Author: Juan Carlos Bravo This weekend, the movie named "The 33" opened in theaters. It depicts the story of the 33 miners trapped for 69 days in a gold mine in Copiapo, in Chile. I think this movie provides a glimpse of how the mining operations are a serious but...
Metals, Mining, Minerals
Technology Helping Miners Lower Costs to Overcome Low Commodity Prices
Author: Juan Carlos Bravo Over the past several months, news of commodity prices being hit hard due the slowdown of China's economy has been a common theme. It was refreshing to read positive news among so much turmoil. The article, Rio saves $200m a year using...
Improved Mining Operations by Detecting Roping and Plugging on Hydrocyclones
Author: Douglas Morris One of the most ubiquitous operations in any mine is the use of hydrocyclones (cyclones) in the comminution circuit to sort particle sizes for mineral processing. Downstream of this process is the flotation circuit, which can be adversely...
Cyber-Security in Metals and Mining
Author: Juan Carlos Bravo In the past, we discussed how the metals and mining industry was increasingly becoming a target for cyber-attacks. An Ernst and Young report, Business risks facing mining and metals 2015–2016 recently upgraded cybersecurity into its top 10...
Move toward Zero Unplanned Downtime on a Primary Crusher
Author: Douglas Morris Primary crushers are the start of the comminution process at mine sites. Before ore is delivered to the mineral processing plant, it is typically processed through a cone crusher where it is reduced in size to about 10 inches in diameter or...
Helping Miners Validate Water Balance Plans
Author: Juan Carlos Bravo In previous blog posts we have talk extensively about water problems in mining and how water is one of top issues miners are dealing with today. The reason I come back to this topic is because I recently read an interview with professor Dirk...
Mining Innovation in Chile
Author: Douglas Morris Chile is the global leader in copper mining and, as such, this industry is very strategic to the economic performance of the country. Even though Chile leads in production, its copper companies import about three quarters of the technology...
Mining Trends for 2015-Back to Basics and Embrace Innovation
Author: Juan Carlos Bravo It is the beginning of a new year and it has been already full of surprises in the mining industry: oil prices below $50 USD a barrel, affecting some oil sands produces and helping other miners on transportation costs; Copper prices going...
Energy Consumption–the Constant Struggle in Mining
Author: Juan Carlos Bravo It is no secret that the mining industry is energy intensive and most of the power grids are at the limit in providing power to existing mining operations. In order to remain competitive or expand operations, miners need to secure a reliable...
Could Technology Help Prevent Costly Environmental Incidents?
Author: Juan Carlos Bravo Recently, a major mining company spilled around 40,000 cubic meters of copper sulfate acid solution into the Bacanuchi and Sonora rivers, in the Mexican state of Sonora. This spill led authorities to shut down wells in the affected areas,...
Water Still at Center Stage of Mining
Author: Juan Carlos Bravo Here in the US, we hear in the news how the drought in the western states is affecting the water supply for agriculture and for human consumption. Miners are also feeling the heat. Water continues to be one of the biggest topics among all...
Effective Measurement of Mining Slurries
Author: Douglas Morris Automation and control in mining can be difficult on a number of fronts. The first being constantly changing ore which varies in grade and hardness and causes different parts of the processing plant to become limiting to operations. A second...
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