Engineering and Mining Journal - Whether the market is copper, gold, nickel, iron ore, lead/zinc, PGM, diamonds or other commodities, E&MJ takes the lead in projecting trends, following development and reporting on the most efficient operating pr
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JULY 2017 • E&MJ; 75 www.e-mj.com OPERATING STRATEGIES ANFO blends to Titan XL 1000 to Differ- ential Energy. • Reduced powder factors, up to 13.5% in many areas of the pit while still achieving excellent dig rates and crusher throughput. • Complete elimination of post blast NO X fumes. • Purpose-built trucks that accommodate the loading rates required to maintain production. Greens Creek Moves to Automated Loading With Sandvik System Sandvik announced that Hecla Mining Co.'s Greens Creek operation is the fi rst U.S. underground mine to employ its AutoMine loading technology. The move to Automine Lite-controlled automated loading, according to Sandvik, will enable increased productivity, improved safety and better cost control, while bringing digitalization of the mining process closer and increasing operational transparency. The Greens Creek silver mine in south- east Alaska is one of the largest and low- est-cost primary silver mines in the world. In 2016, Greens Creek produced 9.25 million ounces (oz) of silver, the highest annual silver production since Hecla ac- quired 100% of the operation in 2008. "Greens Creek commissioned the Au- toMine system in January 2017," said Keith Malone, vice president and mine general manager. "We have been able to increase mucking time by operating the AutoMine loader between shifts when personnel cannot be underground due to blasting activities. As we add wireless communication into additional work areas and a second or third remote loader is added to the fl eet, we expect further gains will be realized." The system is currently operating in two areas of the mine where bulk longhole mining methods are used. "However, with 90% of our production coming from conventional drift and fi ll stopes, installing the AutoMine system in these areas is key to overall produc- tivity gains," Malone said. "We have just received two additional safety gates from Sandvik and are expanding our wireless infrastructure into these conventional stoping and development areas in order to maximize our productivity through im- plementation of this technology." The Hecla Greens Creek mine is lo- cated on Admiralty Island, approximately 18 miles southwest of Juneau, Alaska. Opened in 1989, it produces silver, zinc, lead and gold. The site is accessed by boat plus 13 miles of road on the island, and consists of the mine, concentrator, dry stacked tailings facility, ship-loading facility, camp facilities and a ferry dock. Battery Electric Vehicles Underground Guideline Successfully Published The Global Mining Standards and Guide- lines Group (GMSG) and the Canadian Mining Innovation Council (CMIC) pub- lished the Recommended Practices for Battery Electric Vehicles in Underground Mining Guideline. This document, ac- cording to GMSG, is meant to serve as a blueprint for original equipment manu- facturers (OEMs) to move forward in re- search and development, and references existing standards and guidelines related to battery electric vehicles (BEVs). Before this publication, said GMSG, there were no documents specifi cally related to BEVs in underground mining environments. More than 100 authors from 61 con- tributing organizations took part in cre- ating the guideline, an effort that was launched in August 2016. Montreal, Canada-based GMSG is a nonprofi t organization established to oversee the development of guidelines for mining stakeholders to improve the safe- ty, operational, environmental and fi nan- cial performance of the mining industry. "This guideline is a great example of innovation through collaboration," said David Sanguinetti, president of San- guinetti Engineering, leader of Under- grounding Mining at CMIC, and the proj- ect manager for this guideline's develop- ment. "Neither CMIC nor GMSG could have pulled this off in the timeframe that we did on our own. The only way it happened was with the two groups working together." An introductory workshop on the de- tails of the guideline held at the CIM Con- vention on April 29, in Montreal, Canada, reportedly was sold out. Interest from OEMs, mining companies, consulting companies and others in learning more about the "electric mine" led to an im- promptu panel with a dozen guideline au- thors to discuss both general and highly technical topics. "The best feedback was two days later when an engineer at Atlas Copco, who is responsible for electric vehicles, told me that it's now required reading for all his engineers," said Sanguinetti. "The next step would be to get more direction with the standards on the table and to engage the operator," said Michel Serres, vice president and market seg- ment manager, Mining Solutions, ABB, and one of the guideline authors. Devel- opment of a second version of the guide- line is scheduled to begin by early 2018. The Recommended Practices for Bat- tery Electric Vehicles in Underground Mining Guideline is now available for download in the GMSG library. Mine operator Hecla says automated loaders are improving mucking performance by operating between shifts when workers cannot be underground during blasting.