As mining projects increase their operation time and growth, they are subject to changes in their form and structure, which, despite having been considered in their designs and construction, need to be monitored and modeled with precision to avoid catastrophic situations. This is particularly true when the mine is deeper and more complex.
Aris is a digital platform allowing the Geotechnical area of a mining operation to rely on periodic, online, automated, and integrated information on everything that is occurring in the mine from a standpoint of physical and mechanical behavior of its infrastructure, including the slopes. As such, it contributes to better management of risk, and, therefore, to the operational continuity of a mining site.

For mining companies to increase the metallurgical efficiency of the leachingheaps, it is necessary to monitor and manage these operational variables in a timely manner to maximize copper extraction.

Therefore, in 2010, Aplik began development of the Leaching Pad Irrigation Monitoring System, that allows monitoring the surface of the leaching heap and determining the quality and distribution of irrigation automatically and in real time, thereby detecting ponds and dry zones, channels, zones with low-pressure irrigation, leaks, pipe breaks, fallen sprinklers, or failures in the irrigation system. As such, it contributes to the reduction of variability in the quality of irrigation in the leaching process.

Different processes of the mining activity generate particulate matters. Among the most relevant the following can be mentioned: blasting, loading-transportation, ore unloading and ore size comminution or reduction.During the mine extraction process, the particulate matter in suspension is a key factor at time of analyzing the sustainability of an operation.

Bioseal is a bio-technological product created to reduce and control emissions of particulate matters such as roads and ramps, tailing dams, slopes, hillsides and landfills, among other.

Water plays a significant role in copper production. It mainly participates in the concentration, hydrometallurgical, foundry and refinery processes. Considering it is a scarce and highly necessary resource, the mining companies are permanently searching for alternatives of water reutilization in their processes.

Matrix Clarifier is a system that separates solid suspended elements in a liquid medium by means of a hydraulic-mechanical process. This solution integrates structural engineering, dynamic-fluids, retention and settlement of particles technologies and knowledge, among other.

The availability of mining power shovels is an important factor for extraction and loading processes. During the operation, pieces of equipment and their parts are submitted to significant forces given they end up loading several tonnes of material. If a power shovel malfunctions, this has a direct impact on the entire productive chain.

The operation of the Integrated Monitoring And Control System of the Power Shovels and loading front of AXYS is based on observing, collecting, and processing what the power shovel does in real time through sensors, and the forces exerted by the shovel during the operation. Using the application of mathematical models and rules in real time, it determines and validates the consumption of energy and forces of the machine at each point of operation, as well as the deviations from good operational practices. The platform was designed in such a manner each power shovel would incorporate a computer tasked with capturing and analyzing its operation and abnormal situations, which makes it possible to not depend on a central system for it to operate properly.

Labour productivity in the mining industry dropped 20% in comparison with 2000, in Chile and internationally, as stated by the Chilean Copper Commission (Cochilco) in 2014. This is an important concern for the mining industries that, with the purpose of solving this situation, started to search for a solution for the processes, new technologies, and people.

With the purpose of solving productivity problems associated with the employee’s operational behavior, INDIMIN developed a solution seeking to broaden the productive capacity of the loading and transportation equipment operators, with digital technologies that capture, analyze and deliver relevant information to the employees and their shift managers. For this purpose, they designed and built Smart Mining Coach, a digital personal trainer to guide and improve the operation of the mobile mining equipment to contribute to the productive rise of the operations.

The efficiency of a metallurgic process depends, to a large extent, of the adequate and timely operational decision making in light of the variability of the physical and chemical quality of the minerals that go into the process. To do this, it is necessary to quantify the changes of the intrinsic parameters, such as grades, and of the mineral concentration process, in particular the mineralization of ore and rocks, so that control strategies can be applied allowing the adjustment of operational conditions and optimize the process’ efficiency.

SAX is the first on-line mineral analysis system. This product innovation consisted on transforming an X-ray diffractometer, used for mineralogical analysis of dust samples in the laboratory, into a device that can do the same but in a short amount of time in a mining operation of a pulp or a material in liquid state. Besides the device’s transformation, a unique sampling system and software, that would do an accurate mineral analysis, had to be designed and built.

The OTR tire (Off-the-Road tire), is a highly necessary supply for the operation of any load vehicle and plays an enabling role in ore transportation within the extraction process. The availability of the truck is directly related with the condition of the tires and results in a direct impact in productivity.
Vizutire’s solution consists in entering ultrasound waves perfectly conditioned in the wall of the tire. Through bouncing of these waves, damages can be determined and evaluated with 99% accuracy.

The Trommel is a classification system per size of ore coming from the mills. It downstream allows passing of the ore complying with required grading and returns the one requiring further comminution. It is equipped with palmettes that mechanically allow passing of the smallest particles with regards of its mesh, and in turn, it retains the largest. From a physical stand point of view, the Trommel is attached to the SAG Mill (Semi-Autogenous Grinding) and when the mill is stopped for maintenance purposes, replacement of the Trommel’s palmettes must also be executed. The problem is that the duration of the linings (palmettes) of the Trommel is not the same as the duration of the mill’s linings and therefore, availability of the SAG grinding process is affected because it must be stopped only to replace the Trommel’s palmettes generating high impacts on production.

The Trommel’s palmettes handler is a robotic equipment designed and developed to execute, in an automatic and remote mode, replacement of palmettes during scheduled detentions of SAG grinding.

The climatic conditions and high altitude present in Chilean mining, damage heavy-duty haul truck engines, eroding their components and reducing their lifecycle. Power Train Technologies developed a set of improvements named High Altitude Pack, which ranges from performing maintenance works to the replacement of engine components.

Manual technical conciliation for slope design and construction is time consuming and its results may be inaccurate. Geoblast developed and implemented a software, which compares and consolidates geotechnical data and blasting in real time and significantly decreases error probabilities.

Lining abrasion in grinding mills operation is customary. Its replacement is time-consuming and costly. It can take up to 6 hours. HighService Technology developed a mill lining and wear plates abrasion sensor (the SSD technology) which allows online detection of the components’ condition before any failure occurs; plan preventive maintenance; and replace the damaged liners at the exact point, maximizing the operation.

Landslides and mass movements can endanger workers and could cause the total shutdown of the mine. Gesecology developed a technology that integrates and correlates geotechnical and geological data, using mathematical modeling to generate ultra-early alarms for potential rock falls.

Breakdown voltages and energy leaks are common in EW tankhouses in copper operations. Its monitoring is manual, costly and slow. TESRA adapted existing technology to develop an automatic thermal control system that identifies and removes these abnormalities in cells at an early stage and allows knowing the general status of the tankhouse.