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The Mechanisation, automation, communication and sensors (MACS) research group undertakes engineering development and implementation to enhance the productivity and safety of the mining industry.
The Nederburg Miner
So called because it was conceived to be the size of a bottle of wine, the Nederburg miner is a new approach to mechanization. The technology is specified to be small, low cost and locally made. It is designed to extract narrow reefs that are currently uneconomic for conventional or current mechanized stopes. The small size represents a change in philosophy: rather than using miniaturized conventional machines for narrow stopes, this system will be conceived from the ground up for its purpose. Operation must be truly remote – due to the low stoping height there is no place for an operator. By contrast, current low profile equipment that is remotely controlled is still controlled from within visual range.
There are a number of questions that must be answered to realize the Nederburg miner:
- How is the machine powered?
- How is the rock broken?
- How is the rock transported?
- How does the machine know where it is?
- How does the machine follow the orebody?
Each of these questions leads to a host of further questions as the problem is broken into manageable tasks. If all of the tasks can be successfully completed, the result will be a revolutionary tool. If not, there is still tremendous learning that can be derived from solving even a single challenge. For example, solving the problem of navigation that is essential to the Nederburg Miner will enable other innovations.
Impact: Success in the project implies the ability to convert up to twenty thousand tonnes of gold from resource to reserve, currently valued at well over three trillion rand. This gold is in reefs that are currently too thin to mine economically using conventional methods. Such a vast increase in local gold reserves would preserve jobs in the local industry and provide a solid foundation on which to build a high-tech mining supply industry.
Smart Mine
Modern factories and process plants such as oil refineries are monitored and managed through highly sophisticated supervisory, control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems. All parts of the process can be controlled from a single point. Failures can be spotted quickly, and rectified before their effect goes beyond the local area.
By contrast, deep level gold and platinum mines and to a lesser extent coal mines are still managed as they were a hundred years ago: through a system of personal observation, recording in notebooks and daily or weekly reporting to managers. The Smart Mine philosophy aims to change this in two ways: it aims to make it easier and cheaper to collect data, and it aims to convert that data into information and then into knowledge, in order to facilitate better faster, more accurate, more informed decision making.
The project is less a single entity than a philosophy. Much of what is required is already there. CSIR research will concentrate on two particular gaps: the communication link from in-stope sensors to the nearest wired infrastructure, the so called “last yard”; and the condensing of vast quantities of data into knowledge, through the application of cognitive science techniques such as neural networks and genetic algorithms.
Impact: South African underground hard rock mining is conducted and managed in fundamentally the same way as it was fifty years ago. Smart Mine introduces the possibility of applying process improvements in mining in the same way as they are minerals processing. Such improvements will lead inexorably to lower costs, which will keep the South African industry competitive as it continues to mine deeper, more technical demanding orebodies. Smart Mine also provides the technology to effectively manage environmental health and safety far more effectively than at present.
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