UNDERGROUND MINING TRANSPORT

We consider innovaons in underground mining transport globally and how these innovaons can help keep mineworkers safe. The transportaon of bulk and non-bulk materials in the mining industry is a complex task. Increasing customer demand for efficiency requires that transportaon becomes more accurate, flexible, and faster than ever before. And, not only are mining companies having to overcome the challenges these demands bring, but they are being forced to do so while keeping costs to a minimum.

The benefits of automaon

Mining companies around the world are either using or considering using automated mining technologies. De Beers Finsch's diamond mine in the Northern Cape, South Africa; Codelco's El Teniente copper mine in Chile; and Rio Tinto's West Angelas mine in the Pilbara region, Australia, are among the first underground mines to adopt automated haulage and transport systems. BHP Billiton has also started experimenng with driverless trucks and an automated remote operang centre for its iron ore operaons in the Pilbara region of Australia. Vale has elected to make its Carajas Serra Sul S11D iron ore mine automated and completely truckless. Rio Tinto has announced that it will deploy the world's biggest underground automaon system for block caving operaons at the Argyle underground diamond mine.

Close encounters

Collisions between pieces of machinery or between machinery and people are a common cause of accidents in both underground and open-pit mines. Proximity detecon technology can be installed on mobile machinery to detect the presence of workers or machinery within a certain distance of the machine, thus helping to prevent accidents. The US' Naonal Instute for Occupaonal Safety and Health (NIOSH) has developed an acve proximity warning system, called the Hazardous Area Signalling and Ranging Device (HASARD). It warns workers by means of visual, audible and vibratory indicators that they are approaching dangerous areas around heavy mining equipment. Equipment giant Caterpillar has also developed detecon technology called Cat Detect Personnel, which features as one of the five sub-modules of its integrated mining management suite, Cat MineStar. The technology involves radio frequency idenficaon (RFID) tags to be worn by workers, with the detectors mounted across the machines to warn operators via audio and visual indicaons of possible collisions, speeding or rollovers. All these innovaons are helping to make the mining industry and mineworkers safer.

Innovaons down under

Australia is one of the world's biggest mining countries, and their rate of innovaon in mining transport and logiscs has steadily grown over the past decade as companies address producvity, complexity, and capital-efficiency challenges. This is according to a white paper wrien by Dr Simon Dunstall, a senior research scienst at the Commonwealth Scienfic and Industrial Research Organisaon (CSIRO). According to the white paper, in Australia and other countries, the research and development (R&D) response to these innovaons has rampedup to suit – especially in sensing, automaon, analycs, simulaon, and opmisaon. Simulaon models would be familiar to many people involved in planning mining developments and supply chains. Most Australian ports, for example, have at least one simulaon model for generang insights into future port expansions and operang procedure changes. Similarly, the transport systems leading to these ports have been intensively studied using simulaon to explore capacity quesons in recent years. Simulaon has an enormous benefit of enabling planners to observe a system before it is (expensively) built or modified – hence it is a widely used technique. Automaon for underground and above ground haul trucks provides opportunies for increased safety, as well as higher material haulage rates per vehicle. For logiscs and producon in minerals supply chains, the development of ICT, automaon and decision-support technology is being acvely and rigorously progressed by various research and commercial organisaons around the world. The connued engagement of this R&D (especially in Australia where it is a parcular focus area) by a good cross-secon of the mining industry, can drive ongoing and lasng producvity gains to help keep mining industries around the world compeve. It will also bolster the state of underground transport in other countries, which in turn lowers the risk of injury and fatalies underground.