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By D. R. Tesarik, T. C. Trancynger, W. G. Pariseau

The Davis detector cavern was excavated on the 4850 Level of the former Homestake Mine in the mid- 1960s to house a novel neutrino detector developed by Nobel Prize winner Dr. R. Davis. The original cavern was about 9.1 x 16.8 x 9.7 m high, excavated in a Precambrian amphibolite known as the Yates unit and enlarged in 2010. In 2009, the National Science Foundation selected the site for development as a national Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory (DUSEL). This retrospective rock mechanics study of the Davis cavern is intended to inform design of the much larger caverns and laboratory rooms being considered for the same 4850 Level. Provision for rock mass variability, sequential excavation, jointing and wall damage from blasting are included in analyses that were done using two different computer codes and methods (FLAC3D and UTAH3). The results are in agreement with observations and show that cavern stability is indeed the case. The main conclusions are: (1) if conventional scaling of laboratory rock elastic moduli and strengths is done, then 0.25 and 0.50 scale factors are reasonable, (2) measured statistical and spatial variability in rock properties should be incorporated into geomechanical analyses to better reflect reality, (3) discontinuities (“joints”) are essential to reliable analysis of excavation safety and when properly taken into account eliminate the need for empirical “scaling” of laboratory rock properties, (4) major geologic features such as rhyolite dikes and breccia zones may be important to excavation safety at Homestake and should be explicitly represented in analyses and (5) quantifying wall blast damage is important to engineering design of underground excavations.

Jan 1, 2012

By Victor Romero, Steve Redmond

All Rights Reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Information contained in this work has been obtained by SME, Inc. from sources believed to be reliable. However, neither SME nor its authors guarantee the accuracy or completeness of any information published herein, and neither SME nor its authors shall be responsible for any errors, omissions, or damages arising out of use of this information. This work is published with the understanding that SME and its authors are supplying information but are not attempting to render engineering or other professional services. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any statement or views presented here are those of individual authors and are not necessarily those of the SME. The mention of trade names for commercial products does not imply the approval or endorsement of SME.

Dec 1, 2011

By Y S. Zhang

Natural phenomena and human engineering construction activities had great influence on the geosciences space. Natural disasters, particularly mine disaster and other geological disasters happened frequently, which brought great losses both in people’s lives and economics, therefore, to explore the essential causes and mechanisms of disaster by some useful approaches is the most important step in mine disaster prevention. In a variety of methods, building an aground-underground seamlessly integrated model, and then analysing the formation and development mechanism of mining disaster based on this model is a useful way. In this paper, we studied an aground-underground seamlessly Integrated modelling method, and correspondingly given an aground-underground seamlessly integrated 3D spatial model, CSG+CD-TIN+GTP-TTS, by which we can carry out analysis of surface subsidence and underground laneway distortion efficiently, finally preliminary applications verified the effectiveness of this method.

Nov 22, 2011

By B Klein

This paper stems from research and development in sensor and sorting technologies towards future sustainable mining undertaken by the UBC Mine-Mill Integration group in collaboration with MineSense Ltd. Sensors and sensor-based technologies such as ore telemetry and sorting are envisioned to be a significant component in achieving such ‘invisible’ future sustainable mining. Such technologies offer high flexibility and power in use: delivering valuable information from the very preliminary stages of mining exploration through to final upgrading of the ore preceding the fine comminution stages. This paper reviews sensors and sorting as enabling technologies towards a future smart mining operation and introduces a model in which sensor-based exploration (down-the-hole sensing), ore exploitation (smart-shovels), transportation (smart-conveyors) and preconcentration (sensor-based sorters) are effectively integrated to increase the present value of operations. It is anticipated on the basis of several case studies that an effective use of sensor technologies through tomorrow’s ‘smart mine model’ should lead to several positive impacts ranging from increased mining production, to reductions in transport costs, overall energy use and waste generation. In this way sensors can be used to maximise the profitability and present value of the mining operation from the exploration stage through to mine closure.

Nov 22, 2011

By P Knights

This paper examines the process and specialised skills required to extract insight from data routinely collected by mine operations, maintenance, engineering and environmental departments. Typical insights include: enhanced understanding of root causes; recommendations for next best actions; and simulation of likely scenarios. The skills required for advanced analytics are not currently the domain of mining engineers. The professions required by tomorrow’s mines are likely to be diverse and multi-disciplinary, and will include control engineers, software engineers, mathematicians and statisticians. A case study is presented that correlates mobile equipment production delays with rainfall events across three mines on the east coast of Australia. One mine is shown to have significantly more rain related downtime than the other mines, providing compelling evidence to improve productive performance.

Nov 22, 2011

By C Harwood

Underground coal mines in the United States are in the process of completing installations for tracking and communication systems, mandated by Congress after a number of recent coal mine disasters. Yet, evaluation, modelling and testing of such systems has lagged due to legislated changes, abruptly introduced into the coal mining industry. System installation in a wide array of mine types, configurations, layouts and characteristics has provided a wealth of information regarding their potential in underground environments. Data collected from numerous installations for a variety of systems can be used to further define true capability and accuracy of communication and tracking packages. This paper describes a uniform means of evaluating the performance of a communication and tracking system. Several performance measures are proposed and described. These measures can also be predicted using an interactive software program. This program predicts the signal propagation, given the input mine characteristics and layout, with numerical and visual feedback. New or alternative system installations can also be more accurately designed to potentially minimise initial system cost and time required for trial and error installs. The focus of this research is to develop tools and protocols that can evaluate and measure the effectiveness of installed underground communication and tracking systems.

Nov 22, 2011

By B Johansson

The mining industry needs to recruit young talented people. An important task therefore, is to create future attractive mining workplaces that engage and motivate young people to work within the industry. Our intention with this article is to illustrate a possible way forward for the mining industry to form such workplaces. We discuss different aspects of an attractive workplace and summarise our findings in a specification of basic demands dealing with safety, physical and psycho-social work environments and social responsibilities.

Nov 22, 2011

By K Devencorn

The development of robust, economical transport infrastructure has been identified as a key driver to sovereign economic growth. Notwithstanding the value of undeveloped mineral resources, unless they can be brought to market they are of little value. Within a global context, the continent of Africa probably faces one of the most significant transport driven economic development programs as countries strive to unlock their much sought after resources.The UN’s Africa Review Report on Transport (United Nations Economic and Social Council, 2009) provides an excellent context for the issue facing African countries and the potential for investment in transport to solve many of the intrinsic problems they are confronted with. With little exception, economic development in Africa is very likely to be driven ‘off the back’ of transport development – and more specifically from heavy-haul rail as a means by which economic wealth can be derived from export of the continent’s vast natural and mineral resources to the world. The report found:transport is a key driver of economic development and poverty reduction;road transport is the most dominant mode in Africa;the ‘Cost to Market’ of African goods is hampered by the reliance upon road transport;the cost of road transport is not just economic – 19 per cent of the world’s road fatalities were recorded on African roads;African railways are seen to be disjointed and under-utilised;Africa’s ports are key to export trade - yet only six ports (three in Egypt, and three in South Africa) handle about 50 per cent of the continent’s total container traffic;the cost of transport is increasing making African trade even less competitive; andsignificant negative impacts of Africa’s reliance on road transport – health, and greenhouse emissions.We understand that mining the resource is only part of the solution – it has to be put to market at a competitive landed cost.Most African countries face huge costs associated with transport development and ongoing operation – in many cases beyond their available resources.The Australian rail industry has faced and solved many of these challenges.

Nov 22, 2011

By R Memary

The environmental and economic impacts of a significant dependence on fossil fuels are affecting the future of sectors such as of mining. These impacts are prompting the Australian Government to seek solutions for reducing its dependence on fossil fuels more generally, such developing clean energy and improving energy efficiency. However, limited research has been undertaken to assess the potential synergies between clean energy and mining in an uncertain global future. This paper analyses current energy use by mining in Australia and reviews the drivers and opportunities for energy efficiency and cleaner energy technologies to be coupled to mining under three future scenarios. Linkages between mining and clean energy are investigated for three global scenarios for mining and metals to 2030, developed by the World Economic Forum (WEF), namely Green Trade Alliance, Rebased Globalism and Resource Security. These scenarios are applied to assess how they could change the barriers, opportunities and trade-offs required for the development of a more sustainable energy sources by the minerals industry in Australia.

Nov 22, 2011

By M Ahler

Future developments in the mining sector will be driven by the need to increase safety, ecological sustainability and efficiency. Autonomous systems represent a huge step towards achieving these goals. This paper describes the basic infrastructure of an autonomous system – essentially a network of distributed sensors. Although the sensors are distributed, the overarching communication network with its related middleware offers a transparent and uniform layer. This middleware acts as an abstraction layer which priorities information and provides information to other platforms on request. This permits higher-level autonomous functionality to utilise all information available in the system regardless of where data has been generated or via which physical communication link it has been processed.The Personnel Proximity Detection (PDD) system is described in detail as an example, with details not only of the system itself, but also of the essential full integration and how the abstraction layer allows this technology to be plugged in at any location of the network. The paper ends with a summary of the content and a conclusion.

Nov 22, 2011

By J Greberg

This paper discusses the use of simulation in the mine planning process. A case study on the Newcrest Cadia East project is presented, and the challenges and possibilities for using simulation as a tool for mine planning and scheduling is discussed.The simulation study presented in this paper was performed during the project’s prefeasibility stage, and focused on the planning and scheduling of the development of panels in the future mine. The Cadia East project will be the largest underground operation in Australia and the first using panel caving. Simulation was used in order to optimise the development of panels; it was mainly used in order to verify the plans for the development process and allocate resources in an optimal way. The work was performed as an iterative process and adjustments to the plans were made according to simulation results. Bottlenecks were identified and different scenarios were tested.The results from the simulation study shows how different operational constraints affect the planned development process and how changes in priorities can be necessary in order to maintain a high development speed. Furthermore the study shows how changes in planned mine layout requires changed strategies, and how this was solved using the simulation tool.In this paper the authors critically discusses the use of simulation in mining operations: what are the limitations and challenges of using simulation as a tool for mine planning and scheduling, what are the benefits, and what do we aim for in the future?

Nov 22, 2011

By J Bassan

The mining industry is faced with imperatives to improve worker safety and productivity, adapt to skills shortages, high worker turnover rates, and provide more effective maintenance to new and ever more complicated plant and equipment. While more effective use of data combined with advanced analytics offers opportunities for improvement, providing this information to the worker in the field, in real-time, has proven expensive, cumbersome and ineffective. New capabilities are now emerging which address some of the limitations experienced to date. Augmented reality (AR) provides a means to overlay interactive digital information on top of the physical world. Combining the latest visual display, mobile computing and ‘track and trace’ technologies, AR provides an experience similar to a heads-up display in a fighter jet through small, personnel devices, such as smart phones or wearable glasses. Applying AR would allow a mobile worker to ‘see’ all relevant information for a given task, in the context of their physical environment and at the time they require it. The technologies behind AR are rapidly maturing and becoming available at a price point that is viable for commercial applications. It is anticipated that AR will become ubiquitous at a consumer level within the next five years. The specific challenges faced by the mining industry make it an ideal early adopter of AR technologies. This paper examines a number of use-cases of how AR can be applied to the mining industry and the benefits that can be realised. The paper will identify areas of further work and viable opportunities for immediate adoption within the industry.

Nov 22, 2011

By E Widzyk-Capehart

The mines of the future can be envisioned as complex, large-scale technological systems being operated remotely from few centrally located (major cities) operating centres and skeletal crew stationed at the site. These systems will require remotely located human operators to constantly adapt to new and unforeseen system and environmental demands. In addition, the remote operators will need to match system properties to the changing demands and operational conditions, ie must be able to handle the ‘non-design’ emergencies, because the system designers would not have been able to foresee all possible scenarios of failures and provide automatic safety devices for every contingency. Therefore, it is highly important that the operators’ job, which involves problem solving and decision making at the workstation level, is facilitated by the proper interface designs. This paper argues that decision support systems and thus human-system interfaces for the mines of the future should be developed based on the principles of human-system integration that take into account human information processing and cognitive abilities. The information presented to the operator must support the operator in taking appropriate action through a human-system interface designed according to scientific principles of User Centred Design. A case study is presented where an iterative design process was used by CSIRO researchers as an evaluation method involving users (control room operators) at several stages of the user interface design in order to correct any design inadequacies as they emerged. This process allowed the designers to identify any usability issues before the user interface was fully implemented, which subsequently enabled the control room operators to easily adapt to the new interface and carry out all designated tasks in a timely and effective manner.

Nov 22, 2011

By C Fischer

The introduction of digital communications technologies into the underground mining industry, in both coal and hard rock mining, has enabled high bandwidth applications to be applied in the mining industry. Digital networks based on 802.11 b/g/n open Wi-Fi standards have allowed numerous applications to be run over a single communication backbone. One of the many important applications is the tracking of personnel and equipment via RFID Tags. This tracking application has formed the basis of a Proximity Detection System or Collision Avoidance System (Schiffbauer and Mowrey, 2001; Kent, Fischer and Schiffbauer, 2011) thereby improving safety and increasing control in the mining environment. This paper discusses the growth of digital technology as the backbone for communications in underground mining applications. This growth has allowed the ‘convergence of technologies’ (occurring in the general business world) to be available to mine operators in general and underground mine operators in particular. Mine Site Technologies’ involvement with major mining companies and mining equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in developing and supplying their communication systems is also discussed.The latest technical requirements and specifications for communication systems for underground and open cut mines will be reviewed.

Nov 22, 2011

By R J. Thompson

In truck-based hauling systems, the mine haul road network is a critical and vital component of the production process. As such, underperformance of a haul road will impact immediately on mine productivity and costs. Operations safety, productivity and equipment longevity are all dependent on well-designed, constructed and maintained haul roads. With the advent of autonomous haul trucks, the haul road itself becomes all the more critical to the success of these type of operations; not only in relation to mine operators requirements for safer and more efficient and predictable haulage systems, but also in response to autonomous truck manufacturers’ requirements for a more predictable and controlled operating environment. This paper presents a brief summary of the state-of-the-art in surface mine road design and then proceeds to examine the design and technological challenges associated providing a safe, predictable and affordable road for autonomous mine haul trucks. The paper serves as a basis for evaluating the contributions that enhancements in road design and management can deliver to autonomous mining operations, an initiative that also has scope for adoption within the operating life of many mines, haul roads and haul trucks.

Nov 22, 2011

By L Alem

In the field of mineral extraction, complex technologies are being introduced in mines, operators/technicians rely on assistance from an expert (or more) in order to keep their machines functioning. Personnel with such expertise, however, are not always physically on-site. There is a growing need for innovative technological solutions to support effective delivery, just in time, of remote guidance between an offsite expert and an on-site maintenance operator. To meet this need, we have, as part of our Human System Integration project within the CSIRO’s Minerals Down Under (MDU), Transforming the Future Mine theme, explored the usefulness of a number of emerging technologies including: augmented reality, wearable systems and touch table interfaces. This paper presents ReMoTe, an augmented realty system for remote guiding using a touch table interface for the expert station and a combination of augmented reality and a wearable system at the operator end. In designing this system we were interested in exploring the extent to which it can increase the productivity and safety of maintenance personnel. This paper also presents Mobile ReMote, our recent development of a fully mobile remote guiding system. In Mobile ReMote, both the expert and the operator are using a near eye display and wearing a light computer in a back pack. The expert is able to guide the operator using his/her hands on the virtual display, while the operator is able to see the instructions on the rear eye display. Workers in the mining industry are highly mobile, a mobile expert and operator station will meet this need.

Nov 22, 2011

By C Rizos

Many of the ‘new paradigms in mining’ and notions of ‘sustainable mining’ have at their core the requirement for reliable, continuous centimetre-level positioning accuracy to enable increased automation of mining operations. The deployment of precision systems for navigating, controlling and monitoring machinery such as drills, dozers, draglines and shovels with real time position information increase their operational efficiency, and reduce the need for humans to be exposed to hazardous conditions. The Global Positioning System (GPS) is the best known, and only currently fully operational, Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) providing positioning capability anywhere in the globe, on a continuous 24/7 basis, with accuracies ranging from the dekametre-level to the sub-centimetre-level depending on hardware and operational configuration. Despite this versatility, GNSS cannot satisfy the high accuracy positioning requirements for many applications in mine surveying, and mine machine guidance and control. The reason is that increasingly open cut mines are getting deeper, resulting in a reduction of the ‘sky-view’ necessary for GNSS systems to operate satisfactorily. Yet, to date there have been no viable alternatives to GNSS that can be deployed in mine environments that can meet the challenging requirements in open cut mines.Locata Corporation, a Canberra-based company, has invented a terrestrial high accuracy positioning system known as ‘Locata’ that can augment GNSS with extra terrestrial signals to permit cm-level positioning accuracy even when there are insufficient GNSS satellite signals for reliable positioning and navigation. Locata relies on a network of synchronised ground-based transceivers that transmit positioning signals that can be tracked by suitably equipped user receivers. Hence Locata can be considered a new type of ‘local constellation’, able to provide high accuracy positioning coverage where GNSS fails. This paper introduces some of the technical aspects of this Australian technology and describes tests conducted by Leica Geosystems over the last few years at Newmont Boddington Gold in Western Australia. A recent news announcement by Leica Geosystems (12 January 2011) has confirmed that their new mine management system will have combined GNSS + Locata positioning capability – the first commercial product that integrates GNSS and Locata capabilities into a single high accuracy and high availability navigation device for open cut mine machine automation applications.

Nov 22, 2011

By L Mottola

Three decades ago mining companies, principally in North America, aided by machine and explosive manufacturers, started significant attempts to develop and implement automated mining systems, mainly underground. These tended to be motivated by decreasing cost, increasing productivity, reducing labour requirements, and improving safety. These are important business drivers, however, little attention was given to the underlying goal of mining automation, namely to bring upstream processes in control and reducing variation, as seen in downstream mineral processing plants.This paper first reviews the nature of Lean Thinking and its application in the context of the growing commitments by industry to develop future automated mine production systems. The paper then makes reference to prior and current experiences in open pit blasthole drill and shovel performance monitoring, to demonstrate the principle that machine performance data offers as a means, not only to characterise the dynamic geological and working environment, but also to provide a foundation for automation. In this case, drill and shovel monitoring was originally motivated as a means to optimise blast fragmentation through more effective drill and blast designs that are based on an accurate determination of the bench geological and geotechnical characteristics, hence managing variation in the drilling and blasting process. This paper considers how automating and integrating such components of the mine production system would bring processes into a controlled state, creating value at the face, within a framework of Lean mining.

Nov 22, 2011

By M Hedley

Tracking plant and personnel in mining operations provides multiple potential benefits for a mine including improved safety, better monitoring of production, traffic control and, in the future, monitoring and control of autonomous vehicles. The main techniques currently proposed and used for wireless tracking are radio frequency identification (RFID), signal strength based techniques and time of arrival (TOA) based techniques. RFID provide poor accuracy in the complex radio propagation environment present in mines and does not provide continuous tracking and signal strength techniques. TOA based techniques are potentially the most accurate, however, most current equipment has not realised the potential of the technique. CSIRO has been developing the Wireless Ad hoc System for Positioning (WASP) system for wireless tracking in a range of challenging environments including underground mines and surface operations, where GPS reception is compromised by depth. The system utilises a number of ‘anchor nodes’ that are placed at fixed and known locations within the mine and tags attached to the plant or personnel to be tracked. The system provides an ad hoc data communication network, thus, wired data connections are not required to the anchor nodes. WASP uses transmissions in the 5.8 GHz ISM (instrumentation, scientific and medical) frequency spectrum to perform highly accurate ranging between nodes, hence tracking of tags. The localisation performance of the system depends upon the radio propagation environment, ranging down to 0.1 m in low multipath conditions. In this paper we describe the WASP system and provide results of testing in underground and surface operations showing the system achieving high ranging, hence localisation, accuracy.

Nov 22, 2011

By X S. Li

The modern mechanical excavation machines have enough power for cutting hard rock. The ‘bottle neck’ which limits the use of machines for hard rock excavation is ‘cutting tool’. To cut hard and abrasive rock, CSIRO has been developing Super Material Abrasive Resistant Tools (SMART*CUT). SMART*CUT technology replaces the tungsten carbide (WC) tip of conventional pick with thermally stable diamond composite (TSDC) and attaches the TSDC tip to steel tool body with CSIRO worldwide patented bonding technology. This paper introduces the key features of SMART*CUT, compares its performance with conventional WC tipped tools, discusses the challenges faced by SMART*CUT and the further developments needed for successful application of SMART*CUT to mining industries.

Nov 22, 2011