[Makati City] 03 April 2023 - Philippine Mining and Exploration Association (PMEA) Monthly Membership Meeting | (Left to right) Mr Harry Finn, General Manager of Sales and Marketing of Information Alignment; PMEA President, Mr Joey Nelson Ayson; Mr Nico Els, General Manager of CD Processing Ltd. [Photo by Marcelle P. Villegas for Philippine Resources Journal]
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Last 3rd of April 2023, Philippine Mining and Exploration Association (PMEA) Monthly Membership Meeting featured speakers who presented on technological solutions in mining that are beneficial for the mining company and the environment. PMEA President, Mr Joey Nelson Ayson gave the opening remarks, PMEA Matters, and the Industry Updates.
The Hi-Lite Speaker for the evening was Mr Nico Els, General Manager of CD Processing Ltd. He reported about the "Sustainable Processing of Mineral Sortation".
This was followed by keynote speaker, Mr Harry Finn, General Manager of Sales and Marketing of Information Alignment -- sponsor of the evening. He reported on "The Five Levels of Mining Digitisation".
Sortation Solution in a Copper Mine
CD Processing Ltd is a private UK-based company. Their General Manager, Mr Nico Els. reported on how they offer a sortation solution in the form of an on-mine site service where they would finance, design, build, and operate a dedicated sortation plant at the mine.
“CD Processing will recover a specified grade of ore from low grade ore at a cost per tonne of recovered product ore. There are no hidden costs to the mine, only a fee per tonne of the product ore. The upside for the mine of reclaiming marginal ore includes higher margins, higher revenues and enhanced overall yield of copper (and associated metals found in the ore such as gold).” [1]
“Naturally CD Processing uses industry best practices for both the process plant engineering and the site operation including health and safety and continuous improvement. We undertake a daily copper content calibration check of the sortation plant to ensure accuracy.”
“The lead time for the plant build and commissioning is 9 months from commercial agreement.”
The company offers propriety process to reclaim valuable copper bearing ores from the low-grade material that are conventionally discarded by copper mines.
“Our technology offers a multitude of benefits to copper mines including higher yield of copper from mined ore, less discarded waste and lower overall unit cost per pound of copper produced.”
“CD Processing typically installs an independent process plant which receives low grade ore. The ore is then analysed for copper content to find pods of high-grade ore dispersed within the low grade, these high-grade ore pods are then mechanically separated and reclaimed and crushed to a fine size for direct use at the mine concentrator.”
“The analysis is achieved using magnetic resonance analysers, specifically designed for the purpose, to accurately measure the copper content of copper ore on a fast-moving conveyor belt.”
To accomplish all these, CD Processing designs and engineers the complete solution. “Our engineers are highly experienced specialists in building and operating minerals processing plants and the associated automation and control. CD Processing will build, own, and operate plants at the mine on a tolling basis.”
“Currently we are building a process plant to recover around 6,000 tonnes per day of a 0.35% copper ore from 18,000 T per day of the customer's low grade ore which contains an average 0.2% copper. CD processing designs solutions around each customer circumstances and we are fully accountable for delivering the results agreed.”
Overall, their technology offers benefits to the mine and the environment.
“In allowing a greater quantity of copper to be extracted from any given ore body, CD Processing's technology and solutions provide very significant financial and environmental benefits to our mining customers. The higher rates of copper extraction that we can obtain will extend mine life and increase profitability whilst reducing the logistical costs and overhead through reduced waste.”
For the environment, the whole process generates less waste, lower energy consumption, and cleaner waste for every pound of copper produced. This is the result of extracting greater amounts of copper from any given number of mined ore.
Mine Data Management
Mr Harry Finn, General Manager of Sales and Marketing of Information Alignment lectured on "The Five Levels of Mining Digitisation".
“Information Alignment specialises in the development, implementation, and management of information and reporting systems for the resources sector.” [2]
For over 20 years, the company has been designing and implement software systems around the world. They had been utilizing proven IT technologies to attain excellent results in a cost-effective and time-saving manner. They have expertise in mining data and management systems that are tools in making the mines safer and more profitable.
They offer Connected Operation Systems that integrates all mine and process data across the operations, business units, and the enterprise. [2]
Other than software products that monitor the mining process, the company also offers Consulting Service where they provide tailored solutions to enhance mine project management processes and outcomes.
Mr Finn said, “We are all aware of the changes in legislation on mining in the Philippines, and know it brings great opportunity to this country and all of us here. It also brings increased responsibility, to ensure we conduct our mining in a sustainable way and ensure we protect our communities and environment. Having a solid data platform will play a great part in achieving these goals and as well as ensuring your operation is as productive, efficient and safe.”
Digital Enterprise Solution by Yokogawa
On the following month, PMEA Monthly Membership Meeting was held on 5th of June 2023. Mr Jeff Sacapano was the Hi-Lite Speaker with a presentation titled "Optimized Mining Operations Via Asset Health Insight". Mr Sacapano is from Yokogawa.
Digital Enterprise is a business that has a whole set of digitalization strategies to incorporate digital tools and technologies. These are then utilised in the different parts of an operation. In a mining operation, Digital Enterprise Solutions have so much to offer. Digitalization strategies is also called Digital Transformation.
05 June 2023 - Philippine Mining and Exploration Association (PMEA) Monthly Membership Meeting |
(Left to right) PMEA President, Mr Joey Nelson Ayson; Mr Jeff Sacapano from Yokogawa
[Photo by Marcelle P. Villegas for Philippine Resources Journal]
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PMEA Monthly Membership Meeting was held on 5th of June 2023. Mr Jeff Sacapano was the Hi-Lite Speaker with a presentation titled "Optimized Mining Operations Via Asset Health Insight". Mr Sacapano is from Yokogawa.
“Mining operations produces valuable minerals or geological materials from the Earth. Economical recovery often requires high throughput and high availability of the process with low operation costs, and stringent safety and environmental regulations.”[3]
“Asset Health Insights is a cloud-based asset monitoring service that collects, refines, and aggregates Operational Technology (OT) data from distributed assets. The service connects any asset with sensors from anywhere helping organizations manage large, asset-intensive operations to increase efficiency and reduce downtime.”[3]
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Reference:
[1] Els, Nico (3 April 2023). "Sustainable Processing of Mineral Sortation". Presentation at the PMEA Monthly Membership Meeting. CD Processing company website - https://www.cd-processing.com/
[2] Finn, Harry (3 April 2023). "The Five Levels of Mining Digitisation". Presentation at the PMEA Monthly Membership Meeting. Information Alignment company website - https://inapl.com/
[3] Sacapano, Jeff (5 June 2023). “Optimized Mining Operations Via Asset Health Insight”. Presentation at the PMEA Monthly Membership Meeting. Yokogawa company website - https://www.yokogawa.com/ph/solutions/featured-topics/digital-transformation/
https://www.yokogawa.com/library/documents-downloads/brochures/asset-health-insights/
