FutureSmart MiningTM innovation wins at Mines and Technology conference

Anglo American has been honored with an Outstanding Achievement Award for the Best Use of Smart Technology for Sustainability at this year’s Mines and Technology conference.

Held as part of Mines and Money London, the conference is the largest mining investment event in Europe.

The award recognised an innovative water saving technology, which we have been trialing at our platinum mine at Mogalakwena, and that uses fibre optic sensing to measure water flows.

Mogalakwena is a highly productive facility in a water stressed region with complex water management requirements, so delivering accurate, real-time monitoring of all mine-wide water flows will deliver real water savings.

The FutureSmart Mining™ initiative (“Pervasive Sensing”) arose from the 2015 FutureSmart Mining^TM Open Forum on water.

Developed with our technology partners, Silixa, it is the world’s first permanent installation using this type of distributed sensing technology. Unlike traditional sensors that measure at discreet, pre-determined points, this installation uses a single fibre optic circuit, several kilometers long, enabling continuous real-time metering of mine water flows across multiple points throughout a region comparable in size to Lower Manhattan.

Building a better understanding

Our aim is to deliver an automatic water balance system at Mogalakwena.

Automatically incorporating robust water flow measurements into water balance calculations will give us a better understanding of the water balance across the whole mine-site. This is important because it will allow us to focus on efficiencies where the impact is greatest. Other FutureSmart Mining^TM technologies such as evaporation measurement are also contributing to this goal.

Once achieved, the system will support (real-time, automated) process control, conserving water and, ultimately, improving metal recovery. Because it uses no expensive sensing parts, and no power, it is both cost efficient and environmentally sound – an important step towards our sustainable mining goals.

Pervasive Sensing will now be expanded and integrated into the process environment.

Accepting the award on behalf of Anglo American, Donovan Waller, Group Head of Technology Development, noted the significance of this next phase.