Initiative #1873

Automated convergence monitoring project

Initiative Description
Convergence Monitoring for Improved Reliability of Production & Safety. Currently,
there is insufficient information to undertake optimal rehabiliation planning at Kencana. At
this time only high priority areas are monitored on a routine basis resulting in areas of
significant convergence potentially being missed. It is common for Mining Department
resources to be reallocated from budgeted production and development to undertake
rehabilitation associated with convergence. Reallocation of resources to rehabilitation makes
short-term planning very difficult, because it is extremely difficult to predict rehabilitation
requirements on a week-to-week basis. This has resulted in production shortfalls in the past.
The objective of this proposal is to provide a rapid convergence monitoring system that
informs planners early of converging ground areas that will require attention and thereby
allow for contingency planning leading to greater production delivery reliability. Enabling
project for accelerated production/ore tonnes at Kencana.
Key Decisions and interdependencies
Improved reliability of production, better utilization of equipment by scheduling rehab,
safety improvements. The Financial Analysis has been undertaken assuming an economic
benefit is provided through additional gold production as a result of minimising the impact of
rehabilitation works required in the area of convergence.
Based on the impact of a rehabilitation programme undertaken during FY13, an
impact of ~10 kOz of lost gold production was realised. The Convergence Monitoring tool will
create substantial benefits through better planning provided by early knowledge of
problematic convergence areas.
The convergence monitoring project and prototype are being developed under an
R&D project with CSIRO project, and is therefore subject to technology risks such as
reliability of system and support. To overcome reliability issues, the project includes a trial
period at CVO to be undertaken by CSIRO which is the focus of this CER. SLAM has been
proven to capable of locating a moving vehicle underground. Applying this technology is
considered lower risk although more data intensive that odometry methods. Odometry
methods were trialled as part of the Gosowong field trial in Dec 2012 to try to reduce the
amount of data that is required by the system. However, odometry data could not be
retrieved from the Gosowong light vehicle fleet and will not be used for the prototype system
which will use SLAM. An important task for the project is to minimise the amount of data
required to locate the vehicle using SLAM.