The technology could make mining cheaper and safer, avoiding the need to dig wide tunnels and hire large numbers of expensive, skilled workers. Such advances may prove crucial as easy-to-exploit deposits run dry and miners drill deeper in more remote places to supply China, India and other emerging economies. It is one of many mining technologies that developers hope will allow future production to be run almost entirely by people safely above ground. The equipment is made locally by Rail-Veyor Technologies Global Inc.
MINING DRILLS GALAXY ON FIRE 2 INSTALL
Vale SA, the Brazilian company that owns the mine near this nickel-rich Canadian town, has spent nearly $50 million in two years to install and test the “rail-veyor.” The company believes the transport system will revolutionize how it builds and extracts new mineral deposits. Once filled, the automated train will snake through a series of narrow tunnels, emerge from a rocky outcropping, then loop past St-Jean’s window and dump its payload for sorting. SUDBURY, Ontario, Oct 28 (Reuters) - In an office trailer parked outside a mine shaft in northern Ontario, operator Carolyn St-Jean leans back in her chair and monitors a machine loading nickel-rich ore into rail cars deep underground. * Unions make peace with automation: ‘good for productivity’
* Automation essential as miners dig deeper, in remote areas
* Companies eye driverless vehicles, new digging methods * New, automated mining equipment cuts costs, boosts safety
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