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Optimising against

sloppy stoping

In just a few years, Minnovare’s the Production Optimiser™ ents throughout the development process ensured we built the
has redefined drilling set up and execution in underground set- technology to meet each stakeholders’ needs, ensured it fitted
tings across the Australian mining industry. in with the mine’s current workflows and most importantly was
The Production Optimiser™ system combines hardware and simple and intuitive to use.”
software to improve drilling efficiency and productivity in un- The results have been obvious. At Cracow, initial analysis
derground mines. Its patented Opti-Box technology calculates showed that in the previous alignment process only 20% of
optimum boom dip and dump angles independent of on-board holes surveyed recorded toe points within the 300mm toler-
inclinometer systems, reducing blast-hole deviation. ance blast-hole deviation. In contrast, the Production Opti-
A 2020 study conducted by Minnovare of down-hole surveys miser™ was proven to limit rig alignment error, reducing aver-
across 17 underground mines showed average deviation of age blast-hole deviation and increasing the number of holes
more than 5.8%. drilled within tolerance by 160%.
“Blast hole deviation is one of the primary causes of poor stop- Cracow – now owned by Aeris – has continued to utilise the
ing outcomes,” Minnovare director Mick Beilby says. “When we Production Optimiser™ with the operational team estimating a
started our analysis of blast holes, we saw a clear trend of error massive improvement in ounces recovered thanks to the more
happening before the drill bit hit the rock face, which was the accurate stoping outcomes.
result of poor set-up. We identified that this error was contrib- “Before the introduction of the Production Optimiser™, very
uting to around 60% of the resulting error at the toe” Beilby narrow stopes [less than 1.5m] would have been uneconomi-
said. “If we could improve the accuracy of the set-up, we could cal to mine,” Cracow senior mining engineer Thao Nguyen
improve the overall stope performance.” says. “In 2018, the majority of stope designs were 2.5-3.5m,
The results have been warmly welcomed across an under- now they are 1.5-2.5m. Cracow has been able to recover $59
ground mining industry which is eager to rectify the inefficiency million worth of ounces that were at risk due to the narrow vein
problems associated with blast hole deviation. nature of the stopes.”
The Production Optimiser™ is already being used in more Those figures have since been repeated at operations owned
than 30% of long-hole stoping operations across Australia – by Evolution, Gold Fields and at Northern Star Resources Ltd’s
major clients include Northern Star Resources Ltd, Evolution Kalgoorlie operation where additional stoping efficiencies led
Mining Ltd and Aeris Resources Ltd – but the push to lower to 8,300oz being recovered in just one mine.
mining costs in the underground environment means further The Production Optimiser™ technology can be retrofitted to
take-up is likely. any underground production drill rig, regardless of age or style.
Initial development trials were conducted in partnership with Crucially, it removes operator error, reliance on survey mark-up
Evolution (at the Cracow gold mine in Queensland) and Gold and existing onboard systems from the set-up process.
Fields Ltd (Granny Smith, in Western Australia) to refine the The Production Optimiser™ does exactly that. It is not reli-
technology for underground production scenarios. ant on survey, operators or existing onboard systems and is
“The approach we took when developing the technology has proven to reduce errors at set-up by 50-70%. For Beilby, it is
also been a factor,” Beilby says. “Engaging with multiple cli- proof that deviation can be contained by improved set-up.

Mick Beilby “This was quite a contrarian view to what many in the industry
believed when we started to develop the technology,” he says.
“The assumption was that the majority of deviation occurred
during the drilling process. We now have data which shows this
trend is clear and apparent all over the world.
“The results our customers have achieved post implementing
the Production Optimiser™ have shown a material reduction
in blast hole deviation while also improving drilling consistency,
leading to better blasting outcomes and reduced dilution, im-
proved recovery and better ore fragmentation.”
Analysis has also been made easier through the use of Min-
novare’s Client Online Reporting Engine (Minnovare CORE).
Minnovare CORE is a proprietary software platform that inte-
grates the company’s technology systems with third-party soft-
ware providers (as an example drill and blast design software)
serving as a data hub for clients’ entire drilling operations. The
system includes reporting and analytics functionality, allowing