An autonomous haulage system, or driverless truck, at a Rio Tinto Australian iron ore mine.
Automation will increase productivity and lead to a safer industry
Much attention is being paid to unmanned air vehicles, better known as drones, so it's easy to forget that there's also a tech revolution happening below the ground.
Robot mining is making its mark in some of the most remote areas on Earth.
In Australia, Rio Tinto Ltd. now funds one of the largest non-military automation programs in the world. They're not all typical robots with arms and legs, but all are automated mighty machines. For example, Rio Tinto is deploying huge driverless trucks to haul iron ore that are guided by supervisors directing from remote screens.
That's only the first stage. By 2030, it's expected that robots equipped with lasers will tool around underground chambers to map where to drill within a millimetre of accuracy, and to drill with precision to separate ore from waste in the hard rock. Rio is also planning to use driverless trains to move its cargo to Australia's coast, and the mining giant is one of many companies also looking to combine its robot fleet with drones that can map claims and deliver spare parts.
Investment in mining robotics costs a lot, but the potential payback over time is huge. One report suggests that technology could drop the cost of iron ore production by about $10 (U.S.) per tonne. Others suggest this is high and that $1 per tonne is more realistic. Even at the lower figure, in Australia alone this could translate into hundreds of millions of dollars in annual productivity gains.
Last year, in the midst of a worldwide slowdown in the mining sector, Geoff Knox, chief executive of GE Mining in the U.S., predicted increasing investment in new technology.
Companies "are more focused on technology than ever because they need to be," he told Mining Journal. "Shareholders are saying: 'You used to be able to do easy green field development, but no more. We prefer that you make what you own already, smarter.' " Driverless mining trucks in Chile can get 8,000 hours of work out of a set of those huge, 3.5-metre tires, Knox said. That's double what a human-operated truck typically gets from the tires (which cost more than $100,000 each), because computers adjust the driving to avoid hard corners that tear at the rubber.
Automation can cut costs and boost accuracy at many stages of the mining process. The GE Fairchild F330, for example, can work continuously at a coal face using double-helix shearers, reaching seams so long, low and narrow that it would be impossible to get at them otherwise. About the length of a bus yet only the height of a tennis racket, this automated miner requires less production time, lowers the cost of mining and minimizes dust and methane that are unfriendly to the environment.
It is also labour-intensive to assay iron ore before it goes to the steel mill. But a robot using sensors can test a sample every 90 seconds for moisture and physical and chemical composition.
Automated mining also lowers the human risk from the more dangerous aspects of mining. The recent deaths of more than 300 people in a coal-mine fire in western Turkey remind us just how perilous conventional mining can be. Rio Tinto's Mine of the Future project in Australia runs mines from an operating centre in Perth where technicians work on touch screens to direct robots 1,500 kilometres away.
There's worldwide competition, with some government support, to move robotic mining forward quickly and seamlessly. South African mines are using sensors armed with infrared lights to check rock types deep underground, and Australia's science agency is researching how to link sensor-gathered data into a system it calls "interoperability," to get robots to understand the same mining "language" and work together better.
The Canadian mining sector, while interested in robotics, is relatively tentative compared with that of other countries. In March this year the federal government announced $1-million in support to Penguin Automated Systems to develop a new assessment and ore removal robotic mining system.
The system, designed and assembled by 30 engineers and 20 workers in Sudbury, Ont., would let miners see the exact locations of drill holes and tunnels without actually having to venture there. It is also designed to measure, analyze information, drill and load explosives for remote detonation.
And why stop at the Earth? NASA is already sponsoring a competition to come up with robots that could mine asteroids … or even the surface of Mars.
For more innovation insights, visit www.gereports.ca
This content was produced by The Globe and Mail's advertising department, in consultation with GE. The Globe's editorial department was not involved in its creation.