Vedanta Zinc introduces digitalisation at Black Mountin Mine

VZI, a grouping of zinc assets located in South Africa and Namibia, is part of the Global Mining and Metal conglomerate Vedanta Ltd, the world's sixth largest diversified resources company. VZI operates as Black Mountain Mining (Pty) Ltd (BMM) in Northern Cape's KHAI-MA region. BMM comprises Black Mountain mining operations comprising the Deeps and Swartberg underground operation and the Gamsberg opencast operation.

Swartberg produces primarily copper and lead, with silver as a by-product. Plans are well advanced to deepen Swartberg, which will increase production to 1.6 million tpy of copper and lead ore, and 60 000 – 70 000 tpy of metal-in-concentrate with the extension of life of mine, depending on a favourable economic assessment. Further ramp-up is planned, taking copper and lead ore production past the 2 million tpy mark.

In 2018, a modular digitalisation project aimed at loading and hauling operations was implemented at the Deeps operation. It has since created a platform to further expand in embracing the benefits of digital innovation. The Swartberg Mine is embarking on a complete digitalisation journey as part of the underground expansion project. This journey will create a range of opportunities emanating from safety, costs, productivity, and sustainability. Digitalisation enables real-time data processing that facilitates immediate decision-making and performance monitoring of the operation, which will reduce an ‘after the fact’ decision-making.

Furthermore, Swartberg aims to utilise digitalisation to uphold VZI's first value of safety and pursue its vision of becoming a world-class, digitally-enabled operator. Increased mechanisation through automation will allow employees less exposure to the working face with the minimal interface between man and machine.

From an equipment care point of view, digitalisation will benefit Swartberg in anticipating failures and ensuring that machine health is prioritised for continuous sustainable mining. This will help reduce maintenance spending, prevent unplanned stoppages, and increase equipment availability.

The critical overall benefits can be summarised as:

• Improved safety standards and safety performance.
• Improved equipment utilisation, health, availability, and productivity.
• Improved planning and productivity.
  
• Reduced costs of production.

Further future benefits of the digitalisation drive include:

• Additional safety precautions (people movement tracking and ventilation on demand).
• Reduction in the carbon footprint through improved fuel efficiency and fuel management.
• Process improvements across the mining and enabling services value chains.
• Improved planning capabilities (short, medium, and long term), including integrated planning.
• Improved operational performance management through digitalisation and advanced analytics.
• Improved heavy machinery and equipment health and availability through the introduction of advanced analytics and predictive maintenance.
• Improved production exit rate to 1 million tpy by the end of FY22 (from 620 000 tpy).

“We are in an age where technology, innovation and digitalisation are the cornerstones of business growth and development. At Vedanta Zinc International, we continue to leverage digital solutions to improve our processes, performance and support data-driven and strategic decision-making. Our vision of safe, sustainable mining practices is achieved using data analytics to monitor the mining value chain from HSE to mill to logistics. In addition to creating value for the business, the exposure associated with digitising our operations has led to an upskilled workforce. This reinforces our commitment to creating a culture of development at VZI and is in line with our philosophy of Business with Purpose,” said Pieter Oosthuizen, Chief Digital and Information Officer.

Read the article online at: https://www.globalminingreview.com/technology-digitalisation/20092021/vedanta-zinc-introduces-digitalisation-at-black-mountin-mine/