Rio Tinto is the second largest mining company in the world. It was founded in 1873 and operates in 35 countries, with its headquarters in London/UK. Its 49,000 employees are focused on finding the metals and materials that the world needs. In 2021, its sales totaled 63.5 bn US$. Managing Director European Operations, Colin Mackey (Figure 1), has led the ...
Read More »Fachartikel 01_2023
Digital to the Core – E2E Optimization of Mining Operations
TDigitalization touches every aspect of the mining value chain – from excavation to transport to benefaction to how minerals are stored and handled. As an end-to-end (E2E) digitalization partner for the mining industry, Siemens Minerals, Erlangen/Germany, offers a complete digital portfolio – some main elements of which are highlighted here. At each step of the way, individual processes are optimized. ...
Read More »Smart Repositories – BGE Goes Digital
The Federal Company for Radioactive Waste Disposal (Bundesgesellschaft für Endlagerung BGE), based in Peine/Germany, is in charge of, among other things, the conversion of the former Konrad iron ore mine into a repository for low to intermediate level radioactive waste and the decommissioning of the Asse II mine, after retrieval of the radioactive waste. The following report deals with digitisation ...
Read More »The Gomer Slate Mine of MAGOG GmbH & Co. KG – from Roofing Slate to Slate Veneer
Slate has been used for many centuries as a natural building material, primarily for roofing purposes, and during this time the slate mining industry has left its mark on entire landscapes. In Germany slate mining has been practised at many different locations, these including the Harz mountains, the Franconian Forest, Thuringia, Vogtland, Siegerland, by the Lahn river, in the Taunus ...
Read More »Development of a Platform Demonstrator – an Experience Report
Das Forschungsprojekt ARTUS zielte auf die Entwicklung von Systemen für die ganzheitliche Umsetzung eines vollständigen Belade-Entlade-Zyklus durch eine autonome Sonderfahrzeugflotte ab. Eine Herausforderung hierbei ist der Aufbau einer Kommunikationsinfrastruktur für Bergbauumgebungen und die Sicherstellung benötigter Maschine-zu-Maschine-Kommunikation (M2M). Dieser Artikel präsentiert Projektinhalte und Forschungsergebnisse des Institute for Advanced Mining Technologies (AMT) der RWTH Aachen University (RWTH), Aachen, im Bereich der M2M-Kommunikation ...
Read More »ARTUS: Decentralised Communication of Mobile Mining Machines
The ARTUS research project aimed to develop systems for a holistic implementation of a complete loading-unloading cycle conducted by an autonomous fleet of special-purpose mining vehicles. A key challenge in developing such systems is providing the communication infrastructure and ensuring technical capabilities to fulfil needs for machine-to-machine communication (M2M). This article presents project works and research results of the Institute ...
Read More »Theory and Practical Experience of a Digital Twin for Optimal Operation and Maintenance of Belt Conveyors
Alarge part of the bulk material transport in mining is carried out by belt conveyors. This will increase in the future. The correct design, operation and maintenance are of decisive importance for their economic operation. Recent developments such as the use of a digital twin of the conveyor can make a significant contribution here. This article is intended to present ...
Read More »IBERIA – In Situ Determination of Metal Concentrations
EOre grade control is often based on geochemical sampling of boreholes cores or detritus. Limitations of this method include a single assay result representing a certain borehole depth, bias generated by sampling of the material and the delay in the delivery of results which can take days or even weeks, so that many decisions in the field have to be ...
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