The team at Gekko Systems released the next-generation Mark 6 Carbon Scout. The Carbon Scout is a self-contained, ground-level sampling system that measures the pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), slurry density and gold concentration in carbon-in-leach (CIL) and carbon-in-pulp (CIP) circuits.

An important new feature is the optional X-ray fluorescence (XRF) to measure gold on carbon for real-time gold circuit inventory.

The self-contained device collects slurry samples from CIL or CIP tanks to determine the concentration of the activated carbon in the pulp for each tank, to an accuracy of ±0.5 grams of carbon per litre of pulp. The concentration levels are then used to automate carbon movement to optimize the carbon distribution.

The Carbon Scout benefits sites by providing real-time data, which allows operators to significantly reduce soluble gold loss from the circuit by providing advanced measurements ahead of any unwanted excursions.

The Carbon Scout also allows for automation of the carbon movement, minimizing exposure to hydrogen cyanide gas and reducing the need for manual handling of samples.

Constructed from stainless steel, the system enhances operator efficiency by removing the need to undertake time consuming manual sampling and provides a single point sampling station to improve accuracy and increase safety. The automation of carbon movement increases the efficiency of the process, ensures carbon inventory set points are achieved and reduces the need for operator, metallurgist, and other processing staff input.

Learn more about the Carbon Scout and Gekko’s other innovative technologies at www.GekkoS.com.

As the coal mining industry in Indonesia seeks increased output, the need for quality workforce development tools has also increased. A holistic solution was needed to develop competent heavy equipment operators with a high awareness of safety, productivity and machine care. That demand was answered by the PRO5 advanced equipment simulator from Immersive Technologies.

Launched at MINExpo 2021, the PRO5 advanced equipment simulator set a new benchmark in realism, reliability and training value for operator training technology. PT Putra Perkasa Abadi (PPA) became the first company in Indonesia to incorporate the new technology by acquiring the first two out of four platforms ordered by PPA; these two simulators were commissioned in the PPA office at the PT Multi Harapan Utama mine site.

Equipped with a professional grade visual system, the PRO5 is the first mining simulator to combine stereoscopic 3D, a one-piece curved display, photo-realistic graphics and RealView head tracking technology. The PRO5 delivers realism at a level not previously seen by the mining industry. These advancements help new and experienced mining equipment operators develop competencies at a rapid pace, while maintaining high levels of learning retention.

The speed of growth requires an investment in the workforce and training tools to become more effective and efficient and to prepare personnel to become mine-ready. This year, PPA is targeting an additional 100 million bank cubic yards (bcy) above last year’s 267 million bcy. In order to achieve this target, an additional 3,200 to 3,500 operators are needed. They also need an additional 1,500 to 2,000 mechanics.

PPA is targeting an addition of 150 million bcy next year. To meet the target, the company needs more or less 6,000 mechanics and operators ready to work.

For more information, visit www.ImmersiveTechnologies.com.

Optimizing the productivity of mine sites while reducing costs, resource use and environmental footprint has long been the primary goal of FLSmidth. With the launch of PerformanceIQ Services, FLSmidth now promises to supercharge mine performance through a full flowsheet approach to optimization based on equipment knowledge, process expertise and digital solutions.

PerformanceIQ Services focuses on brownfield mining operations to detect performance gaps and identify and prioritize solutions that enhance operational efficiency. Working in partnership with customers, local FLSmidth experts provide defined improvement targets and suggest the most impactful actions an operation can take, given their specific production goals, challenges and mine characteristics.

The performance data of equipment and technology is monitored, adjusted and enhanced on a continual basis with the goal of achieving measurable, sustainable productivity improvements, such as the reduction of unscheduled downtime and more efficient use of energy and water.

The concept is straightforward and designed for fast and long-lasting results. After the initial scoping and onboarding phase, FLSmidth and the customer move to a cycle of analysis, value proposition, implementation and evaluation. Over time, this process of continuous step-by-step improvement provides the foundation to move beyond current objectives to support scalable, sustainable productivity and growth. All of this is underpinned by FLSmidth’s pit-to-plant portfolio of leading digital solutions that connect, monitor and optimize processes.

As part of one of the three pilot programs underway, FLSmidth was asked by a copper producer to evaluate the performance of its concentrator and suggest ways to increase recovery of copper fines, increase recovery of molybdenum fines, and improve water recovery. Through PerformanceIQ analysis, several improvements were identified that, combined, would result in a 9% improvement in copper and 2% improvement in molybdenum fines recovery, as well as a 1% improvement in water recovery.

“Real, tangible benefits come with a full flowsheet approach to optimization and through close work and partnership with our customers on site. This is how PerformanceIQ Services really delivers. Our experts bring local knowledge, process knowhow and experience and combine this with digital solutions that monitor, analyze and improve the performance of mine operations. It is an exciting proposition because we see a lot of improvements, both short-term and long-term that will be gamechangers for productivity, sustainability and our customers’ bottom lines,” says Joshua Meyer, service business line president.

For more information, visit www.flsmidth.com.

Metso Outotec will be supplying a high-capacity direct blister furnace to Kamoa Copper’s  copper mining complex expansion in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The 500,000 t/y copper throughput furnace will have the largest licensed flash smelting capacity in the world. The scope also includes safety and monitoring automation systems for the furnace. The value of this type of sale is typically between $40 million to $60 million.

“Non-ferrous metals play a key role in the green transition, and a major increase in global copper production is required to support this transition. We are pleased to support Kamoa Copper in their ambitious expansion project, in which high capacity and reliable, sustainable processes play a vital role. Our collaboration has been excellent throughout the initial stages of the process, including the initial study work, basic engineering as well as pilot testing,” Jyrki Makkonen, VP smelting at Metso Outotec said in a release.

For more information visit www.MOGroup.com.

The leading innovator of conveyor technologies, Martin Engineering, has a factory-direct replacement program to deliver polyurethane cleaner blades for conveyor belts. Custom-fitted on-site and installed free of charge, customers pay only for the replacement blades.

The program assures customers of accurately sized and professionally installed replacement blades that are matched to their specific application, providing optimum cleaning performance and service life to minimize the cost of ownership.

Manufactured in-house for the highest quality assurance, Martin’s replacement blades are made with specially formulated, colour-coded urethane to suit virtually any application. The blades have up to 53% more urethane in the wearable area than competitive designs, extending equipment life and durability as well as reducing operating costs.

To achieve consistent cleaning throughout all stages of blade life, Martin’s patented constant angle radial pressure (CARP) technology incorporates a specially engineered curved blade to maintain optimum cleaning performance and efficiency.

Martin is the only belt cleaner supplier that has designed its own equipment to manufacture molded blades. This innovative system maximizes quality control and eliminates shipping and labour costs by having the new blades delivered and installed direct from the factory.

The need for conveyor belt cleaning is well established, delivering long-term benefits in both safety and production. Excessive dust and spillage can foul rolling components and cause abrasion on the belt, reducing the life of equipment by as much as 30%. The belt is typically the most expensive piece of equipment on a conveyor, so not removing carry-back at the discharge will contribute to premature belt failure.

Martin also offers the N2 remote monitoring system to track tension and wear on all cleaners without having to physically visit the equipment. Customers have immediate access to details on the mounting assembly, tensioner and blade wear, along with total annual cost information for budgeting purposes. The intuitive system notifies technicians and plant operations personnel before re-tensioning or replacement is required and/or when abnormal conditions occur.  This critical intelligence reduces the need to expose personnel to moving conveyors, improving both efficiency and safety while lowering costs. It allows service personnel to deliver and install replacement wear parts during scheduled outages.

Martin offers the components and monitoring service free of charge for qualifying customers. The factory-direct replacement program is just one element of the company’s decades-long push to develop new and evolving technologies, improve bulk material handling efficiency and reduce safety hazards.

Learn more about cost-effective conveyor operation at www.Martin-Eng.com.

In what is believed to be a world-first, RCT, together with equipment manufacturer Rham Equipment, has deployed a fully autonomous battery-electric Rham loader into the African mining sector.

This technological feat saw RCT work with Rham to specifically engineer the automated loader to effortlessly work in height-restricted drives in a South African platinum mining operation.

RCT’s market-leading ControlMaster® automation technology was integrated with the Rham ultra-low profile (ULP) 25HD battery-electric loader with the package installed at Rham’s factory, prior to the loader’s deployment to the site.

This project showcases ControlMaster as a proven interoperable automation platform that can be integrated across any mobile equipment make, type or model, RCT said.

With the technology established on site, the loader operators are able to manage LHD operations from the safety of a ControlMaster Automation Centre on the mine’s surface.

In addition to this, RCT interfaced with the Rham dash display and replicated it on the Automation Centre, to provide the operator with important machine health information.

The project also includes the implementation of RCT Connect, a specialised underground communications network designed to enhance autonomous fleet operations.

Rham Managing Director, Kevin Reynders, said: “This joint venture project has run effortlessly creating safer machines for our miners.

“Rham Equipment, a Level 3 B-BBEE South African, (Pty) Limited Company, has been producing specialised mining equipment since 1980. The company has been providing the South African mining industry with quality products and top-of-the-range services for the past four decades.”

Reynders added: “The product range includes underground transporters, excavators, LHDs, dump trucks, roof bolters and conveyor drives, to name but a few. To date, Rham Equipment has supplied over 2,000 units to some of the most prominent South African platinum, gold- and coal mines who we count amongst our customer portfolios.”

RCT Business Development Manager for Africa, Mike Thomas, said the project represented an important milestone on many fronts.

“ControlMaster has an extensive history integrating with diesel powered equipment, but this project proves that the technology can interface seamlessly with battery-electric mobile machines.

“Battery-electric equipment fleets can significantly reduce a mining operation’s carbon footprint while eliminating the costs associated with diesel consumption, so we expect to see a greater uptake of the technology around the world. The technology will relocate the machine operators to a safe working area on the mine’s surface while enabling optimised autonomous machine operations.”

“A cornerstone of ControlMaster is its ability to integrate with any machine and this project proves that our technology can interface with Rham’s loader, which is an entirely new machine for us.”

RCT’s technical team will empower mine site personnel with comprehensive training and technical support to operate and maintain the equipment going forward, it said.

The company concluded: “The project demonstrates RCT’s automation technology can successfully integrate with battery-electric mining equipment and is an important step toward delivering an autonomous, carbon-friendly mining fleet of the future.”

Chatham Rock Phosphate Limited (CRP) has announced that it has taken another step forward in bringing its Korella North rock phosphate mine into operation. CRP has contracted with leading Australian civil and mining contracting firm NRW Holdings Ltd for its wholly owned subsidiary Golding Contractors to provide mining services for the development of the Korella North Mine.

CRP, through its Australian company Korella Fertilizers, has since earlier this year been discussing with Golding the provision of mining and exploration services in the development of its Korella North, Korella Central and Korella South phosphate projects located adjacent to Phosphate Hill, in North-West Queensland.

Under the agreement Golding will provide mining services to facilitate the granting of a mining lease at Korella North (EMP 28589) and statutory services in the exploration of Korella South (EMP28187).

The Chatham Rock Phosphate Limited mining services agreement adds to several contract wins announced by Golding over the past year including a five-year contract extension at the Phosphate Hill Mine, Queensland, Australia, to extend the Golding operations out to September 2026; a contract extension at the Curragh Coal Mine in central Queensland, Australia, out to December 2026; a five & half year contract extension at the Baralaba North Mine central Queensland, Australia; and a A$52 million rail civil construction package and a A$15 million bulk earthworks, drainage and roadworks package for the Olive Downs Mine in the Bowen Basin, Queensland, Australia.

Korella Fertilizers is a Cloncurry, NW Queensland based operation for international phosphate company Chatham Rock Phosphate Ltd. With its Korella phosphate sourced south of Cloncurry at Phosphate Hill, Korella Fertilizers is establishing a distribution hub and a MCP manufacturing plant in Cloncurry to service its rural customer base, especially those in northern Australia. In parallel the company is working on plans for a 2 Mt/y bulk phosphate rail loading facility at Korella North, Phosphate Hill and a 5Mtpa ship-loader in the Port of Townsville.

Anglo American says it has sourced the supply of 100% renewable electricity for its operations in Australia from 2025, agreeing terms for a 10-year partnership with Stanwell Corporation, the
Queensland Government-owned provider of electricity and energy solutions.

The deal will effectively remove all Scope 2 emissions from Anglo American’s steelmaking coal business in Australia from 2025, supporting Anglo American’s progress towards carbon-neutral operations by 2040, it said.

Dan van der Westhuizen, CEO of Anglo American in Australia, said: “Sourcing 100% renewables supply from Stanwell Corporation, linked to two major wind and solar projects in Queensland, is
a big step towards our target of carbon-neutral operations in Australia – and globally – by 2040. We are committed to playing our part to help combat climate change, including accelerating a number of technologies to abate our on-site emissions, from electrifying our truck fleet and other mobile equipment to capturing the methane from our steelmaking coal seams.

“I am delighted that we are able to support Stanwell Corporation in its investment in 650 MW of renewables capacity for Queensland. Today’s deal brings significant environmental benefits
and is net present value-positive compared with our current energy mix, while underwriting a large investment in renewable energy generation for Queensland.”

Anik Michaud, Anglo American’s Group Director of Corporate Relations and Sustainable Impact, said: “Combined with the agreements we already have in place for all our South America operations, from 2025 we expect to be drawing 60% of our global electricity requirements from renewable sources, transforming our Scope 2 emissions profile. We are committed to producing the metals and minerals that we need to mitigate the extent of global warming in the most responsible and sustainable way.”

The partnership between Anglo American and Stanwell underwrites investment in the two major Queensland renewable energy projects – Clarke Creek Wind Farm in Central Queensland and
Blue Grass Solar Farm near Chinchilla, Anglo American says.

GroundProbe has announced plans to build a second dedicated manufacturing facility in Tucson, Arizona, USA, marking a new chapter in its commitment to better serve its customers in the Northern hemisphere.

The expansion of GroundProbe’s manufacturing capabilities comes following significant growth in recent years.

Announcing its plans at the recent International Slope Stability Symposium in Arizona, GroundProbe CEO, David Noon, said the new facility will open its doors in early 2023.

“As our global footprint and customer base continues to grow, so too does the volume and variety of products that we produce,” he said. “We saw it as an absolute necessity to bolster our offering and extend our manufacturing capability from Asia Pacific to the Americas.

“It means that, from early 2023, we will be able to more readily deploy our safety-critical systems – systems that are integral to their ongoing operations and productivity – to our Northern hemisphere customers.”

GroundProbe, which currently manufactures its products in Australia, says it is widely accepted as the global leader in real-time technologies that detect instabilities and predict when mine and dam collapses will occur.

The addition of a second manufacturing facility signifies an important step for GroundProbe’s future growth, especially for North and South America, for GroundProbe’s Chief Commercial Officer and VP Americas, Ben Moke.

“When scouting locations for a second site, Tucson quickly became the preferred location,” Moke said. “It’s central to our customers, and it’s close to a number of geotechnical consulting firms and university partners, including the Geotechnical Center of Excellence at the University of Arizona.

“It’s going to be fantastic to have a facility where the geotechnical community can experience our state-of-the-art technology being manufactured and deployed to mine sites across the Americas. With a track record that speaks for itself, GroundProbe’s technologies are the industry’s most robust and reliable, having never failed to detect a collapse.

“The second facility will manufacture every one of our products to the same level of quality that we are known for and that is expected of us as market leaders.”

3D-P says it has been selected by Navajo Transitional Energy Company (NTEC)’s Spring Creek Mine in Big Horn County, Montana to deploy, support, and monitor a state-of-the-art wireless network at the world class thermal coal operation. “Our client is utilising our unique Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) offering, giving them access to the safety and productivity advantages of an industrial network without the upfront costs.”

Spring Creek Mine began coal shipments in 1980 with a permitted mining capacity of 36 Mt/y. Current mining involves a single coal seam 80-ft thick. Mining is carried out primarily by dragline operations, with truck/shovel operations utilised to move coal. Spring Creek has been consistently exporting coal to Asia since 2002. The mine currently produces about 15 Mt/y.

For this project, 3D-P is deploying the network infrastructure and providing the client device, which in this case is its ruggedised Hybrid LTE/InstaMesh® Osprey, a variant of its Intelligent Endpoint (IEP) data radio. “This LTE/InstaMesh® combination allows for critical connectivity, extending the coverage and performance of the network by fully leveraging the benefits of a true meshing solution.”

Additionally, this project allows the mine to utilise LTE technology in the future as the Osprey roams seamlessly from LTE to Wi-Fi/mesh. “This IEP is a critical component of our Network Performance Analysis Toolkit (NPAT), allowing us to monitor the network to ensure high performance, throughput and uptime. Our NaaS solution delivers the level of wireless network performance our clients need to achieve their production objectives, effectively providing them with a state-of-the-art network that is affordable and within budget.”