TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Software solutions and services provider Micromine has completed implementing the first stage of the Pitram automated data collection project at the Diavik diamond mine, in Canada’s Northwest Territories, enabling the mine’s joint venture owners, Rio Tinto and Dominion Diamond Corp, to more accurately monitor the loading cycle of underground haul trucks.

Micromine, this week, said the project would also improve communication between haul truck operators and the Pitram control room and ensure that the load tonnage captured by weight-cell system LoadMan was accurately reported in Pitram.

Through improved communication and reporting capabilities, Diavik was expected to achieve increased productivity, lower costs and improved safety.

In Stage 1 of the upgrade, the mine management had added automated data capture capabilities to its existing Pitram solution and integrated Pitram with LoadMan weight meters on selected trucks.

Stage 2 would see Pitram’s automated data capture capabilities extended across the entire hauling fleet.

Pitram is a mine control and management reporting solution that records, manages and processes, in real time, mine site data related to equipment, locations, personnel and materials. Pitram provides personnel with an overall view of mining operations.

Pitram System Specialist for North America Josh Carroll explained that, as a scalable solution, Pitram had been developed to ensure that every mine site had access to an application that was relevant to its specific requirements, stage of mine life and budget.

“As an operation grows and becomes more complex, Pitram can be configured and upgraded to meet the mine’s evolving requirements,” he said.

Pitram was first implemented at Diavik mine in 2007. Over the years, the solution had helped the site to accurately record mine activities, and had afforded management greater control over the operation.

Before the project started, operators communicated all underground information to the Pitram control room by radio. Although effective, management recognised that communication could be further improved,” Carroll said.

As part of that improvement process, and to better monitor and strengthen the consistency of the loading and hauling process, Diavik commissioned a weight-cell system to be added to its hauling fleet. The system, LoadMan, allowed the weight of material on a truck to be captured at the start and end of the load/dump cycle.

“Pitram touch-screen computer units have been installed in four truck cabins and integrated with LoadMan. An accurate tonnage measure of each truck dump is now displayed on the Pitram computer unit once LoadMan has captured the data. The information is then made available to key personnel through Pitram’s reports,” he added.

Further, all common Pitram events entered into the computer unit, including location and loader assignments, time-model status changes, and cycle status changes, are communicated to the control room when trucks pass wireless access points.

In the second stage of the project, Pitram computer units would be placed in all truck cabins, extending the solution’s automated data capture capabilities across the entire hauling fleet. Stage 2 would be finalised in the second half of 2013.

Both stages of the project would significantly reduce the amount of radio calls made between the mobile fleet and the Pitram control room, reducing the overall radio traffic and increasing the dispatcher’s productivity.

Micromine said it had recently deployed similar projects within a number of other sites, including Newmont’s Leeville and Midas mines in Elko, Nevada, and Kinross' Kupol mine, in Russia.

Most significantly, three automated Pitram solutions had now been deployed within North America, ensuring that operations within the region were using the most sophisticated mine control and management reporting technology available.