Mining Education and Innovation – Page 16

Despite barriers to adoption, cost pressure driving renewed mining interest in renewable energy – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – October 22, 2015)

October 23, 2015

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Mine operators are in the current subdued economic reality increasingly looking at renewable electricity sources as a way to reduce current and future costs at operations; however, lower commodity prices hinder the widespread adoption of renewables, as falling profits and lower fuel prices maintain certain barriers.

This had resulted in miners shifting their primary motivation for implementing renewable projects to being a financial solution to drive down costs and improve productivity. Previous “softer” motivations involved the improvement of a project’s environmental footprint or satisfying social responsibility commitments, AngloGold Ashanti global VP of energy management and electrical asset integrity Bill Allemon told an audience during the third annual Energy and Mines summit, in which Mining Weekly Online participated.

Speaking during a panel discussion examining energy priorities, timelines and new technologies, he noted that while the company’s activities were mainly focused on the African tropical belt, where hydropower generation was impacted by ten-year drought cycles, the company had highlighted that each cycle was getting worse and more punctuated.

Flinders reseacher’s new material lays waste to mercury pollution (October 20, 2015)

October 23, 2015

http://www.flinders.edu.au/

A brand new, dirt cheap, non-toxic polymer that literally sucks mercury out of water and soil is set to become a game changer in the battle against one of the world’s most reviled pollutants.

The dark red material, developed by Flinders University’s Dr Justin Chalker, is made from the industrial waste products sulphur and limonene and turns bright yellow when it absorbs mercury.

Dr Chalker says the new polymer is cheap to produce due to the global abundance of waste sulphur and limonene. That makes it affordable for use in large-scale environmental clean-ups, to coat water pipes carrying domestic and waste water, and even in removing mercury from large bodies of water.

This has significant implications for human health and wellbeing as mercury exposure – whether through the skin or through ingestion, such as eating contaminated fish, is proven to damage the central nervous system and is particularly dangerous to pregnant women and children.

2 Australian mines are now operating with an all-driverless fleet of trucks – by Matthew Yglesias (Vox Business and Finance – October 19, 2015)

October 20, 2015

http://www.vox.com/

The first big commercial deployment of driverless car technology is coming not in the streets of Silicon Valley but in the arid and sparsely populated Pilbara region of Australia. That’s where the large mining conglomerate Rio Tinto has rolled out fleets of all-driverless trucks at two iron ore mines, according to a report by Jamie Smyth at the Financial Times.

Rio Tinto tells Smyth that the driverless transition has improved performance by 12 percent, mainly by “eliminating required breaks, absenteeism and shift changes.”

GPS guides the trucks and allows them to deliver iron ore 24/7, 365 days a year, without the kinds of breaks and handover periods that human drivers would need. The GPS navigation system is backstopped by a team of human operators working remotely from Perth, hundreds of miles away.

Not only does this reduce the total number of humans who are needed to run the trucking operation, but it eliminates the need to employ those humans in the remote and desolate mining country.

How technology is going to impact on deep level mining in South Africa – by Dr. Declan Vogt (Mineweb.com – October 18, 2015)

October 19, 2015

http://www.mineweb.com/

A Mineweb Op-Ed exclusive by Dr Declan Vogt from the Wits School of Mining Engineering.

Johannesburg: Our deep level gold and platinum mines are in trouble. At today’s prices, most are not profitable. There are many explanations for the high cost: mines are getting deeper, infrastructure is old, and energy and labour costs exceed inflation. Given that we have little control over the price of the commodities, the only solution is improved productivity.

In many other industries, technology has enabled huge strides in productivity. Even in South Africa, almost all underground coal mining is now mechanised. So what about deep-level hard rock?

Technically, our orebodies present a challenge. Both the Witwatersrand and the Bushveld orebodies are hosted in very hard rock – quartzite and shales, or norites and anorthosites. The ore itself is also hard and abrasive, so rock cutting is not economic at present.

Sudbury played key role in [Physics] Nobel prize – by Liam Casey (Canadian Press/Sudbury Star – October 7, 2015)

October 7, 2015

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

A professor emeritus at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont. — the former director of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory in northern Ontario — is a co-winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on tiny particles known as neutrinos.

Arthur McDonald was roused from sleep at about 5 a.m. on Tuesday by a phone call from the Nobel Prize committee telling him the news.

“I was a little surprised,” he said in a telephone interview from Kingston, laughing with joy. “I am overwhelmed, but excited.”

The first thing the 72-year-old did as a Nobel Prize winner was hug his wife. “Thank you,” he told her. McDonald and Japanese scientist Takaaki Kajita were cited for the discovery of neutrino oscillations and their contributions to experiments showing that neutrinos change identities.

“We were also able to determine that neutrinos do have a small mass and that’s something that wasn’t known before and it helps to place neutrinos in the laws of physics at a very fundamental level,” McDonald said.

Mining industry facing major hurdles – by Douglas Morrison (Northern Ontario Business – September 25, 2015)

September 29, 2015

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North.

Douglas Morrison is the President and CEO of the Sudbury-based Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI) and network director, Ultra-Deep Mining Network.

The mining industry, in Canada and elsewhere, is facing major challenges — now brought into sharp focus by weak demand and low prices. But the problems within the mining industry have been developing for some time and it is naive to think that increased metal prices, through increased demand, will solve this. And although ‘cost-cutting’ that most companies are using may limit some damage in the very short term, it will make it all the more difficult to go on to address the real issues — deep-seated issues that have been ignored for too long.

There are essentially five issues the mining industry Canada needs to address: people, mine productivity, environmental performance, exploration, and new mine development. Each of these will be discussed in turn over the next few issues and I believe that collective action by the industry is the only real way forward. But — first things first —people.

The demographics of the mining industry are reaching crisis proportions. For several years, the federal Mining Industry Human Resources Council (MiHR) has issued reports projecting the future demand and supply of every category of employee, highlighting the developing chasm of a shortfall of well over 100,000 over the next 10 years.

Ontario mining state of play – by Douglas Morrison (Northern Ontario Business – August 28, 2015)

September 29, 2015

Douglas Morrison is the President and CEO of the Sudbury-based Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI) and network director, Ultra-Deep Mining Network.

Ontario will have to confront a decline in the mining industry over the next five to 10 years. Major mining operations, such as Kidd Creek in Timmins, will close in five years’ time and there are no major operations of this scale in development, or new deposits of this scale being drilled off.

Moreover, the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) has documented a large decrease in prospecting activity in the province. An operation of the scale of Kidd Creek takes about 10 years to bring into steady-state production — so if we started building one tomorrow, there would still be a production gap of at least five years.

In Ontario we have the largest, most comprehensive and most coherent mining service and supply sector anywhere in the world. This sector of the industry provides three to four jobs for every direct job in active mining operations, but as the total amount of mining production in Ontario decreases, the service and supply sector must contract also.

Sudbury lakes centre developing educational video – by Lindsay Kelly (Northern Ontario Business – September 25, 2015)

September 28, 2015

Sudbury’s Vale Living with Lakes Centre is developing an educational and promotional video designed to share the story of the city’s regreening success.

The story of Sudbury’s regreening, following decades of mining, has long been a shining example of environmental recovery. Now, the Vale Living with Lakes Centre is taking that message into the digital realm with a training and promotional video that will debut next fall.

An initiative led by research scientist Nadia Mykytczuk, the video features a series of vignettes that tell the Sudbury story from the start of the mining era, through the early days of the regreening efforts, and up to today’s advanced science research, and how all of it has helped researchers, miners and the greater community learn from the past.

Mykytczuk noted that the last compendium of the Sudbury story was the Green Book, which was compiled in 1995. But that format is now outdated, and many scientific gains have been made since then, requiring a new way for scientists to inform and engage their audience.

Mining companies must be more efficient, says MD of consulting firm Hatch – by Charlotte Mathews (Business Day Live – September 2015)

September 10, 2015

http://www.bdlive.co.za/

HELSINKI — Financial cost cutting by mining companies is achieving short-term savings but in the long term it is hurting performance, MD of Hatch mining and mineral processing consulting firm Jan Kwak said on Tuesday.

In an interview on the sidelines of the Global Cleantech Summit in Finland on Tuesday, Mr Kwak, whose global company (which operates in Africa as Hatch Goba) specialises in strategic consulting and research, project management and operational support for mining, energy and infrastructure companies, said mining companies should rather be making savings through solutions that deliver sustained output using fewer resources.

The three-day Global Cleantech Summit, which is organised by the Finnish government, brings together about 800 delegates from around the world to discuss issues relevant to “green” technology development, financing and marketing.

Mining companies, squeezed by falling commodities prices, have intensified cost-saving programmes in the past two years, including retrenchments and cutting back on new capital investments. Anglo American has said it will cut about one-third of its global workforce, including through disposals of assets.

PRESS RELEASE: OUTOTEC’S DEWATERING TECHNOLOGY CENTER INAUGURATED IN LAPPEENRANTA, FINLAND

September 10, 2015

SEPTEMBER 8, 2015 – Outotec’s Dewatering Technology Center inaugurated in Lappeenranta, Finland

Outotec has established a Dewatering Technology Center in Lappeenranta, Finland, to further strengthen its position as a leader in dewatering solutions. The center, inaugurated today, is dedicated to developing new products, processes and services for solid-liquid separation and raw material reuse for the entire life cycle of processing plants.

Outotec’s customers are constantly looking for more efficient processes in mineral slurry dewatering, process water reuse and by-product handling in metals and chemical processing as well as in industrial water treatment. Outotec has comprehensive offering for dewatering and strong process understanding in systems integration of relevant unit operations. With the new Dewatering Technology Center, Outotec can simulate and optimize customer processes to integrate them with Outotec technology to capture new levels of efficiency throughout the life cycle of a plant.

“In line with our mission ‘sustainable use of Earth’s natural resources’, we continuously develop new resource-efficient equipment, processes and services for our customers. With the recent acquisition of Kovit Engineering and Outotec’s expansion into tailings management solutions, the new dewatering technology center brings world-class knowledge in the study of tailings dewatering and treatment.

NEWS RELEASE: Ivanhoe Mines, Laurentian University and the University of Limpopo forge educational partnership to provide skills for South Africa’s miners of tomorrow

September 9, 2015September 9, 2015

Representatives of the South African and Canadian governments, Ivanhoe Mines, Ivanplats, Laurentian University (LU) and the University of Limpopo (UL) celebrate the new partnership in mining education at the latter's Turfloop Campus in Polokwane today. (L to R) Vinesh Devchander (Department of Mineral Resources), Dr. Patricia Makhesha (Managing Director, Ivanplats), Dr. Bruce Jago (LU), Michael Langa (MSc candidate), Prof. John Dunlevey (UL), Prof. Mahlo Mokgalong (Vice-Chancellor, UL), Prof. Aifheli Gelebe (UL), Thabiso Makohliso (MSc candidate), Louise Holt (Canadian High Commission) and Jeremy Michaels (Ivanhoe Mines). — Representatives of the South African and Canadian governments, Ivanhoe Mines, Ivanplats, Laurentian University (LU) and the University of Limpopo (UL) celebrate the new partnership in mining education at the latter’s Turfloop Campus in Polokwane today. (L to R) Vinesh Devchander (Department of Mineral Resources), Dr. Patricia Makhesha (Managing Director, Ivanplats), Dr. Bruce Jago (LU), Michael Langa (MSc candidate), Prof. John Dunlevey (UL), Prof. Mahlo Mokgalong (Vice-Chancellor, UL), Prof. Aifheli Gelebe (UL), Thabiso Makohliso (MSc candidate), Louise Holt (Canadian High Commission) and Jeremy Michaels (Ivanhoe Mines).

www.ivanhoemines.com

POLOKWANE, SOUTH AFRICA – September 9, 2015 – Ivanhoe Mines Limited (TSX: IVN), the University of Limpopo in South Africa and Laurentian University in Canada signed an agreement today officially launching an educational collaboration between the two universities. The collaboration, initiated and sponsored by Ivanhoe’s South African subsidiary, Ivanplats, was celebrated at a signing ceremony on the University of Limpopo campus attended by officials from Laurentian University, the University of Limpopo, Ivanhoe and the South African and Canadian governments.

A principal goal of the five-year partnership, which is renewable for a further five years, is to develop and equip the University of Limpopo’s geology department to become a centre of excellence in geosciences. This will be achieved through measures that include:

• improved training and curriculum choices in economic geology and mineral exploration at the University of Limpopo;
• increased teaching and research capacities at the graduate student level;
• equipping laboratories;
• purchasing an outdoor vehicle and trailer for field excursions; and
• collaborating with Laurentian University to improve the University of Limpopo’s learning programmes.

Mining automation: The be all and end all? – by Cole Latimer (Australian Mining – September 8, 2015)

September 8, 2015

http://www.miningaustralia.com.au/

The fully automated mine has long since passed the days of concept and evolved into a reality. If the industry is to survive and grow, on this planet and elsewhere, total automation of many of the processes is the way forward.

According to professor of mining engineering at the University of British Columbia, John Meech, autonomous vehicle operations can help increase productivity by between 15 to 20 per cent, and truck uptimes by up to a fifth, with Rio Tinto automated fleets recording a 12 per cent production increase compared to manned vehicles.

Rio Tinto, BHP, Roy Hill, and Fortescue are making massive strides forward in implementing autonomous haulage systems in the Pilbara, forging a new place for the technology, combining them with manned operations; particularly in terms of Rio’s Mine of the Future program and BHP’s automated operations centre, both located in Perth.

Hitachi is also trialling its autonomous vehicle systems at the Meandu coal mine in Queensland.

Total automation has also taken another angle with Vale, in Brazil, looking to go completely truckless by using mobile conveyor belts.

Sudbury group to build the ‘mine of the future’ – by Staff (Sudbury Star – August 28, 2015)

August 28, 2015

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

NORCAT has announced new strategic partnerships with four local companies to help expedite the agency’s vision of building the “mine of the future” in Northern Ontario.

Equipment World, Fuller Industrial, Spectrum Group and K4 Integration will provide the NORCAT Underground Centre with state-of-the-art technology to not only advance the facility, but also to demonstrate leading innovation available to the global mining industry.

“The NORCAT Underground Centre is a unique facility,” Don Duval, the CEO of NORCAT, said in a release. “We’re the only non-profit organization in the world that has an operating mine that provides both start-up tech ventures and multi-national companies the resources, expertise and equipment to enable them to design, test and ultimately showcase new and innovative products in an operating mine environment.”

Fuller Industrial, which delivers and maintains process piping systems and corrosion, and abrasion resistance, will provide the Underground Centre with best-in-class engineered piping for high compression air and water.

[Sudbury, Canada] From barren rock to lush forests – by Norm Tollinsky (Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal – September 2015)

August 24, 2015

This article was originally published in the September 2015 issue of Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal.

Restoring the Sudbury Basin to its original state

Delegates to the 6th Mining and Environment International Conference in Sudbury June 20 to 25 received an update on the Sudbury Regreening Program and were able to see for themselves the steady progress the city has made in reversing the devastating effects of early mining activity in the region.

For the first few decades of the program, regreening activity focused on the liming of barren lands, seeding them with a grass and legume mixture and planting a limited variety of trees.

However, a major rethink and broadening of the program was triggered by the release of the Sudbury Soil Study’s ecological risk assessment in 2009, noted Stephen Monet, manager of environmental planning initiatives for the City of Greater Sudbury.

“The ecological risk assessment basically told us that we still had a lot of work to do and that there were still a lot of biologically impoverished areas. That led Vale, Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations and the City to move forward with a Biodiversity Action Plan.”

Mine of the future will be digital – by Anine Vermeulen (MiningWeekly.com – August 21, 2015)

August 21, 2015

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Over the next five years, the mining industry needs to work towards an understanding of what the industry will be like 50 years from now, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) School of Mining Professor of mine surveying Fred Cawood tells Mining Weekly.

He notes that, regardless of the mining methods applied in future, one thing is certain – the mine of the future will be digital.

“The Wits digital mine has four phases and focusses on building a mine mock-up for teaching, learning and research; developing a smart mine laboratory hosting digital technologies inside the mock mine; monitoring an underground environment for improved mine design and processes; and integrating a digital mine into a digital city and communities.”

Cawood points out that although projects covering all phases have been implemented, only the first phase has been completed, with the second phase at an advanced stage. “Phases three and four are mostly conceptual and depend on further funding.”