Newmont: ShovelSense® delivers 18.1% increase in ore produced

The tried-and-true maxim ‘waste not, want not’ is getting a whole new workout at Newmont’s Red Chris mine in remote north-western British Columbia in Canada with the deployment of separation of valuable ore from waste rock at the dig face through real-time grade estimation for each shovel scoop.

This means the good stuff with economic grades of copper and gold goes to the mill while uneconomic loads in shovel scoops or trucks are carted to the waste rock dump or low-grade stockpiles.

Our Red Chris team successfully trialed and integrated an X-ray Fluorescence based MineSense Technologies Ltd. ShovelSense® system into the fleet to take minerals processing to the mine face – along with a pre-milling scanner!

This equated to generating an extra 787kt of ore in a little over 12 months of operation – an 18.1% increase in ore produced by the mine – via the conversion of above cutoff grade waste material.

ShovelSense Benefits of 12 Months of Operation at Red Chris Mine:

• 1.6MT ore recovered from material classed as waste in traditional grade control
• 825kT of waste removed from the ore stream
• 0.40 reduction in tonnes of waste per tonne of ore recovered
• 800 hours – most heads reaching the expected service life  before failure

Click to read original LinkedIn post here