The gold and silver mine is in the Atacama Desert, among the highest peaks of the Andes mountain range with elevations of between 4,200m and 4,900m. It is 1,300km from the Chilean capital of Santiago where the ABB Ability Genix suite is located in a remote monitoring center for the mine.
With the technology, Gold Fields officials will gain data insights to help them to increase industrial productivity and operational excellence, while reducing costs. Remote connectivity will help reduce the number of people needed at the actual mine location, thus improving safety.
Starting with data capture and integrating cross-functional data, the solution connects operational, business and engineering systems. It then collects, contextualizes and converts data through advanced analytics into meaningful information in an attempt to increase productivity improvements.
It can also help visualize and analyze all information required to support Gold Fields’ reporting and drive its environmental commitments, helping the company to make a world of difference by achieving its vision of becoming the global leader in sustainable gold mining.
“Salares Norte deploys a high level of digital industrial software and technology. This is critical to this project due to its remote location – the nearest town being Diego de Almagro, 180km away, the altitude of the project and adverse weather conditions which make site access and fieldwork challenging,” said Max Combes, project director of Gold Fields. “It demanded a solution for the remote monitoring center in Santiago that could integrate and contextualize information from many systems, including some common to Chile, as well as perform data analytics.”
Salares Norte is expected to produce 3.7 million ounces of gold over an initial mine life of 11 years. The operation involves drilling, blasting, loading, and hauling methods for ore extraction, and has an installed production capacity of two million tons per year.