Ensuring safe, reliable and sustainable operations for ore extraction and transportation.
Effective pit dewatering is crucial to safer, more sustainable surface mining operations. One of the most popular strategies employed by miners is to utilize sump pumps to control water levels. Unfortunately, pumps are susceptible to mechanical failure without proper maintenance and they can be expensive to operate if manually controlled by pit staff.
Emerson has extensive experience working with the control performance and health monitoring of your critical pumps. Our experts can guide you in selecting the best solution to help achieve more efficient and reliable pump operation.
Asset performance management solutions
Know the condition and performance of your critical, fixed and mobile mining assets.
Programmable Automation Control (PAC) of your pumps
Take control to the EDGE of your operation with these affordable, easy-to-use control solutions.
Distributed Control System (DCS) solutions for pump automation and more
Integrate pump control into your broader automation strategy.
Mobile assets such as your blast hole drills, electric rope shovels and haul trucks are the workhorses in your pit, yet highly susceptible to mechanical failure given the tasks that they bear.
Emerson experts can work with you to outfit your mobile assets with a condition monitoring solution so your maintenance teams can take corrective action as needed.
Asset performance management solutions
Know the condition and performance of your critical, fixed and mobile mining assets.
The performance of the crushing circuit in mining crusher optimization is critical for mill and flotation efficiency. Due to variability in ore size, ore hardness and feed rates, this circuit frequently experiences downtime due to blockages in the crusher, conveyor belt damage and mechanical wear of screens. Additionally, inefficient crushing impacts conveyor belt loading, which rapidly leads to blocked screens and increases the volume of ore that is recirculated in the circuit.
Emerson’s PACSystems integrated edge technology hardware and software solutions combine edge control and edge computing with machine learning to adjust the crusher gap and monitor the conveyor belt loading and screen efficiency. This optimizes the crushing circuit performance and increase flotation efficiency.
PACSystems RX3i CPL410 Edge Controller
Combine high-speed, deterministic machine control plus secure edge analytics in a single ruggedized device.
PACSystems RXi2-BP Industrial PC
Master edge computing with rugged industrial PCs for analytics and monitoring at the machine edge.
Pre-integrated PACEdge Industrial Edge Platform
Edge processing for mining to simplify application development, deployment and administration.
While mines are increasingly shifting to renewable power sources in a bid to increase mining sustainability and reduce energy consumption, many sites still utilize diesel-solar hybrid configurations.
Mining power plants typically run with a large spinning reserve, but there is often little visibility into active plant operations and site-wide energy consumption. This impacts production uptime, specifically when energy intensive equipment comes online. When there is a lack of coordination for equipment going from standby to duty mode, sites are likely to experience brown outs due to power surges, reducing efficiency and increasing costs.
Data from the instrumentation and sensors on diesel generators can be sent to Emerson’s PACSystems edge control and edge computing solutions via wireless connection. The edge controller can also analyze other energy consumption data from the processing plant to identify when more power will be needed. Armed with this information and connectivity, the edge controller makes step changes to the power plant through its real-time operating system. This edge control combined with PACEdge software machine learning capabilities can efficiently start diesel generators when energy from renewable sources is inadequate to meet the site power requirements. The result is significantly reduced emissions and fuel consumption in mining applications.
PACSystems RX3i CPL410 Edge Controller
Combine high-speed, deterministic machine control plus secure edge analytics in a single ruggedized device.
PACSystems RXi2-BP Industrial PC
Master edge computing with rugged industrial PCs for analytics and monitoring at the machine edge.
Pre-integrated PACEdge Industrial Edge Platform
Edge processing for mining to simplify application development, deployment and administration.
From pit to process, you rely on various fixed mining assets for the transportation, initial sizing and aggregation of your ore prior to passing it through your minerals processing operation. These assets are highly-susceptible to mechanical breakdown over time given the wear and tear they endure.
Emerson experts can work with you to outfit your fixed mining assets with a condition monitoring solution so your maintenance teams can take corrective action as needed.
Asset performance management solutions
Know the condition and performance of your critical, fixed and mobile mining assets.
Frequently Asked Questions About Mining
Ore treatment stages involve transportation, storage, feeding, and washing of the ore en route to—or during—the various stages of treatment in the mill.
By using automated equipment that can be maneuvered into unsafe areas and difficult locations, mining companies can send fewer miners underground while extracting a higher output with lower risk to their employees.
Mines and ore processing plants that avoid failure by using proven automation technology are able to reduce reactive maintenance cost, as well as avoid unplanned downtime and associated opportunity cost.
The 4D in mining refers to remote locations that are dull, dirty, dangerous, and distant. Mining pits and ore processing plants are typically in remote locations where few people want to live and work, making it a challenge to access personnel. Even getting contractors to go onsite for urgent maintenance is difficult.
The initial material handling and conveying processes use large mechanical equipment which can be prone to failure if large fragments of ore pass through the system undetected. These conditions could cause downstream blockages or mechanical breakdown of equipment, resulting in hours of unplanned downtime. Therefore, the ability to track ore size as it progresses through processing helps mine operators identify conditions that could potentially cause downstream blockages or mechanical breakdown of equipment, resulting in hours of unplanned downtime. By leveraging a combination of sensors, instrumentation, and edge controllers, the ore loading on conveyors can be analyzed. Live parameters, like conveyor belt tension, can be monitored and analytically compared with historic data. Potential deviations can be quickly identified, and the control system can intervene to prevent a downtime incident. This is an example of taking the huge lake of big data and transforming it into “little data,” highly informative analysis pertaining to one problem that drives smarter decision-making to achieve incremental value across a particular system or the entire mine site.
Advanced process and asset monitoring solutions for optimum ore liberation and recovery.
Ensure the integrity of your slurry pipelines and tailings dams.
Automation solutions to improve lithium mining efficiency while keeping people and the environment safe.
