Modern Mining December 2017

TECHNOLOGY

and in 2015 reached 100 per cent automation in its E48 block cave mine, an achievement hailed by the mine as a world first. One of the latest mines to adopt Sandvik’s automated loading technology – and the first underground mine in the United States to do

been developed by Sandvik in collaboration with one of the largest platinum producers. “We’re now moving into the production test- ing phase,” says McCoy. According to McCoy, the drive towards increased mechanisation of cutting operations is proceeding hand in hand with developments in automation (or autonomous operation, as it is sometimes referred to). “Automated trucking loops, for example, have proven themselves over a number of years and we also have 14 sites globally where Sandvik LHDs are operated remotely,” he notes. is its AutoMine ® loading solu- tion which is a fully scalable fleet automation system that increases the safety and prof- itability of underground mining operations. Typical applications where automation is being used range from stoping to sub-level and massive-block cav- ing applications. Sandvik’s primary offering when it comes to the automation of LHDs

AutoMine™ Lite – conceptu- ally illustrated here – is an automation system for a single Sandvik loader or truck. An AutoMine® control room. AutoMine® is a fully scalable fleet automation system.

Probably the biggest single application of Sandvik’s auto- mated loading technology is at Northparkes, a copper/ gold mine in Australia which claims to be the most auto- mated underground mine in the world. Northparkes runs a fleet of AutoMine ® -controlled Sandvik LHDs

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