Company Announcement - Aurora College and the Mine Training Society in Yellowknife, Canada, will soon receive advanced CYBERMINE high fidelity training simulators to prepare for the employment and training needs of the three major diamond mines in the Northwest Territories. These mines, namely Rio Tinto’s Diavik, De Beers’ Gahcho Kué and Dominion Diamond’s Ekati, are all ramping-up their surface equipment operators as new pits come on stream. “There are also several base and precious metal operations in the Northwest Territories nearing completion in the next few years that will require surface equipment operators,” says Robert Ward, Coordinator for Industrial and Mine Training at Aurora College’s Yellowknife North Slave Campus.

Aurora College and MTS once again turned to ThoroughTec Simulation, based in Durban, South Africa, for its expertise in designing and manufacturing these realistic equipment simulators. ThoroughTec’s CYBERMINE simulator is the world’s top selling simulator-based training system and offers the widest range of products for both surface and underground operations. The simulators will be housed at Aurora College’s Trades and Technology Centre in Yellowknife. This is where Aurora College already has four CYBERMINE underground simulators. These high-fidelity systems simulate a Sandvik Toro 40D ADT, Sandvik DD420 drill rig, Atlas Copco ST1520 LHD and an Atlas Copco Boltec MC bolter. According to Ward, over 200 operators have already been successfully trained and gone on to find full-time employment. “We are extremely pleased to have been chosen as Aurora College’s simulator training partner once again,” says José Ignacio Porras, Vice President of Americas at ThoroughTec. “Mines in the region will continue to reap the benefits of safe and productive operators for years to come.”  

“Simulator training introduces new mining equipment operators to the various controls and operating procedures before they are required to operate the actual machine,” says Ward. “This reduces some operator anxiety when they step into the actual machine for the first time. It also eliminates or reduces equipment wear and tear and damage by completely inexperienced, green operators.”
The new CYBERMINE simulators will cater for the training of Caterpillar 777F haul truck and 992G wheel loader operators. Due to Aurora already owning and operating a CYBERMINE base unit for underground equipment, they will be able to operate these surface cabs with little adaptation.

“This is a cost-effective way for mines and training schools to have simulators for both surface and underground equipment,” says Porras. “In the early stages we expect approximately 15 trainees per training programme with three surface miner training programmes per year,” says Ward.