JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – First Quantum Minerals subsidiary, Kalumbila Minerals, has appointed Modular Mining Systems to implement three real-time computer-based mine management solutions at the Sentinel copper mine, in Zambia.
Modular would implement the Dispatch Fleet Management system, the MineCare Maintenance Management system, and the ProVision Machine Guidance solution across the mine’s 60-unit heavy equipment fleet in a single phase.
The systems were expected to improve the efficiency of production, reduce maintenance costs and equipment downtime and ensure that shovel, dozer and drill operators would precisely adhere to the prescribed mine plan.
The openpit copper mine, with an anticipated yearly throughput rate of 55-million tonnes at an average grade of 0.5% copper, would be commissioned in the third quarter of 2014.
“The selected technologies will give [the] Sentinel mine the tools to achieve efficient, cost-effective operation from day one,” said Modular GM for Africa Lourens du Plessis.