motors and drives systems, as well as
instrumentation and analyser
systems,” explained the company.
Next Level mining at
Garbenberg mine
As an example of what Next Level
mining looks like in practice, ABB has
worked with Boliden AB’s
Garpenberg zinc-lead-silver mine in
central Sweden to turn it into one of
the most-efficient and productive
mines in the world.
Boliden and ABB completed the
US$580 million project in mid-2014.
Since then, the milled ore tonnage has
risen nearly 60% to 2.22 million t, a
figure set to climb to 2.5 million t by
the end of this year, the company said
in a press release. Meanwhile, costs
per tonne have dropped with
decreased energy consumption, water
usage and noise reduction for some
500 residents who live nearby.
To make this possible, ABB
delivered power and automation
solutions for grinding mills and mine
hoists, as well as hundreds of motors
and energy-saving drives, the
company explained. The
System 800xA automation planform
was integrated into what had
historically been autonomous
systems, including hoist, mill drives,
ventilation, dewatering, substations,
conveyors, crushers ore storage and
maintenance, as well as document
management and communications.
Boliden operators and engineers in
more than 30 workstations – or those
underground outfitted with mobile
tablet devices – can optimise the
system, with documentation at their
fingertips should equipment need
attention.
Additionally, a service agreement,
based on preventive and
condition‑based maintenance,
leverages the expertise of ABB’s team
of remote service engineers. Based in
another part of Europe, technicians
can capitalise on the vast amounts of
data being generated by
Garpenberg’s sensor-equipped
comminution equipment for
troubleshooting that boosts its
availability and saves the mine
money.
Improving maintenance
performance
ABB has also launched AssetVista™
to improve the maintenance
performance of a mine by easily
accessing previously untapped asset
data and then compiling it efficiently.
According to the company,
AssetVista unlocks an integral feature
of the System 800xA platform,
although it can also be integrated into
a range of other third-party control
systems. To work most effectively, it is
combined with the customer’s
maintenance management to improve
equipment reliability, thereby
reducing maintenance and
operational costs, avoiding unplanned
shutdowns and increasing
productivity.
“AssetVista pulls together
previously disparate condition data
from various assets, such as valves,
switches, sensors, motors, switchgear,
gearboxes, crushers and conveyors to
collectively analyse and compare all
data, enabling users to define a
thorough predictive maintenance
strategy,” the company said in a press
release.
As an example, the company
highlighted a typical conveyor, which
offers a large array of intelligence.
This data is often distributed,
independently, however, to different
computer systems located in a control
room, office and e-house. “This silo
mentality means vital information is
not shared among all stakeholders in
a timely manner,” explained the
company. “If, for example, a fault
occurs due to insufficient lubrication
of an electric motor, the maintenance
engineer may not learn about it until
production has already been
compromised. And, even when
identified, the engineer may not
quickly identify the electric motor as
the root cause. This leads to massive
and costly delays.”
According to ABB, AssetVista
avoids this scenario by channelling
the key information into one
maintenance-oriented system. So
everyone from operations to
maintenance and automation gets
forewarning of a potential fault (i.e.,
lubrication failure) with a proposed
solution – and all with enough time to
address it before production is
affected.
“AssetVista breaks down the
information silos that exist between
operation, automation and
maintenance personnel, by having
them share the same knowledge,”
said Giuseppe di Marco, Managing
Director of ABB’s Process Industries
business unit. “This smooth
integration of data leads to increased
operational efficiency through faster
repairs and the elimination of
unnecessary maintenance that might
expose personnel to safety risks.”
LIVEmine makes a
splash in Las Vegas
Following its launch at the start of the
year, Hexagon Mining – which brings
together the expertise at MineSight,
Devex Mining, Leica Geosystems and
SAFEmine – has been making a
splash. Most recently, it presented its
LIVEmine solution, which harnesses,
real-time technology to connect mine
planning with mine operations and
mine safety, at HxGN LIVE,
Hexagon’s annual user conference in
Las Vegas.
“LIVEmine represents an
impressive vision that very few
companies seem capable of
individually conceiving,” said one
attendee. “The technology integration
just around the corner sounds very
exciting. The important integration of
Hexagon businesses and technologies
is producing more advanced mining
offerings than we’ve seen, such as
HxM Athena and HxM Blast.”
Setting new standards
Both products were demonstrated to
attendees in The Zone, HxGN LIVE’s
technology expo that showcased more
than 50 000 ft
2
of innovation. They
were also central to presentations,
HxGN TV panel discussions and
Samora’s keynote address.
HxM Athena – Hexagon Mining’s
flagship product and the key
component to its vision of a digital,
integrated mine – is a based on the
synergies between Hexagon Mining’s
partner companies. Its goal is to
understand the big problems, but
76
|
World Coal
|
July 2015
