These 5 technologies could save SA mining, including robots and computer games

Source: Vsoftsystems, 03/10/2018

It has been a bad decade for South Africa’s mining industry. Once the
country’s flagship industry, revenues have flatlined, operating costs
have jumped, and the environment is fraught with political and
regulatory upsets.
But these are five technologies that the Mandela Mining Precinct,
launching in Johannesburg on Friday September 14th, is eyeing to
change South Africa’s mining fortunes.
The precinct looks to support local innovation to provide
technological solutions to the challenges faced by the mining industry
including mineworkers` health and safety.
It also hopes to position mining as a core driver of world-class
technological and manufacturing capabilities for the development of
the country`s economy.
The technologies are:
1. Digital gaming.
If video games can teach fighter pilots to fly planes, why not use
them to teach CEOs to manage mines? The Mandela Mining Precinct’s site
in Melville, Johannesburg, is home to SiMINE, an “experiential” mining
game from local management consultancy Vuuma Collaborations.
“There are a lot of people who do good work and solve critical
challenges in mining, but no one is putting it together to see how it
works in a system,” says Vuuma’s Henry Sinko. “The way we do that: a
simulation game, a physical game that we use with chief execs.
We help CEOs understand where constraints [in their operations] are,
rather than them implementing solutions because [those solutions] are
seen as most attractive or the current fad.”
The end game is ultimately to sell mine bosses on the idea of a
“digital twin”, which is a digital replica of their mines. This
service is offered by their sister company Esteq Mining, says Sinko.
The University of Pretoria, one of the precinct’s academic
collaborators, also has the Kumba Virtual Reality Centre, which can
simulate rock falls and other risky situations and train people to
respond to them.
2. Robots.
The further away people are from rock faces, the safer they are. “The
key thing is to get people away from the rock face,” says Alastair
Macfalane, modernisation advisor for the Chamber of Mines. One option
is to send in a machine first, which could tap the rock to see how
stable it is, or which could be equipped with sensors to measure
whether there is hazardous gas. Another is to transition to a
semi-remote mining environment, in which the person operating mining
equipment at the rock face can operate it from line of sight (rather
than next to it) or via video footage.
But there is also the business side: reducing the number of people
underground and the length of time they are down there pushes down
water and electricity consumption -- and ultimately costs. “Suddenly,
you don’t need to cool [the chamber] from 80 degrees to 28 degrees
[using water and electricity],” says Navin Singh, co-director of the
Mandela Mining Precinct (representing the Council for Scientific and
Industrial Research (CSIR). “It can be used elsewhere in the country.”
3. Seeing through rock
False colour perspective of a portion of the western Eistla Regio on
Venus, with base measurements via synthetic aperture radar. (Nasa)
Another idea that’s in the works is using radar to “see through” rock.
South Africa, following the second world war, was a world leader in
radar technology. Researchers at the new precinct, which will partner
with industry, government and universities, aim to “see ahead of the
rock face, which eliminates surprises”, says Singh.
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4. Going digital.
Managers need information about what’s going on underground in real
time not after the fact, says Singh. “We already have seismic
monitoring, but we need better environmental monitoring: air quality,
noise, dust, gas.”
The same goes for capital equipment: “Because it is so capital
intensive, you need that equipment to be operating at optimal
efficiency all the time: we could be monitoring what that machine is
doing, how much rock is it loading, where is it taking it. We could
have real-time info on that rock movement,” Singh says.
But this information is not useful if it doesn’t go to the right
person immediately. “You need a two-way stream of information.” This
currently isn’t the case in South Africa’s older traditional mines.
5. Mining without explosives.
Most mining hinges on inserting explosives into rock, and blasting it
apart it collect the valuable ore. “If you consider the ore body as a
resource, you want to maximise utilisation,” says Singh. “Right now,
because of blasting, you have to get people off the mine for two to
three hours for the toxic fumes to come out and for the rock to
stabilise. It’s not efficient.” Not to mention all the waste rock that
miners have to haul to the surface with zero economic return.
The law also requires that if people are sent into a stope, it has to
be no less than 80cm high. This means that some deposits -- if they
are thin -- are not economically viable to mine.
But blasting alternatives, such as devices that could chip, cut away,
or drill holes into rock without exploding it, and particularly ones
that do not require people on-hand to operate, could make closed and
even abandoned mines viable again, Singh says. “We can use some of the
capabilities in current mines where it is too dangerous for people to
go in. We have the largest gold deposits in the world, but are only
number seven in terms of production. These capabilities could change
the game.”