AutoMine, Automated Production in Action in Codelco El Teniente Mine, Pipa Norte Production Sector I International Congress on Automation In the

Mining Industry
Authors:
Mikko Koivunen Product Line Manager - Mine Automation, Latin America Sandvik Mining and Construction Corp Av. Presidente Edo. Frei Montalva 9990, Quilicura, Santiago, Chile Tel. +56977484480, +5626760218 Email: mikko.koivunen@sandvik.com Martin Pierola Jefe de Unidad Pipa Norte Codelco Chile Divisin El Teniente Milln 1020 Rancagua, Chile Tel. +56 72 296863 Email: mpierola@codelco.cl

Summary
This paper gives an overview of AutoMine, Sandviks solution for loading and hauling automation and presents the benefits it provides. The paper continues by giving an introduction to the semiautomated loading system at Codelcos El Teniente mine Pipa Norte mining area. Furthermore the paper shares Codelcos views and experiences on mine automation, expected benefits and challenges faced in semi-automated loading operation. It also highlights important points to consider when planning automation in order to maximize the benefits automation offers in an underground mining operation.

INTRODUCTION
The AutoMine automated hauling and loading system has been operational in Codelco El Teniente mine in Pipa Norte production sector since June 2004. The whole production sector consists of fourteen production tunnels of which nine are automated currently and the rest of the area is planned to be automated during the first half of year 2008. The fleet consists of three semiautomated Toro 0010 Load Haul Dump (LHD) that are operated by one operator located in a surface control room approximately 10 km from the underground operations. The operation is run in three shifts, seven days a week throughout the year. The objective of this paper is to first introduce the AutoMine technology and its configuration in Pipa Norte, present the benefits it has provided to the underground mining operations and further discuss the challenges automation poses in these conditions.

AUTOMINE TECHNOLOGY
AutoMine is an automated loading and hauling system for operating automated LHD and truck fleets. The system permits one operator to manage several LHDs and trucks from a control room located remotely from the production area. The system permits fully automated production cycle in case of a truck fleet, the cycle consisting of automated tramming and dumping. The LHDs are semiautomated meaning that the production cycle consists of automated tramming and dumping but the bucket loading is done by the operator via teleoperation. The automated production area is isolated by an Access Control System to ensure safe and continuous operations. Benefits of the system - Increased safety as personnel are removed from hazardous production areas. - Improved working conditions. - Improved production control with the ability to follow production in real time. - Increased fleet utilization resulting in increased production capacity. - Optimized tramming speed in each cycle. - Lower operating costs. One operator can manage more than one machine.

AutoMine Sub-Systems
AutoMine system is composed of several sub-systems: Operator station, Mission Control System (MCS), Access Control System (ACS), MineLAN Communication System and Machine Onboard System. The system architecture is depicted in Figure 1.

Maintenance Planning System

Production Planning System

SCADA

External Systems

Operator Operator Station(s) Station(s)

Mission Mission Control System Control System

Control Room

Access Control Access Control System System

MineLAN Communication MineLAN Communication

Access Access Gates Gates

Backbone

Production Area

Figure 1: AutoMine system architecture

Operator Station
The operator station is the user interface for the operator visualizing the operations via Mission Control System and Access Control System user interfaces and providing real time video and audio via monitors. The operator chair has all the needed controls for comfortable teleremote operations for bucket filling and other operations.

Mission Control System

The Mission Control System is the interface to external systems and it is responsible for the automated production execution and for visualizing the production area activities. In addition it has the following main functions: traffic control permitting several machines to use the same production areas, production and fleet condition monitoring, visualizing machine positions and statuses, showing machine alarms and autonomous area statuses.

Access Control System

The fundamental safety concept for autonomous operations is to provide an area for automated machines which is totally isolated from manually operated machines and personnel. The Access Control System conforms to this safety concept using both physical and electronic means and has the following main functions: restricting entry, detecting unauthorized entry, prevent unplanned machine exit, provide controlled access for autonomous machines and controlling the limits of the autonomous area.

MineLAN Communication System

The MineLAN system provides the communication links between the automated LHDs and trucks in the autonomous production areas and the equipment located in the control room. The system

transfers data, audio and video in real time. MineLAN Access Points (base stations) are installed in the autonomous production areas and provide radio coverage in the production tunnels for the Mobile Terminals located on the automated machines. The MineLAN Communication System is based on IEEE 802.11g standard.

Machine Onboard System

Autonomous LHDs and trucks are equipped with the InfraFREE navigation system, a video/audio system and MineLAN Communication equipment. The InfraFREE navigation system is responsible for executing the missions it receives from the Mission Control System. The navigation system drives the machines from point A to B in autonomous mode by controlling the steering and speed and performs any necessary boom and bucket or box movements. No external infrastructure is needed in the production area for navigation, all the needed equipment is located onboard the machine. Real time video image and audio are transmitted to the operator station via the MineLAN Communication System during the automated and teleoperated operations.

IMPLEMENTATION CASE: PIPA NORTE AREA EL TENIENTE MINE CODELCO CHILE

Introduction
Pipa Norte is one of the mining areas that make up the underground operations of the El Teniente Division of Codelco. This mine is planned to contribute approximately 10,000 of the 140,000 tons of copper ore per day produced by the Division El Teniente (DET). The Pipa Norte area, as well as all of the DET, operates using the Panel Caving Mining Method. Figure 2 gives a visual representation of the technique as practiced at El Teniente Division. This method of underground mining consists of at least four sets of tunnels distributed in different levels. The highest set is known as the Under Cut level (UCL). The purpose of the UCL is to destroy the base of the mineralized block in order to cause the solid rock to crumble by gravity. The second level known as Production Level (PL) has a set of mineral draw bells that capture the mineral that begins to fall by gravity. These draw bells, in turn, have two entrance points or draw points where the Load Haul Dumps (LHD) collect the mineral and transport it towards the emptying points that connect, through a vertical excavation known as an ore pass, with the transfer level and subsequently with the main transport level that carries the mineral to the treatment plant. Figure 2 (a) shows a general view of Panel Caving Method and (b) the typical levels in a operation with Panel Caving in El Teniente Mine: nivel de hundimiento (UCL), nivel de produccin (PL), nivel de traspaso and nivel de transporte.

(a)

(b)

Figure 2: Underground panel caving mining method. The main process that takes place in the production level is the mineral extraction with LHD, and it is this exact activity that has been automated in the Pipa Norte area. In practice, the implementation consists of a semi-automation because the loading of the bucket of the LHD is carried out by remote operation (from the control room located outside of the actual mine) and the transport, unloading, and the return to the mineral extraction activities are done automatically. Figure 3 (a) shows the operator station, 3 (b) a camara view of a draw point as seen by the operator and 3 (c) visualizes the laser scanner wall profile reading principles.

(a)

(b)

(c)

Figure 3: The Pipa Norte area Semi-automation mineral extraction process with LHD

Benefits of the Automation at Pipa Norte Safety, Occupational Health, Quality of Life
From the occupational health and safety point of view, the automation applied to the LHDs executing the extraction process has had a substantial impact for El Teniente mine; currently and in different ways for what occurs in different productive areas of El Teniente mine. The Pipa Norte area LHD Operators have reduced their exposure to the typical hazards of this area to zero. Typical hazards such as:

Collisions with miners and equipment Exposure to gases and dust caused by ground movement Exposure to falling rocks from ceilings Tunnel collapses Fires within the mine Exposure to bursting rocks

Furthermore, the risks of contracting typical underground mining occupational illnesses (Silicosis & Acoustic Trauma or Deafness) are reduced to a minimal occurrence. For personnel that carry out support and service activities in the production level, the Access Control System (ACS) provides a maximum control of Collisions with miners and equipment, permanently since: It isolates the service personnel and equipment from the LHD operation area. It controls the access to the independent areas by means of a restricted entrance. It is possible to detect a non-authorized entrance to an LHD operation area. It avoids an unplanned exit of a machine. There is controlled access to the independent machines.

These benefits have allowed Pipa Norte to be considered as the safest production area, with zero accidents and no hours lost during four years of operation. In terms of quality of life, The Pipa Norte LHD operators changed, the adverse conditions of the underground mine and the limited space of the compact cabin, for their own air-conditioned office. That without a doubt generates great motivation to work and satisfaction of their labor.

Productivity Benefits
In terms of worker productivity, the Pipa Norte automatic operation has shown substantial improvements in comparison with manual operations. In fact, one worker can operate up to four pieces of equipment simultaneously. Four times less than what a non-automatic operation needs. In terms of machine productivity, the idea of LHD independent navigation in this system is that it can maximize effective work time. Indeed, daily operation hours can be increased up to 66% in comparison with manual operation (20 hrs. v/s 12 hrs.), since it eliminates interruptions because of shift changes and time losses associated with other human interferences. Nevertheless, the possibility of taking advantage of this improvement in operation hours depends on machine availability when its necessary. That is to say, during the twenty hours of production there must be a maximum number of the LHD fleet operating. This point without a doubt is a great opportunity of improvement for this technology. In the four years of Pipa Norte operations, automatic LHDs have registered periods of low availability. Without a doubt this is attributable to learning and understanding how to maintain complex electronic components and lack of any background in regards to how this technology functions in industrial scale operations.

Mine Process Management Benefits

The LHD automatic system has allowed Codelco to make use of precise information of the operation and vital signs of the equipment in real time. Information that can construct indicators to start the cycle of continuous improvement applied to the current management of the Codelco operation systems. On the other hand, the Mission Control Systems (MCS) has allowed Codelco to control the execution of the production plan in a precise way, avoiding eventual deviations because of human influence, which is a critical aspect in the mining method for Panel Caving. An uncontrolled mineral extraction can generate instabilities that contribute to mineral reserve collapses and losses.

Pipa Norte Automation Improvement Opportunities

According to what was indicated in the prior section, the benefits of applying semi-automated LHDs to the ore extraction process are clear and indisputable. Nevertheless, there is room to improve. Ideas should be brought up to increase the competitiveness of this type of production system. Identifying these opportunities should be a joint effort between the manufactures and the mining companies. In terms of productivity, the most significant example mentioned in the prior paragraph is the LHD semi-automatic system production capacity, which depends on the machine availability, use and yield. In regards to the last point, the current Pipa Norte loaders reach maximum speeds that are 25% less than a situation with an operator on board because of the systems sensitive response to instabilities during the LHD mineral transport. Eventhough this can be compensated by longer daily operating hours the future modifications of this parameter will considerably increase automatic loader system productivity. In regards to LHD operation costs, the mining companies and distributors should focus their efforts in the maintenance and repairing cost of this production system. Currently, this technology turns out to be more costly than the option of having an operator on board. The price of the electronic components included in the loader automation is high, which is what takes away from the competitiveness of operating an extraction process with LHD. Finally, with the arrival of new competitors in the distributor market and the improvement/standardization in maintenance practices, there will be more elements to consolidate this technology.

Challenges with Automation in Pipa Norte

The isolation of the automated production area by a safety system and the safety rules prohibit entrance of personnel while operating in automated mode has posed a challenge to obtain high utilization of the automated fleet in Pipa Norte. Having only one entrance to the area leads to a system standstill whenever there is need to let personnel pass through the area to perform manual activities such as secondary breaking or road cleaning in the production tunnels. An important learning is the importance of rear entrance to the area which makes it possible to get people into the production tunnels, which can be separated by gates from the automated area without causing interference in the whole production area. The experience has also shown the importance of having the flexibility to be able to split the area into at least two smaller zones to make it possible to perform manual activities in one zone while continuing automated production in the other. Both

the mine layout and technical solutions from the flexibility point of view play a very important role in achieving high utilization and obtaining the benefits automation has to offer.

CONCLUSIONS
The experiences in Pipa Norte production clearly show that automating underground mining operations can bring benefits to the operations. It is also clear that the mind set and skills of the people have to be right to achieve the objectives with automation since the restrictions and challenges with automated production are different to the ones in manual production. The mine design plays a very important role in maximizing the benefits of automation and it should be taken into account when considering automation. Also the mining processes and activities need to be well planned and coordinated to avoid any unnecessary interference, which affects directly the utilization of the system. In mining automation the co-operation and partnership between the system provider and customer is vital. As a conclusion, the benefits are maximized when automation is adapted to mining process and the mining process to automation. In regards to the automation of LHD as a competitive option to apply in new mining projects, the current operation cost is the main obstacle to overcome. Therefore, the mining companies and distributors should focus their efforts on the maintenance and repairing cost of this production system. Currently, this technology turns out to be more costly than the option of having an operator on board. The price of the electronic components included in the loader automation is high, which is what takes away from the competitiveness of operating an extraction process with semi-automated LHD. With the arrival of new competitors in the distributor market and the improvement/standardization in maintenance practices, there will be more elements to consolidate this technology.

ANEXOS

Anexo 1: Automine references

Anexo 2: Automated production area in Pipa Norte