downstream operations, reduced survey costs and more. In addition, the 30 percent increase in night-time utilization could easily offset the decision to purchase another drill in the future.

Based solely on the initial cost savings, the site determined that the system would pay for itself in just 18 months. “From that point on, everything is direct ongoing cost reduction — and a solid ROI,” says Schoepke, who predicts continued good results as more information becomes available.

INCREASING EQUIPMENT UTILIZATION The efficient use of existing mining equipment can help sites quickly increase productivity and lower costs. The first step in accomplishing that goal is to understand how a machine’s time is used during a shift in order to measure and improve productivity. A time model can help operations better understand the breakdown of effective machine usage and downtime.

Schoepke shares another real example: an underground gold mine in Canada that asked Caterpillar to help them leverage technology to improve equipment utilization and availability. The project quickly identified a few key areas for immediate improvement, such as cycle time, shift change, smoke-out time (the time it takes to get back to work after a blast) and operator-induced maintenance events. “We evaluated their cycles and processes to find areas where cycle times could be reduced,” says Schoepke. The mine is an open stope application, where remote mucking is common and there is a significant amount of time spent transitioning between manned and remote operation in response to unsupported roof conditions at the stope. “We found that by eliminating these transitions, we could improve cycle times by 35 percent.”

Technology also created an opportunity to reduce the amount of time lost to shift change.

Traditionally, shift change was a two-hour transition by the time operators rode the lift to and from the operating level. “We proposed locating the operator on the surface to eliminate the transit time and essentially hot-seat the shift change,” Schoepke says. “So we could easily cut this two-hour time in half while still allowing time for a machine walkaround performed by someone else underground.”

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Future of Mining Relocating the operator would also solve the issue of downtime after blasts. “Downtime due to air quality is not a limitation of the machine, so we proposed putting a machine to work remotely,” Schoepke says. “With no operator present, a machine can enter a blast zone as soon as the dust has settled, cutting that downtime in half.”

The project also found that technology could help this site reduce downtime from operatorinduced maintenance events. “No matter how experienced the operator is, there will be drive-wall impacts and maintenance issues,” says Schoepke. “The customer agreed that we could squeeze out another 10 percent or so because of our exclusive technology, which prevents drive-wall impacts and reduces unplanned downtime.”

The recommended improvements for this site add up to an additional 272 tonnes (300 tons) of material per machine per day in production for this underground gold mine.

Schoepke recalls a similar opportunity with an Australian customer who was also trying to improve the utilization of their hauling fleet. The team used a one-month sample of data to establish a performance baseline. In phase one of the proposed project, the team focused on improving effectiveness of the hauling fleet in operation—without all of the delay time included. Recognizing the opportunity for some quick, easy changes that could significantly improve productivity, the site set a goal of 20 percent above baseline for flat haul/calendar hour improvement.

“There was clearly too much non-productive time in the truck cycle,” says Schoepke. “By focusing on hang time, queuing time and travel-empty time, while increasing travel-loaded time, the team exceeded the goal of 20 percent and brought the maximum improvement to just over 26 percent.”

Once that phase was complete, the team moved on to delay time. Leveling off the first- and lasthour tons by raising then 20 to 50 percent contributed to an overall improvement of an additional 5 percent over the course of the whole shift. “This project is a good example of our customer, our dealer — WesTrac in this case — and Caterpilllar coming together to use change management along with some best practices to smash that 20 percent productivity goal,” says Schoepke. “With active management of situational changes, our customer has shown that not only can they sustain this progress, but also that they can continue to improve their productivity even after our team has left the site.”

HONING OPERATOR SKILLS There’s no argument that data is essential in order to make actionable decisions. In addition to helping sites understand machine performance, that data can also be used to identify when an operator’s performance is impacting the bottom line.

Operator performance is typically measured by evaluating those things that operators have control over, and then providing feedback to help them improve on those activities. Cloud Peak Energy’s Jim Long says his organization typically learns more from a good shift than a poor one.

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“Generally when we have a bad shift it comes from some external source — equipment goes down, weather, things that just aren’t controllable,” says Long, Cloud Peak’s mine monitoring and control manager. “But when you have a good shift, you need to really ask yourself, ‘What was the cause? What was the effect? What did I do right today?’ ” Long stresses the importance of having data in order to identify the need for improvements. “No one likes to hear that they had poor performance, but everybody wants to be a high performer,” he says. “It’s important to share so that they can improve. Sometimes it’s just a training aspect that they need. Other times they just need to increase their performance. But they can’t fix what they don’t know.”

Schoepke says it’s important to remember that performance feedback should never be a strictly negative experience. Data on operator performance will also identify situations when they perform exceptionally well. Sites are encouraged to share this feedback to improve employee morale and drive operators to be even better.

Improving operator performance is a challenge worth tackling, as operators can have a significant impact on throughput. A study on payload to target-payload from an iron ore mine in Australia clearly showed an opportunity for shovel operator training to improve payload accuracy. “The operators were trained on bucket fill and proper use of the available onboard information,” says Schoepke. “Setting up the bucket histogram window gave the operators visibility to the bucket weights against the target weights.”

The results were significant. By simply tightening the payload curve by 6 percent using training and onboard information, the customer was able to move 146 000 additional tonnes (161,000 additional tons) every month. “Having expert operators who have honed their skills means you have more valuable employees who can train other operators and who have credibility with their peers,” says Schoepke.

GATHERING INFORMATION IS JUST THE BEGINNING One of the key things to remember when evaluating operations is the importance of information. “It is difficult to improve what you can’t effectively measure,” says Schoepke. “Data plays a key role in helping us understand everything from performance to utilization to operator skill.”

But data is only part of the solution. “We have many customers who are data-rich and who are struggling to turn that data into meaningful information and insights to make effective decisions. That’s where expertise comes in. By leveraging the knowledge and experience of employees and dealers working in all kinds of applications all over the world, we’re better able to help you use technologies to turn your data into a concrete plan for improvement.”

For more information about mining technologies, visit www.cat.com/mining

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CSIRO team develops breakthrough battery technology The next generation of rechargeable lithium batteries for mining is on the horizon thanks to the humble salt bath Carly Leonida CSIRO scientists, in collaboration with RMIT University and Queensland University of Technology, have demonstrated that pre-treating a battery’s lithium metal electrodes with an electrolyte salt solution extends battery life and increases performance and safety.

The technology has the potential to improve electric vehicle drive range and battery charge to a point where electric vehicles will soon be competitive with traditional petrol vehicles.

Dr Adam Best, senior research scientist and research group leader with CSIRO Manufacturing, told Mining Magazine that the breakthrough could also have significance for the mining industry.

“Mining batteries are typically used in harsh environments, i.e. downhole where temperatures can exceed 100°C,” he said. “This can cause substantial degradation of the device and shortened life.

Moreover, in many instances due to the extreme temperatures used, the batteries are primary cells (they can only be discharged once) and need to be disposed of once used. As such they are generally more expensive. The use of rechargeable batteries is preferred on a cost basis as this reduces wastage.”

The pre-treatment process involves the immersion of lithium metal electrodes in an electrolyte bath containing a mixture of ionic liquids and lithium salts, prior to a battery being assembled.

Lithium is the most electronegative element in the periodic table. In addition, it also has the most energy per unit weight making it the most useful electrode for batteries. However, the electronegativity means that it is extremely reactive with most materials, including standard battery electrolytes like those found in traditional lithium-ion batteries.

IL electrolytes have negative vapour pressure and no boiling point, which reduces the risk of fire and explosion

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These electrolytes breakdown on the surface of the lithium metal, causing a thick insulating layer to form- the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI)- which thickens with both time and cycling.

Best explained: “We have been developing ionic liquids (ILs), or room temperature molten salts for over 10 years now. We have concentrated on these materials since early 2000, and together with our collaborators at Monash University, we identified a class of ionic liquids that showed superior electrochemical stability against lithium metal and forming a stable SEI to support longterm cycling.

“Moreover, ILs have far superior thermal stability and no vapour pressure when compared to standard lithium-ion battery electrolytes. This combination of properties reduces the risk of explosion and fire [a known rechargeable battery issue].

“By completing the pre-treatment process before assembling the battery, we are aiming to reduce the amount of electrolyte that is broken down during charge and discharge, and improve the efficiency and cycle life of the device,” he added.

The room temperature ionic liquid electrolytes developed by CSIRO, RMIT and QUT may hold the key to solving electric vehicle ‘battery range anxiety’

Batteries that have undergone the process can also spend up to one year on the shelf without loss of performance.

Best told MM: “From our work, we have been able to demonstrate >1,000 full charge-discharge cycles using in a lithium metal | LiFePO4 cell. This is well in excess of cells that have not been pretreated or would use standard electrolyte solvents.”

The electrolyte salt solutions, to which CSIRO holds patents, come in a range of chemical compositions which the team said could be easily adopted by manufacturers.

They have also developed a concept for a high-temperature rechargeable battery that allows operation up to 120°C which is specifically aimed at the oil and gas market, but could also find a niche in mining.

“It was originally designed to power downhole robots and could be trickle charged via wireless methods,” explained Best. “It is particularly suited to low power applications such as sensing.”

The team is working on developing a “salt bath” that stabilises lithium metal foils and increases battery life and performance

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The team is currently seeking partners and investment to allow them to scale up the devices and make a number of prototypes to prove the concept in larger cells.

“Once we have properly defined the capability of the device in simulated environments, we would be looking to field trial the technology,” said Best.

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Automation up in the air The use of drones is nothing new for the mining industry. What started out as a military tool has become a popular piece of equipment, seen as a novel way to get photos or videos of remote sites investors can eat up in the comfort of their own office Daniel Gleeson Yet, there has always been more to this technology than marketing. The monitoring and analysis potential of these drones is vast and has provided impressive results in other industries, but so far the mining sector has struggled to leverage it.

Many large and small mining companies have a drone or two, but most of their time is spent in a store room.

Battery and payload changes are carried out automatically on

The equipment itself has come the drone’s landing pad down in upfront cost as drone makers have flooded the market, but the cost associated with employing highly-skilled operators has not. In a climate where every dollar going out of the door is scrutinised, continued use for surveying or monitoring is not justifiable.

“The current situation has been crippling for them [miners],” Yahel Nov, vice president of business development for Airobotics, told Mining Magazine. “You have this tool that is very useful, but using it is cumbersome and expensive.”

Nov and Airobotics, an Israel-based technology outfit, thinks they have changed this with Airobotics’ ‘fully automatic’ drone platform, taking away the need – and cost – to have staff on site that can operate these machines. Led by co-founder Ran Krauss, who has been involved with three drone start-ups including Airobotics, the company is aiming to stand out in the crowded marketplace with its automated offering.

Others have built drones able to integrate different measuring or photographic tools, but none have offered a service that doesn’t require a person along the way, according to Nov. By carrying out a thorough analysis of a mine site, identifying and geo-mapping what equipment or plant a mine general manager wants monitored, plus picking out potential hazard areas, the Airobotics team and gm can build a schedule of tasks running up to a year in advance for the drone or drones to automatically carry out.

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“There isn’t a person that has to physically operate the vehicle. You can pre-schedule a mission and survey a stockpile once a week, once a month, or as regularly as you need. You set it up with this interval and go,” he said.

Even processes like changing the payloads – from a sensor to a digital SLR camera, for example – or replacing batteries are automated through a robotic swapping mechanism on the landing pad.

“We have been working on this for two years, with some 50 engineers and we were lucky enough to have funding support from really forward thinking investors. It is not easy to replicate,” Nov said.

The forward thinking investors include Noam Bardin, the founder of Google’s Waze mapping app, and early-stage venture capital firm BlueRun Ventures. Both have bought into the idea that automating the drones will lead to them becoming a permanent fixture in mines and other industries, carrying out tasks currently performed manually. While volumetric surveys – assessing the size of a stockpile or tailings dam – are Airobotics’ bread and butter, there is much more to the system, according to Nov. “We are a really good survey tool, but there are five other things we can do, too,” he said.

The drones can accommodate other payloads up to 1kg in weight such as LiDAR scanners, thermal inspection video and gas detection tools meaning an entire site and range of processes can be monitored.

This means a drone can carry out a volumetric survey on a heap leach pad for 30 minutes (the maximum flight duration) in the morning, return to the landing pad for a battery change and payload swap, and then fly off to monitor gas levels at a processing plant or analyse a blast plume in the afternoon.

By taking people or expensive monitoring tools out of the equation, a mine site could analyse core processes or equipment more often and improve the site’s overall performance.

And then there are the safety aspects to consider. Not only can you ensure drones avoid particular hazardous areas during scheduled flight, but a planned route can be stopped in the event of an emergency and redeployed to the affected zones, again taking people out of the equation.

“You have the ability in an emergency, before you endanger people, to have a set of eyes in the air to manage the situation within a minute,” Nov said.

The company has not had to wait long to get industry take up.

Israel Chemicals (ICL) ran beta trials to test, refine and optimise the performance of the platform and has committed to using the drones as its exclusive volumetric analysis tool from July, according to Nov. “They weren’t using drones at all,” he said. “What it took them a week to do [in terms of analysis], we can do in half a day now.”

With a unit already in the field operating at a mine site, the rest of the industry will be looking to ICL for a concrete example of how the drone’s use has improved its bottom line.

Only then will they believe drones could become as permanent a fixture on site as the drill rig, the haul truck, or the road grader.

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Change management makes automation work When implementing a game-changer like autonomous haulage, mining companies must understand the investment in time and effort it takes to overcome resistance and realize its full value Contributed by Caterpillar Global Mining There is a natural resistance to change in any form. When it comes to implementing a gamechanging technology like autonomous haulage on an operating mine site, the resistance can at times appear insurmountable. Whether based on real information or misguided preconceptions, it’s essential that mining companies don’t underestimate the effort it will take to overcome this resistance, while clearly recognizing when it’s worth the effort.

These realizations did not happen overnight for sites where autonomous haulage has been implemented. Nor did they happen overnight for manufacturers of autonomous mining equipment.

Caterpillar, for example, began building toward autonomy more than 30 years ago and had a truck operating in the mid-1990s. “Lessons learned during those early years led to the realization that there was much more to be learned — not just about the machines themselves, but about the systems and knowledge that must be in place for a successful implementation,” recalls James Humphrey, a senior mining market professional in the Caterpillar Global Mining organization.

Humphrey, a professional engineer, has over 30 years of worldwide operational and technical experience in the mining industry. His recent work with Caterpillar in the development of an autonomous haulage system led to multiple patents and patent applications.

“Working closely with customers, initiating real-life demonstrations on mine sites, having

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discussions with regulatory agencies and other stakeholders — these and many other activities were necessary before autonomy could be fully and successfully launched,” he says.

After decades of effort, Caterpillar’s first official commercial autonomous mine site went to work in 2011 in Farmington, New Mexico, USA.

ENSURING AUTONOMY IS THE RIGHT SOLUTION While the early days of autonomy were exciting and mining companies and manufacturers were eager to see it come to life in the real world, these pioneers recognized quickly that implementing a technology for technology’s sake should never be a goal.

“We first need to identify a problem and then determine if a technology solution exists to address it,” says Humphrey. “That technology may or not be autonomous haulage. In fact, there are more sites that aren’t candidates for autonomy than there are sites that would benefit from the implementation of this technology.”

There are five key characteristics to look for when determining which sites are the best candidates for autonomous haulage: • Safety. Are there potential safety issues that could be alleviated with autonomy?

• Utilization. Is there an opportunity to eliminate significant delays such as shift changes, lunch breaks, meetings and training, etc., if drivers were not operating the trucks?

• Productivity. Are there efficiencies to be gained with a higher degree of consistent and reliable truck performance, in addition to deployment velocity? Autonomy eliminates driver-influenced inefficiencies such as truck bunching behind an overly cautious driver or dilution caused by loads going to unassigned locations. Additionally, it offers the ability to remove trucks or add them to a circuit and is not dependent of the number of operators who showed up for work that day.

• Remote Regions. Does the logistics of bringing workers to a location where they must be housed, fed, entertained, etc., present a challenge or create significant expense? Autonomy reduces the infrastructure requirements by reducing the number of people required on site.

• People — Skilled Resources. Is it difficult to find skilled people who will be able and willing to handle the challenges and rigor of a mining lifestyle? Autonomy helps reduce the number of people that must be hired.

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Future of Mining MANAGING THE CHANGE Once it is clear that autonomous haulage is the right technology solution, implementation can begin. Humphrey stresses that nothing is more important in this beginning phase than initiating a formal change management process to overcome the resistance that is likely to occur.

Caterpillar experts have identified three areas that when combined can build a case for autonomy that is greater than the resistance to change: • Urgency / Burning Platform. Sites must provide a legitimate reason for the change. What is autonomy and why is it needed? How is it going to help the operation improve safety, increase productivity or overcome challenges?

• Vision. What is the site hoping to achieve by the implementation of autonomy? What is the vision for the operation in the future?

• First Steps. How will the site get started on its autonomy journey? Autonomy can be a monumental undertaking. Can the operation take small steps and build up to the final outcome?

“It’s important to understand that resistance to change comes in two forms: conscious resistance and sub-conscious resistance,” Humphrey explains. “Conscious resistance is based on real information that people have experienced first-hand or learned from sources they trust and respect. Sub-conscious resistance is more difficult to overcome and is rooted in deep beliefs that may not have a legitimate cause. We have to find ways to identify the causes in order to overcome these negative perceptions.”

Whether conscious or sub-conscious, Humphrey shares several concerns that rise to the top when considering potential resistance to autonomous haulage: • Socio-economic. One of the key benefits of autonomy is the ability to improve a site’s productivity with fewer people. A logical question follows: Will the implementation of autonomy put people out of work? If there are fewer people earning an income, how will that affect the local economy? Or does this technology provide opportunity for new or longer-life operations, thereby ensuring more employment for the rest of the mine staff?

• Safety. While safety is a key reason for the implementation of autonomy — keeping workers out of harm’s way — there are concerns that driverless trucks will lead to increased danger on a mine site. It’s one of the most important concerns that employees will have and it’s essential to have the technologies in place and the answers ready to address these questions.

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• Mining Processes. How will autonomy affect the processes currently in place on the mine site?

Will the site adopt existing processes, adapt the ones it currently follows, or create new ones? Will the site replicate or innovate? People comfortable with the status quo may react unfavorably to a change in the way things are done.

• Regulatory. The implementation of autonomous haulage will fall under strict regulations, both internally at the corporate and site levels and through organizations such as the Mine Safety and Health Administration. How will the site adapt to these challenges?

ADOPTING A MULTI-FACETED STRATEGY While each site and its employees will have their own individual concerns and demonstrate their resistance to change in different ways, there are some things that can be done to overcome the resistance and preconceptions that are a barrier to autonomy implementation.

Minimize change. “The goal should be to minimize change whenever possible,” says Humphrey.

Because brownfield mines are the most likely locations for autonomy, the implementation will have to take place within the standard roads and incorporate the different types of loading tools currently being used. Autonomous machines must be able to go into these sites and work with the current equipment and the existing road configuration.

Minimize risk of the investment. Autonomous machines must be designed for autonomy, but also work in a standard mining operation with typical load and dump scenarios. For example, a truck does not need an operator cab when it’s being operated autonomously. However, with the significant investment mining companies make when purchasing a truck, they may want to be able to use that truck with a driver in the future. “Knowing that the machine is not a single-applicationonly vehicle will help alleviate this concern,” Humphrey says.

Introduce in stages. With a staged introduction, participants are brought into the discussion early and the building blocks of autonomy are implemented and successfully used before full autonomy is deployed.

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Be disciplined in mine planning. While it’s important to be able to integrate autonomy into existing operations as seamlessly as possible, autonomy inherently requires more planning discipline than a traditional loading and hauling scenario.

“Autonomous trucks follow the plan you have developed, which is one of their greatest values,” says Humphrey. “However, you have to make sure your plan is a good one. Regimen and discipline are essential in planning autonomy to ensure it is possible to meet production goals today and in the future.”

Provide education, training and experience. Informational sessions and specialized training programs for both hands-on workers as well as those on the periphery of the operation are essential, Humphrey says. ”There’s no such thing as too much information when there is resistance to change, which means communication is key. Personnel need a point of contact — a dedicated, focused resource for answers.” Specialized training programs are also important. Caterpillar, for example, built the first simulator-training-based program to prepare people for autonomous operations.

Ensure compliance with internal policies and agency regulations. “It’s easier to meet these requirements from the beginning than it is to try to adapt to them later on or launch an effort to get the regulations changed,” Humphrey says. “It’s very important to work with regulatory agencies well in advance to ensure a complete understanding and consensus on the interpretation of the requirements.”

Adopt as many current processes as possible. In order to overcome resistance and get the support of personnel, it’s important to adopt as many of the site’s current processes as possible into the new operation. “At the same time, be cautious that the current processes don’t artificially inhibit benefits of the technology. Once workers are comfortable with the changes, it will be easier to transition to new processes that will further improve operations,” he says. “We should always look to the future, allowing the operation to evolve in order to get the complete benefit of the technology.”

GETTING THE RIGHT PEOPLE At the heart of a successful autonomy implementation are the people involved. Change management isn’t for everyone, and champions for the project — who lead by example and reinforce the importance of the strategy — are essential.

“Change is fragile, and if there isn’t someone on site committed to maintaining forward progress, it’s easy for sites to take a step backward,” cautions Humphrey.

“Good champions bring people along through their leadership and continue to be involved. It’s important that these people remain in this role for a long time to ensure good continuity.”

Operators, too, must be exceptional, with broad skills beyond those of a typical operator. In an autonomous operation, they will need the specialized skills to successfully use the autonomous technology while understanding and working toward the mine plan.

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Autonomous operations require a small team, which makes it even more important that personnel are capable of handling a variety of tasks.

“We call these people ‘experienced innovators,’ ” says Humphrey. “They have the knowledge and expertise to evaluate new situations — finding a way to do the right things and the safe things while at the same time being innovative enough to try new ideas and leverage the value of new technologies.”

ENSURING SUCCESS Caterpillar believes implementing a game-changing technology like autonomy on a mine site is a challenge worth tackling, Humphrey says. The benefits in terms of productivity, safety and efficiency can be highly significant in the right application. Recognizing that there will be resistance to the changes required is essential to a successful implementation.

“Don’t underestimate the time and planning that will be required to overcome this resistance,” Humphrey recommends. “Use the tools we’ve identified — such as minimizing change, introducing autonomy in stages, and providing education and training — to improve the results of your change management efforts.

“And perhaps most importantly, choose the right people to manage the change. You need strong, dedicated champions with the right balance of experience and an innovative attitude to successfully lead your autonomy efforts.”

For more about autonomous mining systems and Cat mining technologies, visit www.cat.com/mining

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Underground direction needs to change A step-change in approach is needed to reverse cost escalation in hard-rock underground mines in advanced mining countries such as Australia, where many operators are “mining up to half of their ore just for the experience and not for profit” Richard Roberts Co-founder of leading international mining consultancy AMC Consultants, Peter McCarthy, a veteran mining engineer and principal mining consultant at the firm, observed in AMC’s regular newsletter that extensive research showed unit costs in non-cave underground hardrock mines in Australia had risen much faster than the inflation over the 36 years from 1980 to 2016.

AMC’s analysis using data from 82 mines excluded highCritical juncture ... underground hard-rock mining costs in advanced capacity sublevel and block countries are still tracking the wrong way caving mines. Sites mining less than 250,000 tonnes per annum of ore (using narrow-vein or otherwise more labour intensive extraction methods) had seen average annual cost escalation of A$6.50/t, while those mining more than 250,000tpa (generally using more efficient sublevel open stoping methods) incurred increases of $3/t, per year, on average.

“The difference between the two data sets seems reasonable given the changes in labour costs and mechanisation benefits over that time,” McCarthy said. Costs were “as reported” in monthly operations reports, in the dollars of the day. Corrected for inflation at the Australian CPI, the increases were more like $3.50/t per year for sub-250,000tpa mines and $1.40/t per year for larger operations, expressed in 2016 dollars.

“Thus we can say that underground mining costs in Australia have increased significantly faster than the inflation rate, despite improvements in technology,” McCarthy said. “It is likely that the same would be true for a country such as Canada which has advanced its technology at the same rate.”

AMC’s analysis focussed on tonnes of ore, so the cost equation is not affected by mineral grades.

“If anything I would have expected lower grades to produce more uniform and easier to mine

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orebody shapes, or more tonnes with less effort,” McCarthy told Mining Magazine.

“I think the trend will continue until we get a step change in technology that does away with load- haul- dump machines – which I think means continuous rock cutting in some form.”

While key hard-rock cutting projects involving leading global manufacturers and miners are making sound progress, McCarthy said it was hard to say when they would start usurping traditional mining methods.

“I wish I had a crystal ball,” he said.

“Somehow we will cut hard rock, with picks or cutters or plasma jets or something. Then we can mine much more selectively. The key is selectivity, mining less rock per tonne of metal. Smaller headings, smaller tailings dams and so on. Small, autonomous trucks moving material about in a completely new style of mine design. And belt discriminators that can reject waste by the tonne before it gets into the mill. Even very large orebodies could be mined selectively to reduce the cost per tonne of product.”

Mines in Australia and Canada – where underground extraction will become even more prominent in future – are likely getting some sort of a reprieve at present due to low fuel and other input costs.

Canada, too, has more shaft-access underground mines than Australia. These typically have higher up-front capital costs than decline-access mines, but operating costs can be lower.

“The decline system gives the best NPV where it can be applied, say down to 1200m or so, but it saves capital cost at the expense of higher operating cost for diesel ramp haulage,” McCarthy said.

“Well-organised shaft mines can get their costs right down, despite the lack of versatility, but many shaft mines are not well organised and then the decline mines look good.”

But the biggest problem generally, according to McCarthy, is that a lot of mines are running with cut-off grades that are too low, which means increasing costs eat up the margin on a higher proportion of the material mined.

“Many Australian mines are using a cut-off that is 20% too high and so they are mining up to half of their ore just for the experience and not for profit,” he said.

AMC principal mining engineer Julian Poniewierski addressed this issue in a presentation at the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy’s (AusIMM) recent Project Evaluation conference in Australia. He suggested fixing the cut-off grade addresses the outcome, if not the problem of rising costs.

Unfortunately, many mines still rely on the mechanism of personnel cutbacks – particularly technical and administration staff – as a frontline cost mitigation step.

“This may be a short-term gain but in my experience will lead to a crunch after three to five years of inadequate planning and resourcing,” McCarthy said.

Keeping the best people, but using better systems and technology, seems to be the answer.

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Hexagon maintains mining R&D heat Glenn Wylde, senior executive in Hexagon AB’s mining business, says the Swedish IT company is maintaining research and development spending in mining at above-average levels as it strives to build a competitive edge in the industry’s digital transition era Richard Roberts Quoting Accenture research figures at a recent company event in Tucson, Arizona, Hexagon Mining’s executive vice president, technology and innovation, said more than 90% of 150 mining executives in a survey indicated spending on digital technology was on the rise and a similar proportion believed it was aligned with their goals to achieve satisfactory incremental cost reductions and productivity gains from any technology investment.

“The encouragement is that there are signs that people [in Hexagon Mining will launch version one of its new LIVEterrain product mining] are looking to spend later this year on digital technologies and there are still benefits to be gained,” Wylde said in an interview in Perth, Western Australia, where personnel in Hexagon Mining’s main Australian office are spearheading one of the company’s major new R&D projects.

“They’ve had some production improvements and so forth and now people are trying to reduce cost, but they’re still looking for incremental improvements and they understand that the way to do that is to be able to analyse smaller one percenters that give you that incremental improvement on what you’ve already done.

“And to do that you need to have the information. So what we’ve found is there is a real appetite for the technologies used to gather and collect info, and analyse it.”

Stockholm-listed Hexagon AB is one of the largest global companies in the mining technology market after it acquired mine-planning software firm Minetec, Brazil’s Devex and Switzerland-based SAFEmine, adding them to its significant Leica Geosystems exposure. Natural resources, including mining, accounts for 12% of Hexagon’s EUR3 billion annual sales: EUR180 million, or about US$200 million a year.

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Hexagon spends about 10-12% of annual sales on R&D, but is directing 17-18% of mining sales back into R&D. Wylde says the investment has been consistent since Hexagon built its new mining business platform two years ago.

He was given the job at the recent Minequest event in Tucson of outlining progress on Hexagon Mining’s “digital mine of the future” vision and strategy and said it was well received at the customer-focussed forum. Tucson was the first of a global series of similar customer events.

“Of course the litmus test is when you actually start selling stuff,” Wylde said.

“Last year we saw some good growth in our business. We were up on the year before, despite conditions being tough.

“We’re having some good periods. This [June] quarter has been good. We’ve had a lot of interest around our safety solutions, [particularly] our collision avoidance where we’ve had a couple of key sales recently. I think that area of the market is largely untapped [with] only 10% of mines having some sort of collision avoidance system implemented.

“We see that being a good driver for the rest of this year and into next year as well.”

Wylde ran through a long list of 2016 and 2017 new releases for Hexagon Mining at the Tucson meeting, including operational planning, execution and optimisation products, the company’s information integration blueprint, and enterprise offerings. Looming largest on the horizon, given prevailing market trends and appetite, are LIVEterrain, which leverages the group’s deep geospatial expertise and capability, and the company’s suite of machine guidance and safety products.

“We’re investing in an autonomous roadmap,” Wylde said.

The steps or pieces include ‘reverse guidance’ technology (optimal load and dump location logic and guidance); auto-steering (adds robotic steering to existing equipment but leaves brake and throttle under human control); auto-spotting (adds robotic brake and throttle for complete robotic backing operations); autopilot operation (adds collision avoidance technologies and specialised lane tracking functionality for automated road segment operation); and then the equipmentvendor-agnostic technology suite for fully autonomous haulage fleet operation.

“Our solution is a staged approach where we see operator assist as a key enabling technology,” Wylde said.

“Then we’ll have solutions like vehicle intervention, which is an extension of our safety solution.

At the moment you get an alert, but what if we can automatically stop the truck; brake it, if there’s an impending collision? We’re deep into that project. We have a proof of concept happening with a client right now and will look to release that later in the year.

“Other areas that will come in will be reverse guidance – spotting in under the [shovel bucket] so you’re not always re-spotting, which causes time and money loss; and additional [haulage] lane departure warnings. Our fatigue monitoring system was released earlier this year and this builds on that.

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“All of these technologies can be added to existing equipment and can be used to make improvements while at the same time proving up the case for full autonomous operation.

“The full autonomous solution we see as being vendor independent. So no matter what you’re driving on site we want to make that whole system work.

“The other area that we’re working hard on is our delivery of terrain solutions. We talked about LIVEterrain last year. That project is well underway now and we’re doing all of that development here in Perth and that will be essentially taking the processing and delivery of all your terrain information to an enterprise level.

“Instead of having all your terrain information stuck on a desktop and piecemealing together a number of survey pick-ups, all the processing of data will happen automatically and we’ll be streaming information in from wherever you’re collecting it … for site processing, or cloud processing, and anyone can access that whether they’re in the field on a mobile device, or in the office.

“We see that as a key pillar in developing a product that enables the sort of short-interval control miners need to make better decisions.

“The manufacturing paradigm is definitely still pushing through into mining more and more.

They’ve been able to review performance and compare that to the plan: how well did they execute? But we’re seeing now more and more that they’re going, well, that’s ok but why didn’t I make that change halfway through, or in the day, or in that shift when I could have made that change because something wasn’t working. So they’re looking for more short-term interval control rather than a retrospective on how they went compared to the plan.

“To do that you have to consolidate information … [but] the big difference in mines compared to manufacturing is it’s [mine] changing all the time. The terrain is changing, you’re not where you were yesterday [in the factory]. To make those decisions you need to have those terrain updates.

“So Q4 this year we’ll see version one of the LIVEterrain. And that’s probably going to really change how we deliver our other solutions as well.”

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Zambian mines opt for solar power In recent years, an ongoing drought has caused a severe power crisis in Zambia. New analysis from the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in its role as facilitator of the Project Development Programme (PDP) and THEnergy shows that the framework conditions for investments in solar power have become more attractive Staff reporter The power crisis has caused Zambia to take emergency measures at extremely high costs to close the gap between generation and electricity consumption. The mining industry is by far the biggest consumer of electricity in Zambia and is suffering greatly.

Production is impaired by load shedding and power outages.

Sometimes the only remedy is to use stand-by diesel gensets for baseload electricity generation.

Power from diesel is expensive, and so is grid power for mines. At the Solar panels at a mine in southern Africa beginning of the year, the rates Source: CRONIMET Mining Power Solutions for miners were raised to 10.35US¢/kWh, with further increases expected—this in a country that used to have an abundance of inexpensive electricity from hydropower plants.

According to the report, a sustainable improvement of this situation is not in sight. Some new power plants will be completed in the next few years, but at the same time, the output capacity of Zambian mines is expected to double, as significant investments have been made in past years.

A recent solar tender by Zambia’s Industrial Development Cooperation for two 50MWp solar power plants has caught the attention of the mining industry. The best offer was at US¢6.02/kWh, which is a significantly lower price than Zambia pays for emergency solar power and than mining companies pay for either grid or diesel electricity.

The analysis shows that local solar-diesel hybrid microgrids have become an interesting alternative. “We have also observed in other countries of the region that industrial players, such as

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mining companies, lose large amounts of profit due to an unreliable power supply,” said Tobias Cossen, project manager for Southern Africa at PDP. “In Zambia, the negative effects are twofold: severe production losses and higher electricity costs at the same time.”

This development has driven many mining companies to become more self-sufficient. Zambia has excellent sun irradiation, which has a positive effect on electricity prices from photovoltaic (PV) power plants.

“The recent PV tender comes at the right time,” added Thomas Hillig, founder of consultancy THEnergy. “It shows what development solar energy has made in the past few years; 6.02US¢/kWh is competitive with any kind of conventional energy, especially in a region that suffers from a lack of peak power during the day.”

Decentralised power generation in the form of solar-diesel hybrid microgrids has advantages beyond price. It allows for a robust power supply in off-grid or weak-grid areas, such as Zambia, where the grid sometimes poses severe reliability issues.

In microgrids, solar power, grid electricity and diesel back-up power can be integrated. Typically, solar energy has priority in these power plants, as hardly any direct cost is associated with the operation of a PV system. Mines can invest their own capital or can secure long-term solar power supply through power purchase agreements with investors who build a PV plant and sell the electricity to the mine.

Read the full report http://th-energy.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c721717e3bb57db3022e90d 4c&id=c9df3d6d7f&e=57f34be7b4

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LNG makes inroads in mining Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is an abundant, environmentally friendly alternative fuel. Caterpillar is leading the way in putting it to work on mine sites around the world Contributed by Caterpillar Global Mining

As the industry has developed more economical and efficient methods for its recovery, natural gas has emerged as a cheap, environmentally friendly and abundant alternative to diesel and other fuels in applications across a number of industries. New methods make it possible to access reserves that were previously either impossible or uneconomical to recover, further driving the rise in the use of natural gas. Though the technology behind the large-scale collection, distribution and use of natural gas is in its infancy, there is high demand for advancement in the field.

Industries that demand high-horsepower engine applications, such as mining, rail, marine and power generation, are especially interested in this economically and environmentally viable fuel. For some mining operations, fuel costs alone can account for as much as 40 percent of total operating expenses. Many mining operations stand to save a significant amount of money with the creation of the technology and infrastructure necessary to fully harness the potential of LNG.

ADAPTING MACHINE ENGINES Caterpillar is developing several technologies that will allow the use of LNG-fueled engines in a number of applications. The first is a Dynamic Gas Blending (DGB) engine, which mixes natural gas with air and combines with diesel for combustion. This engine is expected to achieve diesel replacement of around 60 percent with comparable performance to a pure-diesel engine. DGB allows customers to utilize diesel or a combination of diesel and natural gas. This flexibility offers benefits to customers in areas where natural gas supply is not yet reliable.

The second engine under development is a High Pressure Direct Injection (HPDI) engine, which is targeted to the largest Cat Mining Trucks. HPDI injects natural gas directly into the engine, using only a small amount of diesel as an ignition source. Engine test cell evaluations show the HPDI technology is capable of providing greater than 90 percent diesel substitution and lower greenhouse gas emissions — while operating at diesel equivalent performance.

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Caterpillar anticipates that, for many parts of the world, this will provide significant fuel cost savings over diesel, as well as to more sustainable mining operations.

The primary goal of the large mining truck LNG projects is to provide the economic and environmental benefits of LNG without sacrificing the performance and reliability Caterpillar customers have come to expect from these machines. “Natural gas is a clean-burning, economical fuel that is readily available to the majority of our mining customers worldwide,” says Chris Curfman, president of mining sales and support for Caterpillar’s Global Mining organization. “LNG-powered products promise to reduce our customers’ fuel costs. We look forward to being able to offer this option to the global mining community.”

PIONEERING RAIL SOLUTIONS Caterpillar is also pioneering new LNG-based solutions in other industries. Through its rail subsidiaries Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD) and Progress Rail, Caterpillar is developing both DGB and HPDI engines for rail applications. Rail users stand to save a significant amount of money with even a moderate decrease in fuel supply costs.

Billy Ainsworth, CEO of Electro-Motive Diesel, said that EMD is proud to be part of Caterpillar’s efforts to offer alternative fuel to its customers. “We’re not sitting idly,” he says. “We see it as a reality.” According to Ainsworth, Caterpillar is listening closely to customers to deliver the results they demand with their need for fuel efficiency and reduced emissions. The company works closely with industry partners not only to develop technology to use LNG in its machines, but also to build the infrastructure the world needs to make full use of the fuel.

PARTNERING IN DEVELOPMENT In order to help make its LNG projects a reality, Caterpillar has partnered with Westport Innovations, Inc. Westport has led the industry in the development of natural-gas-fired engines for vehicles of every size and application. The agreement between Caterpillar and Westport is focused on engines for mining trucks and locomotives, and leverages the expertise and experience that Westport has gained through its existing natural gas technologies.

“This is a significant opportunity that has the potential to transform important segments of the global off-road equipment industries,” says David Demers, CEO of Westport. “The substantial price difference between natural gas and diesel is resulting in a strong financial incentive to enable off-road applications to take advantage of low natural gas energy costs without sacrificing operational performance. There is also a clear environmental incentive because of the reduced carbon emissions.”

Mining isn’t the only industry taking advantage of natural gas opportunities. Caterpillar sells natural gas powered gen sets of up to 10 megawatts that are being supplied to a Mid-Kansas Electric company within the next year. These gen sets will run on 12 natural-gas-fired Cat generator sets. The oil and gas group has already shipped four DGB kits to companies in Russia and the United States.

Two generators in Arkansas, USA, helped provide the power to drill eight wells in 45 days and is estimated to have saved more than USD$100,000 in fuel costs over that time.

“Our customers want this to be a reality, and we want to bring it to them,” Ainsworth says.

For more about sustainability developments at Caterpillar Global Mining, visit www.cat.com/mining.

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Here comes the sun How Gold Fields teamed with a US-based non-profit to unearth new value Tessa Lee and Dr Tsakani Mthombeni With falling commodity prices and growing challenges to mining’s social license to operate, sustainability and energy security are not always pressing concerns on the minds of mining CEOs. Not so for Gold Fields, an un-hedged, globally diversified gold producer with eight operating mines in Australia, Ghana, Peru, and South Africa. It has a vision to be the “global leader in sustainable gold mining.” It also faces substantial energy risks.

Gold Fields discovered that it was possible to address both The South Deep mine in South Africa faced the greatest energy concerns simultaneously and security risk profitably while working in a first-of-its-kind partnership with Sunshine for Mines—an initiative of the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), which in 2014 merged with the Carbon War Room (CWR), the non-profit founded by Sir Richard Branson and others in 2009.

GOLD FIELDS A Sunshine for Mines team performed a group-wide energy security review of Gold Fields’ portfolio. The review found that the South Deep mine in South Africa faced the greatest energy security risk, and moreover held the most promise for a new source of on-site electricity: renewable energy generated by the sun’s rays.

This insight drove Gold Fields to partner further with Sunshine for Mines in designing an optimised renewable-energy solution for South Deep, and then running a request for proposals (RFP) for a 40MW solar photovoltaic (PV) project.

Seventy-five independent power producers were sent an expression of interest—28 entered the RFP stage; nine ultimately submitted complete and compliant proposals.

Excitingly, some proposals claimed price parity with South African utility Eskom from day one of

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deployment. Most also trended favourably with the anticipated consumer price index over the 25-year term of the power purchase agreement.

Some proposals also suggested that energy storage technologies could be incorporated into renewable generation systems at the same or lower prices than those of diesel generation capacity today. Gold Fields will finalise the selection of the preferred bidder before year end.

FORWARD THINKING Renewable energy offers a strong opportunity for mining firms to reduce power supply risks, increase profitability, and meet the sustainability challenges of the 21st century head on.

With approximately 200GW of solar PV and over 400GW of wind generation currently installed worldwide, renewable energy is a well-proven technology that many of the world’s businesses are pursuing aggressively, and that is technically and economically feasible for deployment at mine sites today.

Even mines that are situated in proximity to a reliable grid may find that renewables offer substantial cost savings; mines that are off-grid or are operating with unreliable grids will likely save even more.

Despite the strong business case for renewables, mines often lack the internal capacity to identify and monetise the opportunity, and they face additional challenges, such as: • Information: there is a lack of awareness of the true opportunity offered by renewables, and a lack of data and case studies on successful renewable projects. There is also a gap between the systems offered by developers, which seek to maximise generation capacity, and the optimised installations needed by mine sites; • Demand: firms often under appreciate the true size of the energy security risk that they are currently exposed to, and many firms’ systems for internal governance and capital allocation make

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renewable deployment difficult. Additionally, renewables represent a change in mindset for mining operations, and are rarely prioritised by firms. • Finance: although renewables would be cost effective for many mine sites today, challenges still exist around how to structure the investment and obtain the upfront capital required for construction; and • Risk and complexity: The great diversity of site-specific factors for mining operations poses a challenge to renewable developers, whereas the long time horizons of renewables investments challenge mining firms with short or uncertain life-of-mine periods. Moreover, mines need integrated, customisable solutions, potentially combining multiple generation technologies, but renewable providers frequently offer only one option. Finally, mines are new to structuring renewable project requests so, thus far, developers have struggled to be certain they can deliver what they bid.

TEAM WORK The Sunshine for Mines team works with mining firms around the world to assess their energy security risks, identify key opportunities for renewables, and cocreate ideal energy solutions. Their goals are to increase awareness of the renewable opportunity across the industry by providing data and case studies of first-movers, and to innovate business models that de-risk renewable investments.

The mining industry has made clear that it needs to see strong data and case studies of success if it is to invest widely in renewables. Sunshine for Mine’s first such partnership, with South Africanbased gold mining firm Gold Fields, surpassed expectations in proving the cost-effectiveness of renewables today, even at grid-connected mine sites.

Tessa Lee is a senior associate at Rocky Mountain Institute-Carbon War Room, and Dr Tsakani Mthombeni is group head of energy and carbon at Gold Fields. See more on Sunshine for Mines https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1kzmfZhzcw

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Rio’s autonomy advances Rio Tinto’s Mine of the Future autonomy programme is picking up pace, reports Michelle Jack Michelle Jack What may once have been science fiction is now business as usual at three Rio Tinto iron ore mines. The group’s Yandicoogina, Hope Downs 4 and Nammuldi mines are the first in the world to move all of their iron ore using fully automated, driverless haulage trucks.

Rio Tinto first introduced the Autonomous Haulage System (AHS) at its iron-ore operations eight years ago as part of its Mine of the Future programme and is now the world’s largest owner and operator of autonomous trucks. The group The group has 71 Autonomous Haulage System trucks across three has 71 AHS trucks in total Pilbara mine sites across three Pilbara iron-ore mines, moving about 20% of the operations’ material.

Rio Tinto was one of the first in the industry to adopt automation, and it is visible across many aspects of its Pilbara operations. In addition to the AHS trucks, the group’s Iron Ore business operates seven fully Autonomous Drill Systems (ADS) to drill production blast holes, and drones are being trialled to measure stockpiles and assist with environmental and maintenance activities.

Some 1,500km away, the Perth Operations Centre acts as the systems’ nerve centre. Here, the centre’s team of around 400 people monitors the business’s entire Pilbara operations in real time – right down to every truck.

Transforming productivity Michael Gollschewski, managing director of Rio Tinto’s Pilbara mines, says technology has transformed productivity at the iron-ore operations and helped the business ride out the highs and lows of the economic cycle.

“Our first mover advantage from developing our Operations Centre in Perth and implementing autonomous technology has been instrumental to our continued success,” Gollschewski told an industry conference in March.

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“Tied in with the other productivity improvements we have made, this technology is game changing.”

Results over the past eight years show the group’s investment in automation has paid off, delivering improvements across safety and productivity, and reducing maintenance costs.

“Autonomous trucks reduce employee exposure to hazards and risks associated with operating heavy equipment, such as fatigue-related incidents, sprains and other soft tissue injuries, and exposure to noise and dust,” says Yandicoogina mining operations manager Josh Bennett.

Rio Tinto’s iron ore operations, Pilbara, Western Australia

And while human drivers require regular breaks, the AHS trucks can run almost 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, stopping only for refuelling and maintenance. Since 2008, the autonomous fleet has outperformed the manned fleet by an average of 14%, and reduced load and haul operating costs by up to 13%.

At the core of the AHS is GPS technology – similar to that used in car navigation systems. The AHS trucks are specially built with advanced computers that perform the normal tasks associated with driving a vehicle, such as starting the engine, accelerating and braking. The computers then respond to GPS directions, supervised remotely by operators, to ensure greater operational safety.

Bennett explains: “What we have done is map out our entire mine and put that into a system, and the system then works out how to manoeuvre the trucks through the mine.”

The trucks are programmed to transport loads as efficiently as possible, and are fitted with proximity detection and collision avoidance systems to identify and avoid hazards.

“There are obvious capital savings, in terms of setting up camps and flying people to site, and there are fewer people so there is less operating cost,” Bennett continues.

The driverless vehicles are designed to deliver their loads more efficiently, minimising delays and reducing costs associated with maintenance, tyre life and fuel consumption.

“One of the advantages we have had with autonomous haulage, particularly in the truck fleet, is we notice we are getting consistency in terms of the way the machines are operating,” he adds.

At Rio Tinto’s West Angelas mine, the world’s first fully ADS drills have completed more than 2.6 million metres since they were introduced in 2009. A key advantage of ADS is in removing drill operators from the mine pit, as well as reducing workers’ exposure to dust, noise and vibration.

From a productivity perspective, the autonomous drills have resulted in 10% less downtime compared with manned drills due to fewer interruptions, such as shift changes.

The way of the future Rio Tinto plans to extend its AHS fleet to other viable Pilbara mines in the future, and continues to review and test new technology, evaluating the cost against potential returns.

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One of the latest innovations is the introduction of RTVis, which works much like ultrasound and delivers real-time 3-D pictures of ore deposits located far beneath the surface.

Combining this technology with the driverless trucks and autonomous drills has led to greater ore recovery and lower costs. This is because it enables more accurate drilling and blasting, reduced explosive use and better waste classification.

As a result the trucks are carrying less waste material and more ore.

While the introduction of automation has seen a reduction in some traditional mining operational roles, it has also created new ones – from pit patrollers who help to manage the trucks in the field, to technical specialists who maintain the systems.

The Perth Operations Centre acts as the systems’ nerve centre

“As we redefine the relationship between person and machine, we also need to create a future workforce quite different than the one we have had previously,” says Andrew Harding, Rio Tinto’s chief executive, Iron Ore. “Some core skills are still required, but with new automation technologies we need to apply them in new and different ways to deliver across our operations. For example, there will be a shift to a new form of highly skilled personnel at the core of our business, often with statistical reasoning as a strong suit.”

Harding says humans will continue to play an important role in the day-to-day running of the Pilbara operations.

“Despite the extraordinary advances in technology, for tasks that are more complex and require a high level of problem solving, we need a human touch,” he concludes.

This article was first published in Rio Tinto’s Mines2Markets publication, issue 09

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Cooling underground mines with ice KTI-Plersch explains the productivity gains of using ice instead of water as a means for cooling underground mines KTI-Plersch The world’s deepest mines are to be found in South Africa.

Faced with the challenge of increasing demand for more ore at a cheaper cost, several mines resorted to ice technologies to manage heat at low mining levels. Modern ice cooling systems enable acceptable working conditions underground, enhance safety with productivity gains and produce spectacular energy savings.

Heat and humidity are a constant issue and limiting factor in underground mines.

Deep into the mine, the virgin South African mines are some of the deepest in the world rock temperature may exceed 60°C (140oF). With the added heat of excavation, working conditions can become critical for miners, with detrimental effects to their health, safety and performance.

The thermal limit for unimpaired cognitive performance underground stands below 28°C wet bulb. Beyond this threshold productivity drops, while injury and heat stroke risks quickly rise.

Hence, cooling plays a major role in the strategy of deep underground mines.

EARLY PLANNING There are significant differences between mines, therefore it is not possible to take a ‘one size fits all’ approach. The best strategy often combines several air and water cooling methods, sometimes both at surface and underground.

Below 1,000m air and water-based cooling methods quickly reach their limit. This is where the ice technology becomes a valid alternative.

As heat loads increase with depth, the heat rejection capacities underground become more limited. The mass flow of water to be introduced from surface to cool deep mines and the associated electricity costs to pump it back, are huge.

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Likewise, cold air circulation is an expensive option. Furthermore, the efficiency of surface chillers is impaired by thermal transfer between the warm surrounding environment to the lower levels (chilled water), and/or by the auto-compression temperature rise (heat gains related to pressure increase as air goes down, according to the Joule-Thomson effect).

Ice is colder than water and conditioned air, and has a far greater mass cooling potential. It falls down the PVC pipe at higher speed (1.2 miles in 90 seconds) and still reaches the different mine levels at 0°C , with minimal heat loss. These unique properties make ice an attractive and energy efficient cooling medium in the global deep mine cooling strategy.

Indeed, once a mine reaches 1,000m depth, the changeover from one strategy to another is not always possible. Early choices may prohibit the use of alternative solutions at a later stage if ice systems have not been envisaged in the general strategy from the very beginning, according to the life expectancy of the mine.

Ice cooling systems Ice cooling is one of the earliest methods of temperature control in underground mines. At the end of the nineteenth century, naturally produced ice blocks were transported in ore cars to cool North American mines.

The rather primitive method was soon superseded with surface water chilling systems, pumping water through the mine. The mass flow of water introduced into the deep mines is huge, and associated electricity costs for pumping up thousands of tonnes of water over thousands of metres on a daily basis is a deterrent.

With the advent of a new generation of modern ice plant cooling systems, the use of these systems was considered again by several African mines. After mixed results with liquid ice, very encouraging results were obtained by the use of solid ice (98% ice mass fraction).

The ice systems: • Significantly lowered the temperatures at the heart of the mine; • Drastically reduced the mass flow of water to be pumped up to surface; • Overcame the limitations of heat rejection underground; • Provided megawatts of refrigeration; • Saved pumping energy; and • Enabled thermal storage.

These benefits stem from the unique physical property of the ice. Furthermore, successful implementation in the field was facilitated by the ability of the refrigeration industry to produce pre-fabricated plants at economical costs that are modern, energy-efficient and reliable.

The main benefit of using ice instead of water is to reduce the mass flow and therefore the volumes of water to be pumped up to the surface after cooling. Ice is pure cooling energy.

Thanks to its capacity to absorb heat as it melts, a given mass of ice provides much more cooling than the same amount of water. While one litre of water absorbs 4kj, one kilogram of ice absorbs 333kj as it melts. Introducing ice in the mine shaft thus enables the reduction of liquid mass to be returned to the surface.

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Another advantage is the reduced heat loss while the cooling medium is traveling from the surface to the stope. Chilled water picks up 5 degrees for every 1km travelled underground, so the water is lukewarm by the time it reaches the low levels.

On the contrary, ice drops down in a few seconds, with only minimal temperature increase (the heat intake is in the range of 10kJ/kg per thousand metres). After thawing, the melt water is still colder than any water introduced from the surface.

SURFACE ICE COOLING In the following example, a 1,200t ice system was installed next to the shaft head at a mine in Free State, South Africa, and commissioned in less than a month.

The property employs 3,800 people and mines to a depth of some 2,400m where the virgin rock temperature can reach up to 50°C. The mine operates three shifts with a permanent presence of hundreds of miners underground at all times who depend on refrigeration. Without proper air-conditioning, it would not be possible to stay underground for long.

KTI-Plersch ice plant at mine

Ice is produced at the surface and introduced into the heart of the mine at a depth of 1,800m to keep a large reserve of cold water at 10°C. This 2,000m³ underground dam enables cooling of the working environment, tools and equipment to under 27°C wet bulb.

By substituting water with ice, the mine could decrease the mass flow sevenfold. The estimated saving exceeds 10MW in pumping power which equates to US$7,000 000 per year.

A typical ice cooling system

The schematic left shows a typical ice cooling system.

The ice made at the surface drops down the shaft to the underground water dam. It cools the water below 10°C, which is then circulated from the dam to the underground working spots.

Mud is settled out of the water at the lowest part of the mine. Warm water is recirculated to the ice water dam where it is re-chilled with new ice

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and recirculated. Excess water is pumped up to be cleaned, re-chilled and re-frozen at surface.

Note that in this project, the ice was not pumped beyond the cold sink. However, if required a blend of ice and water could be mixed in a ‘blender’, with a 20/80% ice-to-water ratio and be pumped further away to the working places.

REVIVING ICE COOLING FOR MINES Ice cooling applications had remained marginal in mines until recently. They had been solely used in ultra-deep mines such as the 4km-deep Mponeng gold mine; the deepest in the world.

In fact, until recently, the construction of such large ice factories was raising acute technical issues. Now, they are much easier to install and operate in a fully automated way.

Large ice factories are now made up of several smaller identical and independent modular ice plants. Each plant has a capacity of roughly 220tn/d (1.2MW). The plants are self-contained in ISO containers. They are weather proof and no building is required.

Thanks to standardisation and down sizing, the length of time taken in erecting and commissioning jumbo ice factories are dramatically shortened. A 220t plant can be commissioned at site in just two weeks. Likewise, each plant can easily be re-located to another location at the end of the project.

These plants operate 24/7 with minimal maintenance. Modern ice plants are optimised to run with high evaporating temperatures that warrant a high coefficient of performance (COP). Each unit of electrical energy consumed generates three times more cooling energy.

As a result, surface ice factories are becoming cheaper to build and operate, while water pumping is becoming more expensive. These technical improvements now make the ice cooling systems economical for mine levels deeper than 1,000m.

See: http://www.kti-plersch.com

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Breaking new ground in China Xinjiang is home to one of the largest coal reserves in China. The Shenhua Group and a new fleet of Caterpillar haul trucks are at the forefront of its development Contributed by Caterpillar Global Mining With the world’s largest population and one of its fastest-growing economies, China needs a massive amount of energy, a good deal of which comes from coal. The country is already a net importer of coal, and by 2015 it expects consumption to reach as much as 3.6 tonnes (4 billion tons) annually.

One of the most important pieces in China’s energy development plan is the autonomous region Xinjiang, which is home to proven coal reserves of 91.4 billion tonnes (100.8 billion tons) — around 10 percent of China’s total coal reserve. The area is currently under extensive development by a number of coal-mining companies, with everything from new mines to rail stations and power plants appearing all over the area in an effort to keep up with demand. The Shenhua Group, the largest coal company in the world, and its fleet of Cat trucks are at the forefront of this development.

Shenhua operates a surface coal mine on the Zhundong coal field in Wucaiwan, Jimusaer County, a 24-kilometer (15-mile) mine site that boasts reserves of 1.5 billion tonnes (1.7 billion tons) of highquality coal. The mine has a planned production capacity of 45 million tonnes (50 million tons) per year, as well as a power station that will be capable of producing as much as 9.34 million kilowatts.

With coal seams just 60 meters (197 feet) below the surface, this coalfield is ideal for extended surface mining.

In addition to providing coal for energy, Shenhua produces large amounts of coal for use by chemical factories around China. The company recently completed a feasibility report for its 3-million-tonne (3.3-million-ton) coal-to-oil project, and is in the planning stages of implementing coal-to-natural-gas projects and other chemical conversions.

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IMPROVING EFFICIENCY The biggest challenge Shenhua faces at the Xinjiang Zhundong coal mine is improving its operating efficiency. A remote, mountainous location and harsh environment where hazards abound drive up operating costs and make it difficult to mine safely and efficiently.

Shenhua is up to the challenge, though. It is committed to developing its surface mine into a modern, efficient large-scale mining base that will become a role model for the industry both in China and around the world. “The coal mine in Wucaiwan is regarded as a role model in Xinjiang’s coal industry because we are the first company in the region to employ equipment and design production processes according to the standards of modern, large-scale coal mines,” mine manager Liu Peng says.

To help in this endeavor, Shenhua partnered with Caterpillar to provide reliable, efficient mining equipment that is helping the company improve its cost per tonne. The most important aspect of Shenhua’s plan to increase efficiency is its dedication to finding the best machine for every application. This commitment led to its decision to become the first company in China to use the 218-tonne (220-ton) Cat 793D mining truck as its main haulage vehicle.

Shenhua also relies on a fleet of Cat support equipment to keep haul roads safe for its four 793D trucks. That fleet includes two 834 wheel dozers, two D10 track-type tractors, one D7G track-type tractor and two 14M motor graders.

The person responsible for repairing and maintaining those roads, as well as training and guiding more than 20 young members of the mechanical engineering team, is Meng Xiangyi. Mine staff know him as Master Meng, and he has more than 25 years of experience operating Cat equipment, including wheel dozers, wheel loaders and off-highway trucks.

“I’m very passionate about Caterpillar,” says Meng. “I have eight Cat operation certificates and have driven loaders, graders, dozers, dump trucks and many others. I can’t imagine how far I have driven Cat machines.”

BUILDING A PARTNERSHIP To ensure that Shenhua has a ready supply of spare parts and access to the maintenance necessary to keep its equipment fleet up and running, Cat dealer China Engineers Limited

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(CEL) has established the largest parts supply center in northwestern China. CEL also sent a 20-person after-sales service team, led by senior engineers, to set up a parts warehouse and maintenance shop at the Wucaiwan coal mine. This team will provide routine maintenance and around-the-clock troubleshooting for Shenhua’s Cat equipment through a Cat dealer Maintenance and Repair Contract (MARC).

The MARC team has already had success in achieving high availability rates from the machines in service, says George Granger, who serves as CEL’s MARC manager for the mine. Once the maintenance facilities are completed, Granger expects the team will be able to implement best practices and provide even higher availability. CEL is also taking steps to support its partner’s efforts to build a pool of highly skilled workers by launching a basic knowledge training course for maintenance staff.

CEL provided experienced teachers and teaching facilities to the Urumqi Coal Mine Technical School. The school is a Shenhua-funded venture that trains local workers in a wide variety of skills and topics related to work in the mining industry. Graduates are free to seek employment with Shenhua or take their talents elsewhere, providing a strong boost to local employment.

“We believe in the quality of Caterpillar, which is what gave us the courage to be the first company in China to buy 793D trucks,” says Liu. “Moreover, we rely on CEL to carry out equipment maintenance and repair. This is what forms a true partnership between our companies. Master Meng understands the importance of good maintenance. “Cat products are reliable and durable,” he says. “They are easy to operate, flexible and seldom break down. As long as you take care of them, they take care of you.”

BRINGING NEW LIFE TO THE REGION The development of the Zhundong mine isn’t just a good thing for China’s energy supply; it’s bringing new life to the region, as well. This project has brought rapid fiscal growth to the area, providing jobs in everything from construction to mining itself.

The influx of workers to the region has also created job opportunities and increased revenue in local tertiary industries, increasing the income of local residents and improving quality of life in Wucaiwan.

In 2011, Shenhua held a “Loving Care Library” donation ceremony in which the company donated 3.5 million books, worth approximately 70 million yuan (US$11 million), to 815 primary and middle schools in Xinjiang. These books benefit a million students throughout the region. Shenhua is also heavily

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invested in developing additional infrastructure for the area. Along with other coal companies operating there, Shenhua was involved in the construction of a coal-dedicated railway that makes it easier for all involved parties to transport their product out of the region.

The company is also in the process of building a pithead power station near the mine that will allow it to use high-voltage lines and send electricity directly to both local communities and locations in central and eastern China. According to Liu, this integrated coal and electricity project will feature the shortest mine-to-power-plant distance anywhere in the country.

“No storage facilities are needed — the coal mine is the warehouse,” explains Liu. “We are also the first in the region to have built a railway transport system on which we can send coal to outside chemical factories.”

The power plant is scheduled for completion in 2013, and construction has brought outside workers and provided opportunities for local labor. This new infrastructure, and the work it takes to build it, has allowed Shenhua to help bring industrialization to the region while supporting its traditional economy.

“We are establishing a close bond between the development of the Zhundong coal power and coal chemical industries and the development of our agricultural economy,” says Zhu Falin, Jimusaer county secretary. “By doing so, we can take a new road to industrialization, pushing forward the integration of urban and rural areas.”

LOOKING AHEAD With its significant reserves and planned capacity, the Shenhua Zhundong coal mine will provide energy and economic growth to both Xinjiang and China as a whole for many years to come.

CEL’s Granger, who has worked in the mining industry in Australia for more than 20 years, believes Shenhua is well-positioned to succeed. “I have spent more than a year on site now, and I have seen the mine’s development taking place,” he says. “I know that Shenhua, with their professional approach and skilled management team, will be a force to be reckoned with in the industry for years to come.”

For more information about Caterpillar Global Mining and Cat Haul Trucks, visit www.cat.com/mining.

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Digital mapping is here, there – everywhere Ron Reid, Harmony Gold group resource geologist in South East Asia, has provided a warts-and-all, real-world view of the value of today’s digital mapping smart-phone Apps, communications, and software to the average (under) active field geologist, wandering around the jungle, looking for signs of that elusive pot of gold Ron Reid, Harmony Gold As all field geos know, the worst part of field mapping is the transcribing of your manually gathered data, faithfully recorded in your field notebooks onto maps and into spreadsheets at the end of the day before you get a chance to asses it. On a recent, and these days rare, trip into the field to conduct some geological and structural mapping I took the opportunity to trial one of the digital geological mapping Apps you can now install on your iPhone or Android device.

For this exercise I settled on Midland Valley’s Field move There is a popular perception that a smart phone needs a phone Clino installed onto my iPhone network to locate itself. Not true 6, although this is just one of a number of apps available and I am sure those in the know will have their own favourite. Clino is a more feature-filled package than some of the others with the ability to load base maps, sketch in polylines and outcrops (unfortunately not available on the Android version), take measurements of all types, review data on the stereonets and map and take notes and annotate geo-located images.

I was somewhat hesitant to rely completely on the iPhone so I did include my field notebook and had my old Brunton clipped to my belt. Probably a sensible precaution as technology always fails at the most inopportune moments, and the field notebook and Brunton (or insert your geological compass preference here) allows you to carry on with your day should your phone pack it in. On this note it is another good habit to download your data to a computer, or up to the cloud (or both), at the end of every day – or even at lunchtime if your phone plan and reception coverage allows it without mortgaging planet Earth.

On this exercise I was working in the jungle, which anyone with experience knows is particularly

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harsh on everything (feet and hands included!), so evening backups were essential.

IT’S A SET-UP

Setting up a new project in Clino was simple and I am sure the same could be said for the various other Apps available. Two things straight up that were important to remember was to ensure the magnetic declination was set and that the GPS locates you in the correct part of the world. I made this mistake playing around and ended up not noticing that the location service was off and my measurements were all on the wrong continent! As part of the set-up you can individualise your location numbers, set the various units and options and basically customise the program. You can also load various maps and plans should you wish but they are required to be in MBTiles format which is not easily generated (unless you have purchased a program with the capabilities of doing so). The default uses Google Maps images/street maps which accomplish the job.

You can also set up your “stratigraphic column” as a set of coloured units/rock-types which you can easily assign when taking your measurements (although I found the knuckle on my little finger had an annoying habit of generating new rock units whilst I took a measurement …).

Collecting the data Data collection was as simple as first ensuring the GPS was active using the GPS activation icon (turning it off between localities is a good idea as it can chew through battery). You then create a new locality, select the measurement type and rock unit, then place the phone on the outcrop and tap the screen.

It seems there is a popular perception that a smart phone needs a phone network to enable it to locate itself. This is not the case and the phone always knows where it is, assuming it is on and has access to satellites. That said, having the GPS active all the time is a battery killer – especially when in mountainous and forested terrain.

If happy with the measurement you select save and then take another. If you are a joint recorder (such as an engineering geologist or someone not dealing with rocks that have been folded, thrusted and folded again) you can take many joint measurements in a very short period of time, all saved into the database and then you can build up a detailed picture of the joint patterns without the significant amount of time required to manually record and then enter all this data.

We are always taught to take 3-4 measurements of a surface (bed, fault, etc) and averaging the result but who can hand on heart say they do this all the time with a straight face?

With this system it is easy to take four measurements from different parts of the surface inside seconds, and a mean plane calculation generated automatically to boot. I took several measurements from a fault plane and then a series of slickenside measurements as well. Look at it all in the stereonet and you have an immediate in-field validation of the accuracy of the measurements and a good handle on the fault movement, something that is easily checked again and understood as you are in the field and on the outcrop, not sitting at a desk wondering if that measurement is correct.

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The ability to add geo-located notes, geo-locate images with notes as descriptions, and add comments to each of the measurements, means you have an ongoing ‘notebook’ with all the required data tagged and collated.

BACK AT THE CAMP Once you have settled back at camp and the Luddites are settling in for several hours of hand entered data you simply connect the phone to the laptop, export the project – both to csv and to Google Earth KMZ for instant gratification – and copy it to your laptop. The data is bundled up into a project folder with separate csv files for the localities, planes, lines, images (including comments), polylines, etc. Further, a new folder drops out containing all your images with file names linked to the image.csv file.

All location data is in WGS84 Lat and Long and WGS84 UTM co-ordinates which makes it easy to plot the data up in your preferred flavour of GIS/GMP/Structural Analysis programme. Line measurements are saved with plunge and plunge azimuth, plane data is plotted as dip and dip azimuth and strike (using the US right-hand rule).

My data below was filtered and brought into Leapfrog Mining where a series of form surfaces were generated detailing the patterns of the folded bedding within the sandstones. That was plotted up using Micromine’s Stereonet functionality to assess the data, all within half an hour of being back in camp.

This gave us a near-instant understanding of the structural geometry and allowed us to build on the model as we went, targeting the next day’s mapping to answer specific questions.

The Google Earth KMZ export contains everything, measurements, images, notes and locations which allows you to immediately view the data, click on the images and recall the notes and commence planning the next day’s traverse using Google Earth This is true ‘smart mapping’.

The ability to view images and notes in Google Earth really assists in the thinking of the day’s traverse and planning the next.

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY Overall I found the ability to rapidly map various datasets, tag photos and add comments a great productivity gain and indispensable in the field.

I started off taking manual measurements with the Brunton and recording them manually but very rapidly found that the accuracy differences were minimal and well within my abilities of taking consistent measurements with the Brunton and the additional time required in taking duplicates with the Brunton was excessive. The notebook very quickly became relegated as somewhere to keep my outcrop sketches with notes recording

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the various aspects of the outcrop and somewhere to sketch out thoughts on the go. Throwing the data into the stereonet in the field was a great validation tool and significantly increased the ability to build the 3D model in my brain as I worked. To be able to be viewing the data in context within minutes of getting back to camp and further building on my model without the endless hours if manually entering data was again a huge boon.

The programme did tend to crash a bit, typically when swapping between map view and the stereonet. But that was not a huge issue given it opened again instantly and no data was lost – the only data consistently lost was when I forgot to click save after taking a measurement.

The main issue around the crashing was that the stereonet by default loads all your localities – which might be several hundred measurements requiring you to manually turn off each measurement one by one. If there is a faster way I could not find it and believe me I looked! The default should be either nothing loaded or the last locality only as it can be a pain ticking off all the measurements.

The GPS is particularly heavy on the battery, not a huge deal if like me your brain overheats by about mid-afternoon and you have to call the day quits as the phone will generally last that long (the iPhone6 I trialled anyway). To last a whole day I found I had to turn the GPS off after completing an outcrop and then switch it on again and wait for it to catch up at every new location.

I only forgot this once or twice and proceeded to record a bunch of measurements at the wrong locality.

If you have spotty phone reception keep the phone in aeroplane mode. The phone will still locate the satellites and place itself but the constant searching for a phone network if you have poor coverage will kill your battery rapidly, combined with the GPS receiver drain and you might be lucky to make mid-day.

This review specifically targets the act of digital mapping rather than the App itself and only covers Midland Valley’s Fieldmove Clino. But other apps available for iPhone and Android include Lambert, GeoID, Rocklogger, PocketTransit, Lister, GeolCompass, and possibly others.

All these come with various price tags and some have “in-App” purchases and you need to be aware of these.

The free version of Clino advises you when you start it up that there is a paid version, and again when you select the stereonet (only available in the paid version), otherwise there are no pop-up adds. A search of either the App store or Google Play for stereonet programs or Geological Mapping apps will show you what is available.

So while I would not advocate leaving the old technology at home, I feel the time has come to leave it clipped to the belt and brought out for specific and targeted checks and as an emergency back-up should the phone die, or run out of juice, or decide a swim is called for.

The future is digital and it just might be time to grab it. *This is an edited version of an article that appeared originally at http://www.orefind.com/blog/

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Frontier search driven by size of the prize Conventional mineral exploration sampling and drilling at the bottom of the ocean can be “crushingly impossible”, says an expert in the field. Regulatory pressures to conform with current resource estimation rules can feel similarly weighty, particularly for small companies. Are the compliance costs then going to seriously impede the rush to open up sub-marine mineral frontiers?

Staff reporter A veteran geoscientist who worked with TSX-listed Nautilus Minerals’ on its journey into uncharted resource-estimation waters at the Solwara 1 multi-metal project in the Bismarck Sea suggests this may not be the case.

Ian Lipton, the qualified person (QP) for Nautilus’ NI 43-101 technical report and mineral resource estimate for Solwara 1 in Papua New Guinea territorial waters when it was issued in 2008, is now principal consultant at AMC Consultants. The original Subsea sampling at Solwara 1 in the Bismarck Sea technical report was compiled when Lipton was with Golder Associates. AMC had its QP imprimatur on this week’s upgraded resource estimate announced by Nautilus for its CCZ (Clarion Clipperton Zone) project in the Central Pacific, south of Hawaii.

The increase in CCZ’s inferred mineral resource base from 410 million tonnes (wet) to 685Mt was combined with the inclusion of 68Mt (wet) in the indicated resource category, and 2.6Mt in measured. “Interest in the exploration and mining of seafloor mineral deposits continues to grow, spurred on by a range of factors including decreasing deposit grades on land and the development of new subsea mining technology,” Lipton says in AMC’s latest client newsletter.

“Leading the race to seabed production is Nautilus Minerals, which announced in September 2015 the start of construction of the production support vessel for its Solwara 1 copper-gold project in the Bismarck Sea.”

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Earlier this year the company’s three seafloor production machines arrived at Port Duqm in Oman for ‘wet’ testing.

“About a third of the world’s seafloor area is covered by Exclusive Economic Zones and other areas of continental shelf that fall under the jurisdiction of individual nations,” Lipton says. “In these areas, the reporting requirements for mineral resources and mineral reserves are set by the laws of the nations within the exploration companies operate and/or the public exchanges on which the companies are listed.”

Lipton says while “a conventional site visit to examine the geology [at projects such as Solwara 1 and CCG] is crushingly impossible … this is not a serious impediment to mineral resource assessment since a well-designed programme will provide extensive sea floor video records, detailed bathymetric data and, probably, data from a range of geophysical sensing methods”.

“Every last drop of information that can be used to support the mineral resource estimate needs to be extracted from these less conventional sources. For example, at Solwara 1, a deepwater electromagnetic survey was used very successfully to map the lateral extents of the massive sulphide deposit; and the distribution of chimneys, mapped by high-resolution bathymetry, was used to identify the main pathways for the mineralising fluids.”

Still, the biggest challenge to seafloor exploration is undoubtedly obtaining sufficient representative samples at ocean depths of 5,000m or more.

Lipton says sampling techniques will vary according to the deposit type. “Loose mineral deposits on the seafloor can be sampled with grab-samplers with opposing jaws or box-corers which penetrate the upper part of the soft substrate under their own weight and have a mechanical plate that rotates and closes the base of the box.

“These tools are used to determine, for example, the abundance [kilograms per square metre] of nickel-copper-manganese nodules or phosphate nodules on the seafloor.

“For deposits with a significant depth extent beneath the seafloor, a variety of coring methods has been developed. Cylindrical gravity corers and piston corers, which penetrate substrate under their own weight, and vibro-corers may be used to sample soft sediments down to tens of metres and may achieve satisfactory recoveries in favourable circumstances.

“For hard rock deposits, such as the volcanic-hosted massive sulphide deposit at Solwara 1, powered rotary drilling is required to cut through the rock. Vessel-mounted drilling systems, derived from oil and gas exploration methods, have been used but are hampered by the hundreds or thousands of metres of drill pipe in the water column and by the difficulty of controlling vessel heave.”

Nautilus has pursued development of diamond core drills that sit on the seafloor and can be remotely positioned, monitored and operated from a ship via an umbilical cable. This type of rig was successfully used to define indicated and inferred mineral resources at Solwara.

Lipton says sample recovery is the key issue.

“All the data required to support the assay data must be collected at the time of drilling. Because

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of the extremely high cost of seafloor drilling programmes, there are no economic options for going back and trying again if the first pass data collection is flawed or incomplete.

“Unlike terrestrial drilling, one can’t simply run out to resurvey the location of a box core sample or redrill a poorly-sampled drill hole.

“Detailed planning of data acquisition programmes is absolutely critical.

“Clearly defined procedures, well-trained staff, rigorous QA/QC procedures, thorough record-keeping, and integrated independent audits help to provide maximum bang for buck and ensure that the best possible data is collected.”

Lipton says survey control for observation points is also a challenge in the deep water environment, and accurately locating the position of a remote sensing device drifting at the end of several thousand metres of cable requires sophisticated equipment and experience.

The International Seabed Authority (ISA) responsible for the administration of seabed exploration and mining rights in international waters had recently issued a standard for the reporting and classification of mineral resources and mineral reserves in such areas.

Director and principal geologist at AMC, Pat Stephenson, past co-chairman of the Committee for Mineral Reserves International Reporting Standards (CRIRSCO), chaired the working group that identified the main items that had to be addressed in an ISA reporting standard, and modified the CRIRSCO template to produce a draft standard for the ISA. Lipton says the standard applies to reporting of estimates that are not intended for public release or for the prime purpose of informing investors or potential investors and their advisors.

“Since the standard is based on the November 2013 edition of the international reporting template of CRIRSCO, it will ensure that private reports lodged with the ISA follow the same guiding principles and use the same definitions as public reports that comply with reporting standards such as CRIRSCO, JORC, NI 43-101, SAMREC, etc,” he says.

“The new ISA reporting standard provides extensive guidelines for the reporting of seafloor mineral resources.

“The over-riding principles of materiality and transparency, and the breadth of information required to be referenced by Enclosure 1 of the reporting standard, mean that investors reading reports prepared under the standard will be provided with a similar level of information to that provided for terrestrial deposits.”

Lipton says while significant challenges remain for those aiming to discover, define and develop mineral deposits on the seafloor, technology is advancing rapidly, “driven by innovative mining and exploration companies with an eye on mineral deposits of exceptional grade and size”.

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New method for copper discovery developed Ben Williamson of the University of Exeter’s Camborne School of Mines, together with Richard Herrington from the Natural History Museum, London, UK, has proposed a new, relatively inexpensive method to explore for porphyry-type copper deposits Staff reporter These deposits provide around 75% of the world’s copper, as well as a significant amount of molybdenum and gold, which makes them extremely important to the world economy. The deposits, which originally form at several kilometres depth below the earth’s surface, above large magma chambers, are relatively rare, particularly the largest deposits that are most economic to mine. In addition, most near-surface deposits Magmatic rock which formed large porphyry deposit in Chile have already been discovered.

Any new method to locate deeper deposits is therefore of great interest to the mining industry.

The project, funded by Anglo American, compared the chemical compositions of minerals from magmatic rocks that host porphyry deposits against those which are barren. A case study was then undertaken of a major new porphyry discovery in Chile to test the theory. Minerals from magmatic rocks which host porphyry deposits have distinctive chemical characteristics that can be used as one of a suite of indicators to home-in on porphyry deposits.

Unravelling the causes of the distinctive chemical signatures has also brought new insights into the formation of porphyry copper deposits, and more generally the generation of the magmatic rocks from which they form, which are an important component of the earth’s crust. The main finding in this regard is that the magma chamber below the porphyry undergoes discrete injections of water-rich melts or watery fluids that enhance the magma’s ability to transfer copper and other metals upwards to form a porphyry copper deposit.

Williamson explained: “This new method will add to the range of tools available to exploration companies to discover new porphyry copper deposits. Our findings also provide important insights into why some magmas are more likely to produce porphyry copper deposits than others, and add to our understanding of how their parent magmatic rocks evolve.”

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