Australian Mining caught up with several major players at IMARC 2023 to chat about their offerings and takeaways from the conference.
The 10th International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC) was another extensive celebration of the latest innovations infusing the global resources industry.
Australian Mining was on the ground in the exhibition hall, speaking with several mining equipment, technology and services (METS) companies about their latest offerings and where the sector is going next.
Here are some key takeaways.
ABB
As vice-president and mining business line manager of multinational technology pioneer ABB, Max Luedtke is a major proponent of the resource industry’s automated and electrified future.
One question posed of Luedtke at IMARC 2023 was how the mining industry can speed up decarbonisation.
The key, he said, is collaboration.
“Not one company can do everything,” Luedtke told Australian Mining. “So collaboration is critical, where you have to get different companies with their key competencies together, because in the end we have the same goal. Looking at the number of mining companies in Australia, they have a big role to play here. But I can say that (collaboration) has changed now in the last year quite dramatically in a positive way.”
ABB and diversified mining services company Perenti have joined forces to explore solutions that help mining customers decarbonise their operations.
In June, the collaboration was awarded its first contract by IGO, which will provide an all-electric study for the underground electrification of the Cosmos nickel mine in Western Australia.
Experts from ABB, Perenti and IGO will work together to design Cosmos’ electrification, including production and operating philosophy, fleet selection, and power distribution and electrical infrastructure design.
Epiroc
Attending his first IMARC, Epiroc global director – autonomous haulage systems (AHS) Alex Grant was impressed with the size of the show and the foot traffic that came through Epiroc’s stand.
Grant came with the success of Epiroc’s ongoing AHS project with Roy Hill under his belt – a case study he is now taking to the world.
“My role now is to try to replicate what we did in Australia to the other customers centres around the world,” Grant told Australian Mining.
“So we’re really starting to focus on Chile, Brazil, Peru, the US, Canada and of course Australia to get those customer centres up to the right level to sell and promote AHS now.”
Epiroc has partnered with ASI Mining on the Roy Hill AHS project, with the two combining their expertise to convert Roy Hill’s mixed fleet of 96 haul trucks to driverless operation.
Brokk
With several machines either purchased or operating in Australian mines, the local sector is beginning to understand the perks of the Brokk demolition robot.
This “Swedish army knife” of a machine can solve all manner of operational problems in underground mines, with its compact frame able to easily manoeuvre narrow spaces.
Once in those spaces, the robot goes to work, capable of drilling, cutting, shotcreting, splitting and hammering oversize rocks, among other tasks.
Brokk Australia sales manager Stefan Mace said the company had many fruitful discussions at IMARC 2023.
“A lot of people are very curious about what we’ve got here, and that was the whole reason for bringing these machines: ‘This is something that’s available in the market’,” Mace told Australian Mining.
Mace said one discussion regarding the Brokk demolition robot concerned the machine’s suitability in underground stopes.
“(People interested in the demolition robot) are coming to us with an issue in their stopes and saying, ‘You’ve got a compact machine that can go into the stope and break down oversized boulders’, instead of them having to tie up production vehicles like jumbos to worry about this,” he said.
Decoda
Armed with a couple of solutions that get to the heart of maintenance and safety issues in the Australian mining industry, Decoda was able to clearly convey its purpose at IMARC 2023.
“What’s been good from a feedback perspective … is customers saying, ‘You’ve articulated the problem we’re experiencing clearly and you’ve developed a solution within the mining environment for it’,” Decoda business development manager Aaron Watson told Australian Mining.
Decoda was showcasing its RockAware and BundAware products at the conference, the former of which prevents tyre failures through the smarts of an artificial intelligence (AI) detection system.
Mounted onto haul trucks, RockAware continually scans for obstacles that can cause damage to tyres, alerting the driver in the process.
When visiting Decoda’s booth, a tyre specialist from a major mining company explained how RockAware would solve rock cuts – a problem that keeps them up at night.
Hexagon
For Hexagon Asia Pacific vice president Simon Stone, IMARC 2023 was a place for customers and the wider mining ecosystem to come together and share experiences.
“The community that we’re all constituent parts of, we come together and share war stories and the perspective and collaborate on ideas,” Stone told Australian Mining.
“To me, this is the premium event for getting this community to reconnect in one place … where we can have some pretty creative conversations in a very short period of time.”
Stone highlighted that IMARC offers not only an opportunity for Australian-focused mining professionals to converse but also for discussions to be had with international delegates.
“There’s a Mongolian delegation (at IMARC) and I’m very interested in continuing to expand what we’re doing in Mongolia,” he said. “It’s another dimension of IMARC that can be overlooked; the ability to connect with other parts of the world and the business facilitation groups the respective governments spin up to try and decrease the friction of doing business.”
Hexagon – a multinational technology company pioneering the mining sector’s automated future – recently launched a Mongolian office to support its growing footprint in the country.
A conference such as IMARC enables Hexagon to strengthen relationships with Mongolia, which could generate new business opportunities into the future.
MASPRO
MASPRO’s mining offerings are built on design expertise and customer collaboration, and IMARC 2023 served as a platform to communicate this ethos.
The company gets to the heart of equipment failures with its range of parts and engineering solutions, something MASPRO managing director Greg Kennard said has saved one major miner significant downtime.
“We were dealing with a customer that was having problems with heads failing after 200 hours,” Kennard told Australian Mining. “They should be about getting to a service interval of 6000 hours.”
After understanding why the heads were breaking down so quickly, MASPRO’s engineers went to work.
“We redesigned the head, made a number of changes and managed to come up with a solution probably within a couple of weeks, and get it back out to them,” Kennard said. “We may still have a head running there right now – we just had information come through that it’s done 12,000 hours.”
SafeGauge
Australian Mining attended the official launch of SafeGuage’s MultiTool Pro, with company founder and director Luke Dawson unfurling the new solution on the first day of IMARC 2023.
The MultiTool Pro enables technicians to connect to 12 SafeTest gauges simultaneously from up to 100m away.
“The difference with the MultiTool Pro compared to our old product and industry standard is it can remove technicians from the dangerous situations they are placed in when maintaining plant, whether they are conducting hydraulic testing, speed checks or wear checks,” Dawson told Australian Mining. “They can now complete tasks wirelessly from a safe distance, and with the new product they can actually data log, report and integrate it with their systems.”
Data logging and reporting is made possible by the MultiTool Pro’s ‘plug-and-play’ touchscreen interface, with comprehensive reports able to be exported and shared via in-built cloud connectivity.
Total Rockbreaking Solutions
Total Rockbreaking Solutions (TRS) builds custom boom systems for its mining customers, something company sales manager and director Jeff Jackson had on full display at IMARC 2023.
As he was speaking with Australian Mining, Jackson sat down at his computer and began operating a boom system located at TRS’ facility in Kewdale, WA. This was automation in full flight.
“This boom is extremely heavy-duty for mining – it will last a long time,” Jackson said.
“Some of the other booms in the market are a bit lighter duty. They’re built to a price, we build to spec.
“The other thing we’ve got is BoomSafe automation that actually works. So there’s two things that we think we’re way out in front.”
Backed by the renowned BoomSafe control and automation system, TRS boom systems incorporate collision avoidance and have multi-user remote capability.
This is supported by a dedicated TRS site service team, which can repair TRS and competitor booms. The company is also known for its attachments, which can serve many different purposes across the mining sector.
This feature appeared in the December 2023 issue of Australian Mining.