TMCnet News
How to build and operate mines in Ontario [Engineering and Mining Journal](Engineering and Mining Journal Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Sudbury lakes the lead in developing technologies of the future. If Toronto is considered the mining finance capital of the world, the small northern On tario town of Sudbury is its service and supply counterpart. Sudbury and its surrounds are home to more than 1,000 mining supply and service companies worth an estimated $5.6 billion to Ontario's economy. The sec tor employs more than 25,000 people. These numbers may be surprising given Sudbury's relative insulation from the global stage. The service and supply sector has long benefitted from the presence of major nickel and base metal mines in the region, and most of their business is done with Vale and Glencore Xstrata. Yet the volatility in nickel prices over the past few years has demonstrated the need for these companies to export their services and expertise to the global marketplace. Efficient material haulage Sudbury-based Rematech Industries designs and maintains conveyor belts for underground mines. The company worked on the Nickel Rim conveyor system, where they helped to design a 1,700-foot flex belt that lasted the life of mine and was since adopted by Vale and Glencore Xstrata. "On a cost per ton basis, there is nothing that beats a conveyor belt," said Rematech's vice president, Ivo Beljo. "It can move more than any other equipment and it is a one time capital cost. Our customers are starting to look at new types of conveyors, for instance more vertical ones, so we are noticing evolution in the equipment and increased demand." While conveyor belts are the standard form of material haulage, Sudbury's RailVeyor Technologies Global Inc. believes it has developed a superior system that runs 24/7 based on rail technology. The Rail Veyor system only uses power when the train is inside or in the vicinity of a drive station along the route. "We believe Rail- Veyor is more than 50% more efficient than a heavy haul truck system in terms of energy usage and maintenance and 20% more efficient than a conveyor system," said Ronald Russ, Rail-Veyor's president, CEO. CFO and treasurer. While propulsion systems are present in most underground and open pit operations, trucks are still needed to move people and materials. Underground mining operations are closed environments with dark, wet and abrasive conditions that can impact the life span of a tire. "Over the years bias ply tires have dominated the market, because of their characteristics that withstand the abrasive conditions underground," explained Gary Foley, director, corporate sales at Fountain Tire. "The downside with bias ply tires is heat generation, which is an enemy to any tire whether it is open pit or underground." Accessing places where humans can't go Penguin Automated Systems Inc. was founded by Dr. Greg Baiden, who was formerly responsible for corporate mining research at Inco, now Vale. His work at Penguin ASI involves developing remote-controlled technology to access areas that are unsafe for humans. Penguin recently received a CAD$1 million grant from the federal government to develop a new robotic system that will be able to enter confined spaces to load explosives for remote detonation. Minewise Technology Ltd. has developed a progressive scanning technique that allows for detailed surveys of vertical raises or shafts up to 1,250 m. The device captures 360° radial scans every 8 cm and utilizes an Integrated fiber optic gyro to preserve the azimuth of the scanner at all times. The data can be directly imported into the mine's 3D coordinates. "This 'scanning during decent' approach eliminates the shadowing of data typical of stationary scanning technologies." said Everett Henderson, Minewise Technology's technical manager. Using a pan-tilt-zoom high-resolution color camera, companies can inspect bore holes, raises, ore passes or cage compartments that are inaccessible for personnel. Making underground mines safer for workers A number of companies in northern Ontario are looking at ways to improve air quality in underground mines through systems that monitor dust loading, airflow temperature and relative humidity for worker heat stress. Maestro Mine Ventilation developed a system called Vigilante AQS(TM) for Air Quality System) that measures different parameters such as dust loading on haulage ramps and gas detection technology. Mine managers are then able to access that data in real time. "There has been a lot of attention recently on diesel particulate matter (DPM), which has been deemed as a carcinogenic by the World Health Organization, and silicosis that is prevalent in coal mining and many drill and blast mines," said Michael Gribbons, vice president, sales and marketing at Mae stro Mine Ventilation. The tightening of ventilation regulations is encouraging companies to look at what they can do to make their underground systems more efficient. Schauenburg Industries Ltd. is a North Bay-based manufacturer of ventilation ducting systems. Its managing director, Don Croteau, has noticed a trend over the past few years of mining companies taking an increased interest in their ventilation costs. "They have started to realize that it is not just blowing the air. but the power around the fan, the cost of the fans, and the cost of the ducting, especially with the prices of energy increasing," said Croteau. In an underground setting, the ability to communicate between mine workers both below and above ground is essential to ensuring the health and safety of employees. Becker Varis is a company that provides voice, video and data communication systems to underground mines using a mine's leaky feeder system. "A leaky feeder system acts as a communication medium; we can put Ethernet points anywhere along the mine," said Albert Bower, managing director at Becker Vans. "Leaky feeder systems became the primary media of communication when mining at large saw a boom and required reliable and cost effective communication underground." Sudbury's equipment manufacturers are also innovating in the types of materi als used in an underground setting. Rez plast Manufacturing Ltd., a manufacturer of safety showers and toilets for underground mines, uses fire resistant resin instead of plastic, which can be extremely flammable. Next step: exporting outside of Ontario A significant portion of Sudbury service and supply companies still relies on Vale and Glencore Xstrata for their revenue. A company in Sudbury only dealing with Sudbury clients is dependent on the price of nickel, as Jon Baird, managing director of the Canadian Association of Mining Equipment and Services for Export stated. "Even those companies that work with gold companies in Timmins make a huge difference to their revenue base diversification is the key to success," he said. The lack of customer diversification is a significant barrier to the industry's growth. Organizations like the Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Service Association are making it a priority to help its members increase their global presence, "SAMSSA's role is to stick to its mandate of helping business become intelligent: our job is to tell people that there are new opportunities available," said Dick DeStefano, SAMSSA's executive director. According to a recent report by Export Development Canada, Ontario's export sector is expected to grow thanks to a weaker Canadian dollar and rising demand from the United States. The industrial machinery market is also expected to see strong growth of 7% this year and 13% next year. Regionally. South America is the largest export market for Canadian mining equipment, followed by the USA. "There is also a lot of potential in Africa, and Australia has been a historical market tor Canadian suppliers," said Baird. "More difficult but noteworthy markets are China and Russia, which have stronger domestic services but rely on Canadian expertise." Rematech's vice president Ivo Beljo agrees that the sector needs to start looking at exporting its products to diversity its revenue base. "Many companies here were family run businesses and felt no need to talk about their work or expand outside of the local spectrum. Times are changing now, though, and many of us are able to spread our wings beyond Sudbury's borders," he said. Manufacturing and distributing heavy equipment Ontario manufacturers and distributors of heavy equipment are facing major challenges in the mining sector, not the least of which is increased competition for cus tomers. Manufacturing of any sort in Ontario comes with high costs for labor and energy, putting pressure on internal profit margins. For companies to prosper, they must figure out a way to design equipment to suit the evolving trends of the mining industry. Safety is the most integral component in the design process of heavy mining equipment. In Ontario, where underground mines run over 2 km deep, this is even more prevalent. MacLean Engineering's Series 900 Scissor Bolter was designed with this in mind. "Due to the fact that the ore bodies in the Canadian Shield are some of the deepest in the world and are mined with bigger openings headings at depth, safety was our primary concern when designing the unit." said Don MacLean, founder and chairman of MacLean Engineering. In 2011, the company delivered its 300th unit to Goldcorp's Musselwhite mine in Ontario. MacLean sees equipment becoming bigger and more powerful as underground mines must become more productive. "Whereas 15-ton trucks used to be the norm, now we are seeing 60 tonners as the norm," he said. "At the same time, speed is of the essence as the distances from the shaft or surface to the workplace are getting longer. We adjust our product development based on the needs of our customers, who are now telling us that they want to increase the amount of mt moved per shift and in doing so will need our utility vehicles to service larger openings." B&D Manufacturing Inc. out of Sudbury focuses on truck and shovel maintenance. "B&D Manufacturing was founded in 1980 by two young entrepreneurs who invented a portable align boring machine." said Andre Ruest, general manager of B&D Manufacturing. "Before then, underground mining equipment had to be disassembled, brought to surface and transported to an outside machine shop for repairs. With our flagship Portable Align Boring Machine, technicians do maintenance work right onsite, reducing downtime and associated costs, and eliminating safety concerns." Another trend that is appearing in equipment manufacturing is energy efficiency, specifically as a result of higher fuel costs and the need to reduce emissions at site. An Ontario-based manufacturer, Industrial Fabrication Inc., just released its Minecat UT150-eMV, the industry's first purpose-built electric vehicle for hard rock mining. "The Minecat EDS (Electric Drive System) consists of a PMAC brushless traction motor for superior efficiency," said Daryl Rautiainen, Industrial Fabrication's vice president. The battery pack uses environmentally friendly Lithium Ion Phosphate cells that are 100% recyclable. For Strongco Corp., a Toronto-based distributor of surface mining equipment, telematics, or the ability to track the equipment in real time, is the biggest trend right now in the heavy equipment sector. The company is the largest Volvo equipment dealer in North America. "Every Volvo machine we buy now comes with a Care-Track system that can feed maintenance and product information to us," said Bob Dryburgh, Strongco's president and CEO. "Strongco can utilize this information to be able to inform our customers how the machine is running and when it might need maintenance." "Even though Ontario has high-quality manufacturing, the industry needs to work on promoting our products to compete internationally." said Ricky Lemieux, president of Sudbury-based Rock-Tech Ltd., a manufacturer of equipment for underground mining applications. Drilling for dimes Few would disagree that the companies worst hit by the commodity price downturn are drilling contractors. With exploration having declined considerably in Ontario since 2012, very few rigs are turning and the competition for new contracts is fierce. If and when drilling activity picks up, drilling contractors have had to slash their prices so low that it will be a long time before profits return to healthy levels. Drillers have to remain focused on what they can control. For Orbit Garant Drilling Inc., this means investing in new computerized drilling technology that could save junior companies hundreds of thousands of dollars once exploration activity rebounds. The technology has achieved more than 30% greater productivity compared to conventional drilling and has reduced the duration of some customers' drilling programs by up to 50%, according to Alain Laplante, CFO of Orbit Garant. "In turn, this increased efficiency means that far fewer consumables are being used and rig components are lasting longer. Another benefit is that our customers can monitor our progress, view core samples, and access detailed performance reports on demand. all via the internet." Shaft sinking in Ontario Shaft sinking is the most technically challenging aspects of underground mine development, and Ontario is home to two of the deepest mines in the world: Glencore Xstrata's Kidd Creek and Vale's Creighton. Build ing a shaft at such depths which guaranties the safety of workers requires a creative approach. DMC Mining Services, a contractor based in Toronto, has been tasked with sinking the shaft at KGHM's Victoria nickel mine in Sudbury. At its deepest point, the Victoria project ore body is located nearly 2,600 m underground. The depth and nature of the rock stressing presents a significant challenge. "DMC will sink one exploration shaft to 1,000 m to better understand the grades and concentration of minerals," said Bill Shaver, president and CEO of DMC. "From there, the mine will be developed at 1,200 mt/day. The long-term expectation is that the second shaft will be sunk relatively adjacent and it will go down to 2,200 m." Unsurprisingly, Ontario contractors have developed a number of innovative technolo gies that have been exported to other parts of the world. "DMC is the first contractor to use our patented Long Round Jumbo tech nology in shaft sinking where we were blasting rounds up to 5 m long; it was employed at Falcon bridge's Craig mine in the 1990s," said DMC's Shaver. "Today, we are sinking two shafts in Saskatchewan for BHP Billiton using shaft boring roadheader (SBR) for the first time anywhere in the world." DMC is hoping that this SBR technology will be able to go nearly twice as fast as actual technology. "Shafts are usually sunk at the rate of 3 m/day. This would be a tremendous leap in shaft sinking, because the speed of sinking has not changed significantly in the past thirty years," said Shaver. Challenges in Ontario are not always related to the depth of the ore body. In reviving the former Totten Nickel mine, Cementation Canada Inc. was faced with the task of dewatering the historical shaft. The company was contracted to determine whether to build a new access point or use the existing one. "Vale chose to upgrade the existing access, which required less capital but was more risky," said Roy Slack, president of Cementation Canada. "The original approach was to look at dewatering pumps within the shaft, but we were able to use a vent raise to dewater it that allowed us to do work in the shaft itself." Ultimately, safety is the key concern for shaft sinkers. "The safety has improved dramatically over the years, and we are now sinking shafts with barely any accidents and zero fatalities," said DMC's Shaver. The evolving relationship between EPCMs and clients A hot topic at 2014's Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada conference in Toronto was how difficult it had become to build a mine on time and on budget, Mining analyst Christopher Haubrich presented research showing that capital cost overruns in the sector have averaged between 20% and 60% since 1965. What is surprising, however, is that in his analysis of 50 mines built between 2005-2013, only two of the commonly cited reasons for capital cost overruns commodity market "heat" and project quality were statistically significant. Most of the reasons cited by mining companies for cost overruns had nothing to do with whether a mine would be built on time and on budget. This leaves a grey area between EPCM companies and their clients as to who is responsible for project delays and budget blowouts. "When major projects are going over budget it affects the entire industry," said Andrew Boushy, vice president and general manager, minerals and metals at Ausenco Engineering Canada Inc. According to Jan Kwak, managing director, mining and mineral processing at Hatch Ltd., mining companies are looking for more predictability in outcomes, and large divergences from the original plan for cost and schedule are not acceptable. "We believe the best way to have more surety and predictability in a project is by doing a better job in scoping the project. In the rush to get projects built during the boom years, many companies skipped these steps, which resulted in cost overruns. Our approach is to place more effort into project planning and scoping to make sure we understand precisely what we want to build and how we will build it; it may be basic but it is profound," he said. Making mines more efficient: a productivity analysis Globally, mining companies are bringing new mines into production that are low-grade and high-tonnage, putting increased strain on profitability. Ontario's producers are also dealing with high energy costs in comparison to the rest of Canada. There is a need for technologies that can assist with energy reduction across the entire mining value chain. Emerson, a diversified global manufacturing and technology company, is devoting its resources to help Ontario's miners tackle the challenge of energy efficiency. Through its product umbrella of over 70 brands, the company offers products that control energy usage and monitor equipment, "In the shaft of the mine, industrial LED lighting emits less heat than a conventional incandescent lighting system and is much more energy efficient. On a SAG mill, companies use Emerson Process Management's CSI Technology - 'machinery health monitoring systems' - as a predictive diagnostic tool for machinery management," said Thomas Cleland, manager, business development at Emerson Canada. In Canada, Emerson's turnover is close to $1 billion annually, Emerson also provides products for conveyor belts such as rollway bearings and seal master bearings. "Our Control Techniques variable speed drives can be used in a re-generative configuration, such as a dynamic brake for an inclined rock conveyor. The braking drive can generate as much as 50% of the energy required to run another same-sized drive connected on the same DC buss circuit," he said. The company is also working on wireless control products. Implementing iT in the quest for profitability In the midst of a commodities downturn, mining companies are looking to big data to help them increase profitability. While a recent Accenture survey of mining executives showed that 25% of them had at least doubled their overall digital investment, there is still a degree of uncertainty about what these software tools can do. Centric Mining Systems is a Sudburybased company that developed software designed to collect metrics related to the extraction, conveyance and processing of ore. These metrics are then transformed into Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) and delivered to decision makers. "We see that there are three kinds of KPIs: one you cannot see because you are unable to compile the data efficiently and effectively, one that is incorrect but accepted because we have nothing better, and one that you do trust and accept despite a lack of accountability in the data." said Chris Novak, Centric's CEO. "This would be unacceptable in any other business. Our approach brings opportunity with accountability. and brings forth KPI's that as an industry; we could not produce in a timely enough manner to be useful." Part of the problem, according to Novak, is that each part of the mining enterprise sees itself as unique and isolated, and so they develop information management solutions independently. "For us the goal is tearing down the silo walls, so that knowledge is shared and delivers the maximum ROI," he said. Another company bringing Enterprise Resource Planning solutions to the mining industry is lllumiti, an SAP systems integration and management consulting company based in Toronto. The company has worked with Strongco and St Andrew Goldfields to implement SAP into their operations. "Their exposure to what is happening internally will keep improving as they gain a better understanding of reporting and information analysis," said Rory Friedman, vice-president operations. Software giant IBM is also investing in mining with a number of enterprise resource planning products designed for the industry. (c) 2014 Mining Media, Inc. |