Optimising production potential through mining automation
Mining automation is one example of a technological advancement which is becoming a major interest to mining companies, particularly, when the economic climate drives the focus towards maximising the efficiency of operations. Mine automation can optimise efficiency and increase production while reducing costs and improving the safety of the mine.
MICROMINE’s Pitram is a fully configurable fleet management solution that captures, monitors and reports on mining operations. Pitram’s mining automation capabilities include equipment, safety, monitoring and management, contributing to Pitram’s position as a market leader.
Increasing site communication capabilities
Automated data capture enables mining operations to increase operational efficiency and quality of data captured. Pitram captures data in real time, greatly reducing call volumes across the radio by transmitting data over the mine’s communication network.
Pitram’s open-pit automation capabilities also extend to the machine guidance module. The module has been designed to improve the productivity, utilisation, accuracy and also enables safe work practices. Pitram has partnered with North American company, Carlson Software, to further enhance tracking of the mining operation through the use of high precision capabilities. One such benefit is a warning alarm that alerts machine operators when they load an invalid material from a loading zone.
Mining automation: safety first
Additional safety measures are available such as an alarm system that will alert when a machine breaches the exclusion radius or if the machine leaves a safe work boundary. The GPS locations in Pitram also assist with maintaining a safe working environment by providing warnings to operators in regards to machine speed, proximity to a dangerous situation or if materials are dumped in the wrong location.
Underground mines benefit also from Pitram’s mining automation capabilities such as through the controlled area management module. This module allows control room operators to define safety parameters for areas considered dangerous or hazardous. This can include the maximum number of personnel allowed within the area, a maximum duration within the area or if there are any special personal protective equipment (PPE) requirements. Activities in, and movements through the controlled area are logged. If the maximum number of personnel or duration within the area are exceeded, the control room is alerted, allowing appropriate action to be taken to ensure a dangerous situation is avoided. The module also has the capability to monitor off-site work and areas where radio coverage is irregular, ensuring that personnel are able to be monitored for additional safety.
Recommendations in efficiency
In order to ensure the optimum usage of your surface equipment, Pitram’s surface optimiser module automatically calculates the most efficient allocation based on real-time positions by utilising the Pitram Mobile devices installed in the machine’s cabin. The control room operators are able to establish priorities for the shift which is then fed into an algorithm that takes into account fleet size, load times and current GPS positions to provide the optimum allocation of equipment to tasks. The control room software provides recommendations to alter the path or tasks of equipment to ensure maximum efficiency, by automatically dispatching direct to the Mobile units.
Pitram is also able to monitor planned work via the shift planner module that divides work into smaller tasks that can be scheduled and allocated in real-time. The Pitram mobile tablet in each operator cabin tracks the progress of a task and relays information to the control room. If a task is at risk of delay, supervisors are provided with a graph displaying the effect of the delay on the shift and are able to be reschedule or reallocate tasks to ensure that the operation maintains optimum efficiency.
Selecting your software
The benefits of utilising mining automation software like Pitram across your mining operations makes it a must have for mining operations wanting to operate as efficiently as possible.
Further reading
> Learn more about mining automation with Pitram.
