WORLD PROSPECTS.
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WORLD PROSPECTS
Redpath breaking records in Ghana
he evolution of the world-renowned
T Obuasi mine in Ghana is continuing,
with Redpath at the forefront. Redpath
Raiseboring Africa, a division of Redpath, is
currently engaged in a project to drill a deep
ventilation shaft as part of the mine’s
expansion.
Production at the historic property started
in 1897 with a brief pause between 2014 and
2019.
The operation is currently undergoing
Phase 3 of a redevelopment plan established
in 2019 to develop the infrastructure needed
to increase production to 6,000 tons per day.
Redpath mobilised to site in August 2022
as part of the new Kwesi Mensah Ventilation
Shaft (KMVS) project, which involves the
excavation of a 941-m-deep ventilation shaft
to a diameter of 6.3-6.5-m.
“The primary purpose of the raise is to
establish a ventilation circuit that will enable
the delivery of fresh air to the mine’s deeper
workings,” Bennie Burger, General Manager
of Redpath Raiseboring Africa, told IM.
Altogether, the project employs 15 crew
members on a continuous rotation basis.
Given the importance of accuracy and
verticality of the raise, Redpath is making use
of Micon’s Rotary Vertical Drilling System
(RVDS), a pre-programmable, self-steering
device for the drilling of vertical holes. Fitted
on a Redbore 90 drill in this specific
application, the RVDS consists of two
modules integrated into the lower part of the
Dingo on leveraging three decades of data
ingo’s offering has evolved over more than
D 30 years from solutions focused on fluid
analysis to a holistic platform in Trakka
that, according to JP Bouchard, Chief Sales
Officer, now consolidates “more disparate asset
health data than anyone else to generate the
most comprehensive maintenance insight and
value for our customers”.
Trakka, at its core, is a cloud-based predictive
maintenance software system designed to house
all asset health data under one roof. The solution
provides operations with the tools, insights and
decision support to run a best-in-class asset
health program, according to the company.
The secret to the company’s success,
Bouchard claims, is a close-knit client
relationship that sees Dingo maintenance and
reliability experts often partially embedded with
client teams. Such close interaction allows Dingo
to capture feedback and continually evolve its
roadmap.
“It is, therefore, actually our clients who led us
6 International Mining | JANUARY 2024
bottom hole assembly between the drill bit
and the first string stabiliser. A read-out unit
consisting of a pressure transducer, an
interface unit and a computer in the driller
cabin complete the system.
“Data from the RVDS tool is transmitted to
the raise drill in real time,” Burger explains.
“This feature allows operators to
continuously monitor the performance and
health of the system to ensure proper tool
function and steering.”
Designed to drill near vertical holes over
large distances, RVDS technology has been
deployed by Redpath Raiseboring Africa in
previous projects across the continent. At
Obuasi, the technology was instrumental in
completing the pilot hole to the client’s
specifications, with a total deviation of only
0.03% (0.2 m) at breakthrough. As part of the
project, the company established a record-
setting run of 691 hours on the system.
to release the Trakka Mobile Inspection App, now
helping clients digitalise 100-plus maintenance
inspections, and to increase the inclusion of
OEM-agnostic onboard data on our platform,” he
said.
For many customers, saving a single
Just over halfway through reaming, the
project has been accident-free from
inception, according to Burger.
“The project has required a robust safety
management system with exceptional
commitment and experience from the team
involved,” he said. “Our core value of ‘Safety
– First, Last and Always’ has been the key
driver of our safety culture.”
Alongside this, Redpath has prioritised
ESG when designing and carrying out the
project.
Redpath Thonket, a joint venture between
Redpath Africa Limited and Thonket Mining
Services, has, since 2019, delivered all
Redpath-associated raiseboring projects in
Ghana. This includes contracts on the Chirano
gold mine, Wassa operation and Ahafo mine.
A local Ghana-based company now owns a
majority stake in Redpath Thonket, ensuring
local communities benefit from employment
opportunities.
“That combination and synergy between
world-class experience and local
knowledge have proven instrumental
in the successful execution of various
projects,” Burger said.
The JV is planning to introduce
smaller raiseboring machines to fast-
track operator training in 2024.
Further, the company has ensured
the water used during piloting
operation is recycled through
specially designed mobile settling
dams. https://redpathmining.com;
www.anglogoldashanti.com
unexpected breakdown yearly for one of their key
pieces of production equipment is enough to
provide a full return on the investment in Trakka,
according to Bouchard.
“We are literally saving our clients millions per
year avoiding equipment breakdowns, extending
component lives, reducing greenhouse gas
emissions and improving fleet availability,” he
said.
In its current iteration, the Trakka platform
automates a significant portion of the analysis,
but what sets Dingo apart is its Condition
Intelligence (CI) team, according to Colin
Donnelly, Director of Customer Success at Dingo.
“Once configured, the Trakka platform sifts
through multiple datasets to quickly filter out
noise,” he explained. “The system then applies
customisable alerts and detailed business rules
to assist our CI team in selectively reviewing only
those results that need human expertise or
experience.”
s
This CI team constantly adapts the system
s
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 WORLD PROSPECTS.qxp_proof 11/12/2023 12:15 Page 2
WORLD PROSPECTS
parameters to each unique operation, with this
ongoing oversight, inclusion of human
experience and constant adaption allowing Dingo
to correctly adapt wear, contaminant, lubricant
and sensor limits to match local environmental
and operational factors. This is something many
analytics-only solutions have struggled to
accommodate, according to Donnelly.
As an example, Trakka recently identified a
LeTourneau L1850 wheel loader showing
abnormal bearing wear. The standard action
would have been to initiate an inspection of the
rod and bearings for excessive crankshaft end
play. Since this represented a difficult and costly
inspection, the CI team instead elected to first
recommend an inspection on the centrifuge filter
assembly – a simpler and less costly inspection
AHS comes to Glencore’s Minera Lomas Bayas
fter launching Lomas Lab on its 25th
A anniversary, Chilean copper mining
company Minera Lomas Bayas says it has
continued to successfully develop this
technology creation initiative aimed at designing,
testing and strengthening the digitisation and
automation of production processes at the
operation, to then export them to other Glencore
sites worldwide. It recently presented the start-
up of one of the most iconic projects of this
innovation centre, the use of autonomous haul
trucks, a major step in the sustainability roadmap
of the company, which intends to position itself
as an industry leader in this category. The
presentation was made after a launch ceremony
during which regional authorities, executives,
employees and others witnessed live the
operation of this new technology for Glencore
and Lomas Bayas. It also marked a major
milestone as it represented the first autonomous
haul trucks for Glencore as a company
worldwide.
This is another important step towards
sustainable development for Lomas Bayas, in
addition to the autonomous drills that are
already remotely-enabled.
The AHS-enabled trucks offer a potential
decrease in fuel consumption of up to 4%, a
lower frequency of safety events given the high
range of sensors in the equipment and the
relocation of personnel to safer areas. The trucks
also operate for longer hours, improving the use
and availability of the truck fleet.
The initial pilot project entails a first stage
involving four Komatsu 930E-5 haul trucks, which
s
will use Komatsu’s FrontRunner system for an
autonomous day and night shift operation in a
circuit of approximately 1 km within an area
segregated from the rest of the conventional
operation. If this pilot testing succeeds, the
8 International Mining | JANUARY 2024
to perform.
“This proved to be the right choice,” Donnelly
said. “In short, our CI team used the data
management tools in Trakka, the operational
context of a specific engine and their own
specific experience to resolve a potential issue
with a relatively simple repair. The engine has
since returned to normal condition with only
minimal downtime impact.”
Craig Banks, Executive VP Americas at Dingo,
says predictive analytics remain very promising
for future Trakka applications, especially with the
ability to merge new data streams with its 30-
plus years of historic machine data.
This is seeing the company applying analytics
and tools like AI and machine learning in areas
where it makes sense to do so.
project will see a gradual increase in the number
of autonomous trucks until the entire fleet of 27
units goes autonomous by 2025.
Pablo Carvallo, General Manager of Lomas
Bayas, highlighted: “We take pride in the launch
of the autonomous trucks, a proposal included in
a path of technological implementations that are
also related to the way we communicate and
reconfigure the working culture.”
He added: “We are promoting mining
innovation at Lomas Bayas. Although we cannot
compete in ore grade, we can compete in the way
we do things, both efficiently and under the wing
of technology. Therefore, we think that we are
driving things from the bottom upwards to
become much more agile in technology testing,
and this implementation is proof of that. It has
taken us half the time it took the rest of the
industry and that is not by chance. That is the
fruits of clear goals, very effective team
connection and a way of working that we hope
will differentiate us.”
Abraham Chahuán, Copper Assets Director –
South America, said: “Our first autonomous
trucks in the region are already operating, and
this marks the completion of the first stage of
this autonomy project, which we have decided as
a Copper Department and Corporation, to then
apply it at all the Glencore assets, so that we can
all share the benefit of what we are currently
testing here.”
He added: “Together with this launch, we are
One example is the development of an
AI-based tool that quickly converts paper-based
inspection forms to digital format on mobile
devices, adding contextual data from inspections
to the Trakka platform in a predictive analytics-
ready format. This is part of a plan to deploy a
brand-new platform starting with its Mobile
Inspection App to enable a “whole suite” of
extended capabilities.
“We’re also actively focused on new ways to
import/export additional sources of maintenance
and reliability data via integrators/APIs,” Banks
said. “Finally, we will soon offer access to our 30-
plus years of historic data as a benchmarking
module where clients will compare their own
fleet performance against their global peers.”
www.dingo.com
implementing other projects such as autonomous
drilling, which is being carried out here at Lomas
Bayas and at other operations, and the idea is to
continue to use our infrastructure and operation
at Lomas Bayas as a laboratory, so that it results
in a technological improvement that Glencore can
leverage worldwide.”
Enrique Caballero, Regional Technology
Transformation Manager at Glencore, said: “We
are a school of learning and technology
development that positions us as exporters of
technologies, methods and models from the
driest desert in the world to many other places
on the planet. The purpose is to help deploy
future projects safely and efficiently at other
Glencore sites worldwide, becoming leaders and
an example of sustainable mining.”
Caballero also highlighted teamwork as a key
pillar to achieve this and the next goals set by
Lomas Bayas: “We must not forget that
everything is part of a perfectly functional and
operational mechanism, of which each of us are
fundamental pieces for the development of
initiatives that position us as leaders in mining.
Today we are carrying out drilling and truck
autonomy systems, anti-collision systems, in
addition to mining electrification, all under
cutting-edge technology and at the forefront of
the needs of modern mining.”
These initiatives constitute a robust and
ambitious business plan that looks forward to
the future and is in line with the evolution of the
industry, the company said.
The Lomas Lab innovation program is now
working on a study for developing power supply
via trolley assist, which has the potential to turn
Lomas Bayas into the first mining company in the
world to operate autonomous trucks under
trolley. www.glencore.cl;
https://mining.komatsu
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