Zenith – New Efficiencies Quarry Mine Control
New Efficiencies Quarry Mine Control
In 2009, after being in production for three years, Zenith’s cost per unit metrics were not deemed to be comparable to similar-sized mines using similar mining methods. It was determined that significant improvements in production and costs should be targeted for improvement. Project goals were defined as the reduction of waste and to improve efficiency by 10%. A Value Steam Mapping assessment was completed on both the mine and preventative maintenance cycles to determine areas of inefficiency or Non Value Add (NVA) activities. These included in order of importance areas such as first hour losses, the bolter breaking down at the face, too long being spent waiting for the shotcreting vehicle and too long waiting for the LHD, last hour losses, full skips and others. It was determined that in the mine cycle there was 39% of NVA activities and in the preventative maintenance cycle, 44%. A special project was implemented focussing on equipment availability, which saw the mine cycle reduce NVA by 13% and preventative maintenance by 22%. The company has estimated a three year net benefit of $25 million.
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Also at Zenith, the Mine Control Project Team has just commissioned a new Mine Control System (MCS) at the mine, following four years of intensive research, assessment of current and future needs, and evaluation and selection of various hardware and software components.
Safety was the primary driver behind the effort, and the new MCS offers a new level of support in the task of tracking miners and mobile equipment, while also providing detailed, real-time production data that is vital to maintaining efficient underground operations on a daily basis. One of the major challenges underground is rounding up all employees in an emergency scenario. Prior to the new MCS going live, it could take up to an hour to account for all staff during an evacuation. Now each miner’s location can be seen precisely on a monitor by a dispatch team, and be directed within minutes to the nearest refuge chambers or other evacuation points. Dispatch can then track each miner’s progress towards shelters or exits and send assistance if needed. The MCS personnel tracking component uses a network of exciters
(electronic devices that trigger a wireless transmitter to send a signal) and individual Wi-Fi tags attached to cap lamps or utility belts.
When a miner wearing a tag passes by an exciter at the collar (top of the shaft), they are
automatically “brassed out” by the system. Other exciters distributed throughout the mine help track the miner’s position during the shift prior to their return to the surface where they once again walk past the collar exciter and are brassed back in. While the technology will not completely replace the conventional brass board (retained in case the automated system were to malfunction), it will expedite the verification of who is actually underground.
This could be helpful if a miner forgot to brass in at the end of a shift. Additionally, a remote controlled camera allows dispatch operators to visually verify the brass status of employees.
In operational applications, the MCS has a number of other useful features. It can automatically trigger different kinds of alerts such as those related to machine health and potential person/vehicle or vehicle/vehicle traffic conflicts. It can also be used to collect measurements of diesel particulates and other environmental data, optimise grade control, and feed equipment usage hours data into Mincom Ellipse. Through an interface with Mincom Ellipse or other asset management application, the system would also be able to track a miner’s qualifications for operating various pieces of equipment and could even go as far as disabling a machine should an unqualified person attempt to operate it. Using portable, tablet computers, underground operators can pull up KPIs for their area, feed pre-shift inspection information about their vehicles directly to the shop to optimise preventative maintenance and repair schedules, and receive an updated list of assignments in advance so they will know where to go after completing each task.
Because of the MCS real time data gathering capability, reporting will be more timely and flexible, making it an especially valuable tool for senior managers who may need the latest performance info for executive meetings. They can also have secure, remote access to the MCS from off site. Ultimately, the system could be accessible to the corporate team in Denver.
Formerly there was only one dispatcher per crew. But as the dispatch room has developed into a high-tech mine control centre, additional communication and control personnel have been added. The dispatcher position is transforming into a higher profile function known as mine controller, and those in this position require underground mining as well as computing experience. Using the new MCS, the shift coordinator is able to make impromptu production decisions that deliver desired results more quickly than post-mortem meeting room discussions.
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