Data has always driven the mining industry. Whether mines use the simplest spreadsheets or the most complex automation workflows, successful ones know that everything starts with accurate data.
But, once mines are capturing good data and putting it to work, how can they sustain improvements? Often, it comes down to the level of accuracy. In 2020, mines struggle to get strong results by tracking only tonnes per hour or loads per shift.
World-class mines no longer think in hours. They don’t even think in minutes. They think in seconds.
The emphasis on short interval control in recent years shows that top-performing mines understand the benefit of granular processes and data analysis. Yet, many operations miss the outstanding performance gains that come from dialing in each step of their overall routine.
Consider a process as basic as fueling. Every haul truck must travel for fuel every few hours — say, once a shift. Operators dump their payloads, travel to fuel bays, then head to the next available excavator once refueled.
What happens if each step in that process happens just 20 seconds faster? Properly maintained roads can easily remove 20 seconds from travel each way. Real-time communications can also cut the wait times for a fuel slot by that amount.
If each step in the fueling process is 20 seconds shorter, each truck saves one minute per shift. At a site with 75 trucks, running two shifts a day, the mine can save 912 hours a year. If the mine averages 660 tonnes per hour, that’s over 600,000 additional tonnes moved each year — from saving just a few seconds.
Improving the fueling process is easy: Wenco has a fuel dispatching algorithm that handles the fueling process automatically. But, mines have dozens of processes where these scaling effects apply.
Want to know more? Manager of the Wenco Centre of Excellence Hal Galbraith is hosting a webinar called A Matter of Seconds: How to Extract More Value from Your Mine Every Shift. In this webinar, Galbraith walks through the step-by-step process the Wenco Centre of Excellence uses to uncover such opportunities in your mine that compound to million-dollar improvements.
Using real data from a recent customer audit, Galbraith shows the potential effects from saving a few seconds in the mine’s most common routines. Then, he lays out clear recommendations that mine managers, dispatchers, and operations team leads can use to find similar opportunities — starting today.
Register now to reserve your spot and take advantage of this rare opportunity to get expert advice from a 37-year veteran in mining process optimization.
Free Webinar | A Matter of Seconds: How to Extract More Value from Your Mine Every Shift
Americas | June 24, 2020
- 11:00 am — Vancouver, Tucson, Las Vegas
- 12:00 pm — Calgary, Denver
- 1:00 pm — Houston, Lima
- 2:00 pm — New York, Toronto, Montreal, Santiago
- 3:00 pm — São Paulo, Paramaribo
Australia and Asia | July 1, 2020
- 9:30 am — Mumbai, Kolkata
- 10:00 am — Almaty
- 11:00 am — Jakarta
- 12:00 pm — Perth, Ulaanbaatar
- 1:00 pm — Tokyo
- 2:00 pm — Sydney, Brisbane, Vladivostok
Africa and Europe | July 8, 2020
- 11:00 am — Bamako, Conakry
- 12:00 pm — London, Casablanca, Luanda, Kinshasa
- 1:00 pm — Pretoria, Johannesburg, Stockholm
- 2:00 pm — Moscow, Sofia, Antananarivo