Unlocking New Ore Body Knowledge in Real Time
MineSense Technologies
MineSense is a pioneer in digital mining solutions, supplying real-time, sensor-based ore sorting for mines.
All mines have ore and waste variability within each block. We build and deploy innovative digital mining technologies to solve challenges at the extraction face, addressing ore dilution, grade control, and waste reduction.
The increased real-time visibility of your ore body provided by MineSense solutions drive improvements in your mine’s efficiency, productivity and sustainability.
What is ShovelSense®
Video by Teck Resources,
Our signature solution is ShovelSense, a robust sensor installed on mining equipment to scan and estimate the grade of the material in every shovel and scoop.
ShovelSense®technology helps mine operators route ore from waste and waste from ore with every bucket, collecting data to unlock new intelligence about your ore body. Using a set of robust high-speed x-ray fluorescence (HSXRF) sensors installed on cable and hydraulic shovels and front-end loaders,
ShovelSense scans the mineral content of the bucket to assess the grade of the material within. Operators are notified in real-time to redirect loads to the mill or the waste dump.
Our clients use the valuable data collected by ShovelSense to map ore bodies at much higher resolution, increasing recovery, life-of-mine, and driving continuous improvement in efficiency, productivity, and sustainability.
ShovelSense® Use Cases
At the extraction face, ShovelSense’s real-time data is used to route trucks by characterizing ore from waste and waste from ore. In aggregate this data provides new orebody knowledge that improves short-term mine planning and reconciliation. The applications of these use cases include identification of veins, islands, and geological contrast zones as well, as secondary payable metals and deleterious elements to identifying ore and waste considering blast movement, spacing, and lack of samples. The value derived is reduced ore losses and ore dilution.
Key Routing Decisions at the Extraction Face Reduce Ore Loss
The ShovelSense System enables key routing decisions through the precise definition of ore grade and characteristics of recoverable metals, waste, and deleterious elements in real-time at the mine face.
The ShovelSense systems create visibility of ore in the smallest mineable unit, the bucket of each shovel at the mine face. This data enables this ore to be routed via FMS integration to ore stockpiles instead of being sent to the waste pile. The outcome is optimized ore recovery from the ore body, using existing infrastructure that enables improved performance and recovery from downstream operations as well as measurable sustainability and ESG performance.
Key Routing Decisions at the Extraction Face Reduce Ore Dilution
The ShovelSense System enables key routing decisions through precise definition of ore grade and characteristics of recoverable metals, waste and deleterious elements in real-time at the mine face.
The ShovelSense system creates visibility of waste in the smallest mineable unit, the bucket of each shovel at the mine face. This data enables dilution waste to be routed via FMS integration to waste instead of being sent the ore stockpiles. The outcome is reduced dilution in ore feeding downstream processing, improving ore recovery from the ore body, through the use of existing infrastructure. Reducing dilution enables improved performance and recovery from downstream operations, as well as measurable sustainability and ESG performance.
The ShovelSense System facilitates a mine’s operational objectives by providing detailed ore characteristics and classification at the mine face, optimizing downstream benefits. With visibility into the ore body early on, operations are better able to plan and schedule when and where to mine, with data that improve downstream performance, recovery, control, and operations.
When MineSense’s high-resolution of data (i.e. grade for each bucket position), is analyzed in aggregate over time, it identifies trends that may not be evident from data used to build the geological models. Combining bucket/dig position data with ShovelSense grade estimates optimizes short and long-term mine planning.
ShovelSense Enables Ore Body Reconciliation with At the Face and Stockpile Ore Characterization Data
The ShovelSense System provides essential grade quality for recoverable metals and ore characterization data that mine operators can use to calculate the mine’s ability to recover tonnage, grade, and metal content that is estimated in ore reserves.
Commodities
The MineSense system supports mines with primary, secondary, and polymetallic recoveries, as well as identifying valuable metals and harmful deleterious elements that can impact recovery, equipment, and/or incur penalties. The MineSense System creates a higher level of efficiency in mines by precisely identifying metals, as well as deleterious elements present from mine to mill.
Desirabe Metals:
Copper
Zinc
Nickel
Iron
Lead
Molybdenum
Impurities and deleterious elements:
Arsenic Manganese Chromium
What's New at MineSense
