COSAPI Minería embraces digitalisation in its mining operation site at the Shougang iron mine

COSAPI Minería SAC is a subsidiary of the COSAPI SA Group, a leader in the construction and engineering sector, and acts as a contractor for opencast mining operation. The fleet management was implemented in the Shougang Hierro Peru deposit, near the municipality of Marcona, Ica region, with the help of CT Power.

“This system will allow for the full monitoring of operations by increasing the productivity and safety at the Shougang mine thanks to the following features: real-time equipment monitoring, automatic truck assignment using intelligent ad-hoc algorithms, high precision selectivity in loading different types of materials, high precision drilling guidance and operator assistance. Also, the company has included road quality monitoring, tire management and machinery diagnosis, among others,” COSAPI said.

The main objectives of the fleet management system are the increase of production with the existing machinery, the control of the uniform mineral quality in the stockpiles and to increase safety of the open pit mining operation. Both are achieved by optimally distributing machinery and reducing the impact of human factor. The fleet management system helps to manage the load of trucks and control all the tasks of drivers, preventing infractions. The program detects dangerous operations, such as a breach of speed limits or making unjustified stops. In addition, it is able to evaluate the work and impact of drivers and operators during their shift.

Pavel Rastopshin, Managing Director Zyfra, said: “The joint project with COSAPI Mineria is an opportunity to demonstrate the advantages and competitiveness of Zyfra’s technologies to mining companies in Latin America. In this project, the company has used its best practices, proven in India and Morocco, as well as its technologies in the field of the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence.”

In the context of this project, all trucks, electro-hydraulic and diesel shovels, as well as drilling platforms, were equipped with sensors, while a high-speed MESH WiFi network was installed. Information about the operation of the machinery is accessible to operators and managers. In addition, truck operators and electro-hydraulic shovels can visualise this data in real time from the intelligent panels located inside the cabins of their vehicles. The dynamic optimisation module automatically adjusts the best routes depending on the actual situation in the mine, as, for example, in cases of breakdowns of certain equipment or recently disabled roads.

Using precision drill software and hardware set, drilling parameters are controlled and load simulation is also carried out on the drilling areas using energy data obtained to understand the material that its being drilled on. Precision drill ensures that the design of the drilling mesh and high precision accuracy (at the scale of cm) of the drilling machines are captured; the GLONASS/GPS system is also used. In addition, the project includes the road quality module that with the help of accelerometer data and graphics allows a much more accurate detection in a timely manner on problematic areas in these roads which affects the tires of the machinery and trucks.

Read the article online at: https://www.globalminingreview.com/handling-processing/02032020/cosapi-minera-embraces-digitalisation-in-its-mining-operation-site-at-the-shougang-iron-mine/