Engineering & Mining Journal

JAN 2017

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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PLANT ENGINEERING JANUARY 2017 • E&MJ; 33 www.e-mj.com IBIS-FB Blasting Vibration Monitoring Radar for Mining IDS GeoRadar Srl Via Enrica Calabresi 24, 56121 Pisa (PI) Italy Tel. +39 050 3124 501 sales.mining@idsgeoradar.com The new IBIS radar for broad area monitoring of blast-induced vibrations Site-specifi c indexes for blast performance monitoring and control Simultaneous acqusition of a very large set at various distances Remote monitoring even of inaccessible areas of the pit (no corners or markers required) PPV trend vs. scaled distance for every single blast Rapid installation and one-touch project set-up engineers to connect the dots and make predictions faster and automate the pro- cess. With the connectivity, everything is moving very fast now and we are limited only by our imagination." Harnessing the Intelligence Tomorrow's exploitable deposits will be found at deeper depths or in remote lo- cations often with extreme conditions. With a shortage of experienced staff, and high turnover rates, mining companies will need to rely on new techniques to operate and maintain remote processing facilities. FLSmidth currently offers re- mote access systems that permits tasks traditionally performed at the plant loca- tion to be carried out at any location with a network connection to the plant. As an example, FLSmidth cited a cop- per concentrator located in the Democratic Republic of Congo that had installed an Advanced Instrumentation and Process Control System for its grinding and flo- tation circuits. A remote access server provides secure internet access, allowing FLSmidth engineers to access data and to execute programming and process strategy adjustments from support offices located in Denmark and in the U.S. The mining company's technical staff consists of expa- triates and the location results in high turn- over. With the new system, the operations no longer needs local level support for the control systems and they benefit from the use of advanced systems using less quali- fied personnel to maintain them. Further- more, remote engineering eliminates the need to fly in contractors to do this work. "So far, the mining companies that have embraced this opportunity have done so by circumstance," Almond said. "They have been forced to be a little more innovative because they do not have the same access to skills. With travel head- aches and restrictions, such as work visas and other paperwork, they simply cannot get people onto the site as fast. In another case, a nickel concentrator in South Africa needed a comminution circuit comprised of a primary autogenous mill, pebble crushing, and a hybrid pebble/ ball secondary mill. But the complicated circuit was difficult to stabilize and oper- ate at high efficiency using manual oper- ation, so the mining company turned to FLSmidth for Advanced Process Control and Remote Support to automatically op- erate the grinding circuit. To ensure a high degree of technical support to maintain this system, FLSmidth installed a remote access server for secure internet access and a team in the U.S. monitors the daily operation, adjusts the maintenance plans and optimizes the processes. In addition to a 4.3% production increase and a 6.7% decrease in circuit energy consumption, the setup has reduced instability across mills, pumps and classification circuit and resulted in a more stable operation with a more efficient pump operation. Remote connectivity enabled high-quality technical support without incurring the costs of regu- lar site inspections and maintenance visits. "The operations located relatively close to high tech centers have been a bit resistant because they believe they can get the support they need from traditional means," Almond said. "Some have also voiced concerns about secure Internet connections, viruses, hacking, etc." FLSmidth has developed ways to com- municate with these systems that are much more acceptable to plants as far as granting secured access to systems over the internet. "We have developed ways of managing the access that are traceable, as

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