Hi Mining It! The Three Pillars of Productivity? Automation, Equipment and Data.
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On site at Mining IQ and The ASIA Miner’s AusAsia MinTech 2014 conference in Perth, the audience gathered for one breakout interactive session to debate the issue of productivity across three business critical areas: automation, equipment and data analytic s.
After time to discuss, share and benchmark, the PARTICIPANTS shared their insights back with the audience and we've summarised them here for you:
Is big data analytic s the latest disruptive technology/TREND for mining? To what extent is data analytic s being actively embraced by mining to lift productivity rates?
A lot of the systems in the mines are historical and built autonomously and designed to run in a soiled manner. We’re now in the age when ideally we need to bring those different formats of data together and start looking at the analytic s around it, look at what’s happening in the business and make important decisions based on these findings.
The biggest challenge with this integration is the very fact that these systems were built to run autonomously. Therefore any communication between those systems requires first the ability or technology to match up the disparate data sets and develop the BUSINESS CASE for this overarching system.
Finance and operations teams will have a different approach to how this should be done of COURSE, weighing up short term cost against long term operational and financial benefits. Therefore it’s important to decide what your business case is, based on a DRIVER tree and by analysing your business and then developing a strategy based on this. A warning from our attendees though: too much analysis can result in “analysis paralysis”!
Culture is the last piece in the puzzle for the growth of big data analytic s in this sector. The MINING INDUSTRY is built on intuitive people; just a couple of years ago we were driven by volumes, suddenly we've become cost driven and about margins. When this change has occurred in the sector, then inevitably some of the ways the teams have been operating has to change, but this is counter-intuitive to how they've been working for years and can be a challenge to implement.
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How important is automation to mining being able to increase productivity? Is automation alone enough to improve this?
One of the key benefits of automation in mining operations is reduced variability. This is not just the case in fully automated sites (as there are still only a handful of these around the world), but also on sites where automated dispatch has been integrated and production goes up.
Productivity is of COURSE not the only benefit of automation, another significant benefit is that of improvements in safety and moving people out from the pit. When focusing on people, it is right to think about hiring the right people, and training is crucial to making sure the systems are fully utilised.
Again, a warning from our attendees: an initial green light for an automation project doesn't mean it will go ahead!
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Equipment availability and utilisation: what are the best ways of increasing these in order to drive productivity? What are the biggest hindrances?
This group kicked off noting the importance of consideration for both equipment utilisation and then productivity – there can be a difference! They considered productivity as the key driver that will MAKE THE MONEY, prioritised over utilisation.
What is a realistic rate of utilisation of equipment? The agreed benchmark was around 80% availability, but then a very good rate of utilisation on that 80% availability would be 95%.
It is also important of course with major pieces of equipment to consider reliability and availability of all components to work out the overall availability of these pieces.
Using modern technology and GPS based systems can be critical to successful improvement of equipment utilisation.
When you’re talking about your mobile fleet, what is also an absolute fundamental requirement is a good root cause analysis process to identify problems, prevent re occurrence and improve the business that way.
Other tips from the group included that one of the most valuable information tools out there is real-time health monitoring (a Rio Tinto press release last October noted they were saving approximately $53,000 per month using this).
In terms of best value for money, identifying where bottlenecks are came out top.
The consensus was the bottlenecks are quite easy to spot in a refinery, but across an entire mining operation this can be harder. However, it was agreed roughly 70% in a mining operations is loading and hauling, but the first critical point is drilling and blasting.
That might only be 30%, but it’s early on in the production timeline, so any delays here have a massive impact overall.
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Hi THANK YOU!
