NEWSLETTER JUNE 2010 The cost of accidents at an operation If the costs of operational risks were SAFETY AND can be considerable in terms of dimensioned at the planning stage, it equipment damage, lost production would make sense to add in a capital EFFICIENCY and recovery time. and operational cost to install a real time fleet monitoring and positional system. The importance of balancing Planning for safety efficiency and safety aspects In reality, SH&E and economic factors A good safety performance is not managed - it is a consequence of mining operations at the are not opposing forces. At the mine of effective management. planning stage should not be planning and evaluation stage, SH&E aspects are as important as other factors Improving efficiency underestimated. for determining a project’s viability. Improving efficiency on an industry-wide In the international mining environment During the implementation and execution basis becomes an interplay of many large mining entities are competing to of mine operations, SH&E outlay should factors. Key challenges include improving win lucrative global supply contracts, simply be viewed as a necessary cost the competitiveness of the mineral while smaller companies compete of compliance, since the cost of non- resource base itself, gaining administrative in more localised arenas but with compliance in today’s world is too high. and policy backing of the industry, comparatively fewer resources. Both and access to the right technology. situations result in pressure on operations Many opportunities do exist for improving to be more effective and efficient, and SH&E performance. For example, large Investment in training and supporting for the value chain to be technically trucks operate in open pit mines around the human resource which serves the and economically optimised. the world. Many small vehicles are involved mining industry is key to success. in accidents with these bulk carrying The accusation is often made that vehicles. Production losses can amount to People involved at all levels must be economic or production pressures huge sums as a result of such incidents. correctly equipped with respect to compete with the need to work safely. knowledge and skills. Motivated people, Safety, health and environmental (SH&E) This risk could be mitigated by adding an people with a spirit of innovation and aspects are increasingly scrutinised extra access ramp or providing alternative people who are entrepreneurial will ensure by society and by the communities in services for transportation of men and more exploration for mineral riches, which mines operate. Public scrutiny material, something to be considered sound investment, good governance, of the performance of mines is often when planning a potential operation. and a profitable mining industry. a rallying point for interest groups The value of having a good safety and Gys Landman, President Elect and labour organisations. This also Southern African Institute of Mining & Metallurgy has political implications and can put environmental record is not just in its great pressure on governments. ability to appease society; it makes Extract from keynote address at good economic sense as well. Maptek Users Conference, March 2010 ‘IMPROVING EFFICIENCY AND SAFETY, AND HENCE IMPROVING COMPETITIVENESS, IS IN ALMOST ALL RESPECTS A PEOPLE ISSUE.’ Gys Landman, President Elect SAIMM > In this issue Safety and efficiency in mining Introducing Vulcan 8.1 I-Site underground at Argyle Mine One version of the truth Educational partnership I-Site service What are some of the upgrades that PRIMO project, which brings together INTRODUCING customers have helped to drive? companies willing to invest in researching Customers indicated that they wanted to optimisation tools for the underground V ULCAN 8.1 work a lot faster within grade control, and mine environment. These partnerships to interact with elements on screen more help to develop more productive and Eric González, Vulcan Product efficiently. A new toolbar provides quick efficient tools for day-to-day operations. Manager, discusses upcoming single-click access to the tools. The result Explain the new scheduling options? improvements that were directly is a faster grade control process. New scheduler bundles work for open pit requested by customers, as well Ramp design is integral to underground mines which are not necessarily designed as planned upgrades. mine design. Customers reported that or created in Vulcan. Flexible tools can be it would be useful to unfold a ramp. A used with 3rd party data. Using Vulcan How does this release differ from new tool creates a section through a however, you can add more modules - other Vulcan releases? line, which is useful for not only unfolding start with a scheduling application and Using a more agile development has ramps but also other 3D design work. expand to a more feature-rich Vulcan allowed us to add to our planned roadmap configuration. as customer feedback is received. We What else is new? can leave space to be more responsive to New underground grade control tools It also performs as a stand-alone customers’ needs, and are able to work build on the easy workflow of our scheduler - it’s really a comprehensive on upgrades in a shorter time frame. traditional open pit framework. Grade general scheduling package. control engineers or geologists will now Obviously we cannot do that with some of The Short Term Planner works with the be able to apply an automated process the bigger projects which require a longer existing Vulcan MineModeller or equivalent to generate accurate, reliable results for lead time, but we’re very excited about configuration. It follows the Vulcan underground operations. some of the relatively smaller upgrades framework, and uses and outputs Vulcan which will provide value to our users. The stope optimiser is the first tool data for short to medium term planning. arising from Maptek’s involvement in the This is another example of partnering with customers to extend development. tool, which allows users to interact directly with the block model, leads to reduced SHORT TERM with block models to generate the amount data preparation time, allowing users of product required. Multiple variable cut- to focus on the generation of plans and SCHEDULING off grades can be applied, without having analysis of results. to pre-calculate them. The Vulcan Short Term Planner Users can define stockpiles for multiple offers speed, precision and Scheduling of the blocks is accomplished products, modify targets, change cutoffs interactively and quickly across solids, and alter equipment positions easily. It is flexibility at the planning stage, without establishing predefined cutoffs, also possible to configure initial stockpiles delivering productivity increases using linear and radial accumulation and their extraction sequence to simulate never achieved before in the techniques. This accumulation is restricted various scenarios for material rehandling. important task of short and to each period of the plan across the mine and plant targets. It is fully user Reporting is based on spreadsheets medium term planning. configurable. and can be visualised within the Vulcan environment. It is fully integrated with The new decision tool allows users to Restrictions can be applied for capacities, statistics and other Vulcan tools. analyse various scenarios in advance, hours of crushing, product quantity or any and is adaptable to each operation. The variable in the block model which can be Clients using the Vulcan Short Term Vulcan Short Term Planner is a collection accumulated. The fact that it does not Planner include Cía Minera Doña Inés de of scheduling modules. One of these is need predefined cutoffs, and interacts Collahuasi and Minera Esperanza. the Sequence Accumulation Reporting JUNE 2010 2 MAPTEK FORGE Vulcan short term planner focuses on short and medium term planning for generating mine schedules. These images show the blocks programmed by period using radial accumulation plans [left] and the progress by period [right]. Neil Vucak, Argyle’s Surveying Specialist, MOVING involved Maptek in the underground project. Luke Holdcroft, Maptek I-Site UNDERGROUND Consultant, suggested that the I-Site 4400CR could achieve what Argyle AT ARGYLE required in a much quicker time frame. The I-Site laser scanner has I-Site at work provided Argyle Diamond The crusher chamber measures nearly Mine with vital survey data 50m long, 12m wide and about 14m high; survey was required upon completion for underground design. of mining. Three surveyed, standard 01 Located in the East Kimberley region resolution scans were performed from the of Western Australia, the Rio Tinto bottom of the chamber, including one in Argyle Diamond Mine is the world’s the CWA drive, and an unsurveyed scan largest supplier of diamonds, historically from the top of the chamber. accounting for approximately one-quarter A total scanning time of about 30 to of the natural diamond production. 45 minutes allowed other underground As the current open pit approaches the work to be completed, with no time or end of its life, a new underground mine productivity loss. below the open pit is underway, due for Post-processing was quick and easy. A completion in 2013. loop model was generated in less than half To create an economically viable an hour and brought straight into Vulcan, underground mine, Argyle chose the then put in section view and compared to safest and lowest cost underground the design envelope. mining method available. Block caving The speed of the system was the greatest involves undercutting the orebody and benefit to Argyle. An accurate, usable allowing it to break up or ‘cave’ under result was generated quickly and without its own weight, removing the need for impeding any of the normal work flows. 02 blasting. The result was positive, with Argyle Underground project acquiring an accurate model of the The Argyle project requires excavation of crusher chamber that can be compared to several large chambers to construct the the design envelope for determining any underground facilities associated with the problem areas.