product news
74
08.13
AngloGold Ashanti has been supplied with
a high tech laser monitoring system, called
SiteMonitor, by 3D Laser Mapping. It sup-
ports mine survey activities at the Geita gold
mine in Tanzania.
SiteMonitor is 3D Laser Mapping’s state-
of-the-art laser monitoring solution and is
typically used in open-pit mines for the con-
tinuous or periodic stability monitoring of un-
stable high walls.
According to 3D Laser Mapping, the sys-
tem combines ‘best of breed’ laser scanning
hardware with monitoring software specifi-
cally designed for applications within this
type of environment. It is currently being de-
ployed at the Nyankanga pit at Geita to moni-
tor slope stability and pit wall movements in
order to provide early warning detection to
Laser monitoring system supplied to Geita
potentially protect lives, capital and equip-
ment.
3D’s Managing Director, Jon Chicken, de-
scribes the laser scanning system, which
includes a long-range RIEGL VZ-1000 scan-
ner as well as the SiteMonitor software, as a
“critical mine survey and safety tool”.
The RIEGL VZ-1000 is a long range, high
SiteMonitor in operation at the Geita gold mine.
speed laser scanner with a wide range of
view. It uses unique echo digitisation and
online waveform analysis to achieve supe-
rior performance and accurate measurement,
even under adverse weather conditions.
Achieving accuracies of 5 mm at ranges
of up to 1 400 m, the VZ-1000 can capture
up to 122 000 points per second with a
100 x 360-degree field of view.
3D Laser Mapping, tel (+27 12) 940-0515
Vale opts for Emerson monitoring technology
Vale, one of the largest mining companies
in the world, has selected Emerson Process
Management’s machinery health technology
to help ensure reliable operation of the pit-
to-plant conveyor system for its S11D iron
ore mining project in Brazil. The US$12 mil-
lion award is part of an expansion to Vale’s
Carajás Mining Complex, which is the largest
single-site producer of iron ore in the world.
“Reliable operation of the conveyor system
is critical,” said José Catarino, Vale’s Auto-
mation Coordinator for the S11D project. “If it
stops working, the mine stops producing. But
with Emerson’s online condition-monitoring
technology we can predict problems in time
to take corrective action while it is most cost-
effective.”
Vale will use Emerson’s CSI 6500 Machin-
ery Health Monitor to monitor 37 km of belt
conveyors that transport ore from the mine
pit to the processing plant, as well as two
crushers and a stacker-reclaimer that are part
of the material handling system. Any disrup-
tion to this arterial system has the potential to
bring the 90 Mt/a operation to a halt – cost-
ing as much as US$1,4 million per hour in lost
production.
To help avoid such situations, the CSI 6500
will capture sensor data from key conveyor
components such as drives and primary pul-
leys. Emerson’s PeakVue
®
technology, which
detects emerging fault patterns on low-
speed, high-load systems such as convey-
ors, was a primary factor in Vale’s selection
of the online monitoring system, because it
effectively pinpoints intensifying levels of ma-
chinery stress, weeks or even months before
component failure.
Emerson Process Management,
tel (+27 11) 451-3700
