Modern Mining January 2018

MINING News

Loadscan’s first off-the-grid solar-powered Load Volume Scanner (LVS) system is reportedly proving successful at Teranga Gold’s Sabodala mine in Senegal. The gold-mining operation purchased Loadscan’s LVS-3TMM and commissioned the company to manufacture and supply its first 24-hour solar system to measure the quantity of gold-bearing ore carted by trucks from other mine sites in the area to the processing facility. The LVS system utilises laser scanning and RFID technologies combined with software that creates 3D model images of Solar-powered load scanning at gold mine trucks to measure the exact volume of the material loaded in a truck or trailer bin. The solar system generates power dur- ing the day and charges a battery pack that powers the scanner throughout the night. It has an option to connect to mains power or a generator to power and recharge the batteries if the solar genera- tion is not enough to keep them topped up. To date, it has been completely self- sufficient: running off-grid with all power coming from the solar system. The trucks have RFID tags so that they automatically get identified by the LVS system.

Carey West, MD of Loadscan, said, “It was an interesting and fulfilling project configuring the solar system to Teranga Gold’s requirements. It was a first for the team at Loadscan, and we’re proud to have produced a fully portable, self-contained solar system that has proven to deliver power and keep the LVS system working 24-hours a day without interruption. “The LVS system was out in a remote location. With the nearest power 1,5 km away, the power cables would have needed to be trenched underground and would have been costly to install. With the Loadscan solar system in opera- tion, the mine site did not need to trench power cables out to the scan- ner or need to run a generator every day where maintenance and constant refuelling would have become expen- sive and unreliable.” The scanner is connected to the main office by point-to-point wi-fi. The data from the scanner is transferred directly back to the office via the wi-fi system where staff use Loadscan’s Overview reporting software. Loadscan’s LVS-3TMM is a fast and fully mobile truck measure- ment and load scanning solution. According to Loadscan, a New Zealand-headquartered company, the self-contained mobile truck measure- ment system can be driven to site and be setup and operational in as little as 45 minutes.  company is Tshukudu Metals Botswana. MOD’s Managing Director, Julian Hanna, said the big widths of copper, high- grade intercepts, numerous regional drill targets, and continued strength in copper prices provided the company with a very compelling start to 2018. “MOD is punching well above its weight and while we may currently have a modest market cap, our drill results are competitive with some of the largest copper compa- nies,” he said. “MOD is gearing up for its biggest year ever in 2018 and we look for- ward to announcing new results from the ramped-up exploration campaign and fea- sibility studies in the next few months.” 

Loadscan’s first off-the-grid solar powered Load Volume Scanner (LVS) system is proving successful at Teranga’s Sabodala property in Senegal.

Record high-grade intersection at T3 deposit high-grade vein mineralisation within and outside the planned 10-year open-pit mine (T3 Pit project).

MOD Resources, listed on the ASX, has announced a record high-grade drill intersection at its T3 copper project in Botswana’s Kalahari Copperbelt. The record intersection is part of the lat- est assay results from MOD’s resource infill drilling programme at T3. Hole MO‑G‑94D returned an impressive intersection of 18 m at 4,3 % Cu and 94 g/t Ag from 146 m downhole depth within a wide zone of 53,9 m at 2,0 % Cu and 40 g/t Ag from 128,5 m downhole depth. MOD commenced the T3 infill and extension drilling programme (Phase 2) in August 2017 to test the potential for additional resource extensions including

Thehigh-grade intersection inMO‑G‑94D occurs near the middle of the T3 Pit project, approximately 100 m above an intersec- tion of 72,6 m at 1,5 % Cu and 27 g/t Ag in MO-G-65D from 250 m downhole depth (announced in March 2017), below the current planned pit design. Recent results include additional significant intersections outside the planned pit design, supporting the T3 Underground project. T3 is part of the joint venture (JV) between MOD (70 %) and AIM-listed Metal Tiger (30 %). MOD’s in-country operating

16  MODERN MINING  January 2018