One of the first things often associated with Motorola is mobile phones, especially looking back not quite so long ago, when flip phones like the Motorola Razr dominated the market.

With an 85-year history, the company has always focused on communication – particularly radio communication – and has serviced a whole range of sectors from emergency departments, retail, hospitality and mining.

“One of the beauties of our business is not a lot of people actually see us day to day,” Martin Chappell, general manager Australia and New Zealand commercial channels, minerals and energy at Motorola Solutions, told Australian Mining.

“You don’t see our products and services out there but it’s probably touched your life today already and you’re not even aware of it.”

The company employs around 20,000 people, with its head office in Chicago and regional head offices in Melbourne and Singapore. It has been operating in Australia for more than 40 years.

While Motorola specialises in radio communications, Chappell said it aimed to extend into applications on various devices; expanding from pure hand-held or mobile radio devices and digitising its products to run on different platforms that are both consumer and industrial grade.

Communications challenges on site

Chappell said the biggest communications challenge for mine sites was continuity of service; getting enough coverage so management can talk to or locate their employees.

“In the last several years, applications through digitisation of radio products has allowed us to be able to locate people,” he said.

“I can use a specific example of a mine just out of Emerald in Queensland where they do blasting nearly every day. Obviously they need to know where their staff are before they go and blast.

“In the old days it was via voice, now it’s via voice as well as GPS tracking.”

As miners constantly look for ways to reduce downtime on site, being able to easily locate workers and equipment falls within that category. Proper communications services are also a key part of improving worker safety, which remains a top priority as companies continue to ensure every worker goes home safely after every shift.

The remoteness of mines presents another challenge for communications technology, particularly as miners continue to go further and further in search of mineral resources.

Chappell spoke about the company’s radio network – which he referred to as a ‘campus device’ – that could be placed on a required mine site, providing extended coverage.

“What it’s doing now is it’s also linking back to head offices,” Chappell said.

“So if we look at the IROC (Integrated Remote Operations Centre) system in WA, which is through BHP (Billiton), what that does is have a multitude of mines which all talk back to a central command system based in Perth. So they might be talking from the Pilbara or wherever back to Perth.”

The IROC system controls all BHP’s Pilbara operations, including its rail, stockyards and port facilities. The system also facilitates the growing shift toward automation in the mining industry.

“From that centralised position in Perth, they’ve got autonomous trucks going now, so there’s a lot of automation that’s coming from these centralised command centres,” Chappell said.

To further overcome the communications difficulties at remote sites, Chappell added that the company had devices that could switch to public networks to provide better coverage.

“Now you can have devices that can roam off of those campus sites or your mine sites right and onto public networks where you haven’t got coverage from your dedicated network,” he said.

“When you leave or go into town and you’re a manager, you still need to be in touch with the mine, which could be 200km away. You can roam onto the public network and use it as a radio [and] log back securely into your private system.”

Although Apple and Samsung currently rule the commercial consumer market, Chappell reinforced the inability of their phones to handle conditions on site. He mentioned the Motorola Lex L10, a hybrid mobile phone radio device that is more suitable, as it is rugged and longer-lasting.

“That’s a device you pick up and think it’s a smartphone,” he said. “Sure it’s a little bit thicker and a little bit more rugged but to the untrained eye, that’s not a big big difference. What that is, is essentially a product that has two-way radio on site and when you get to town, it’s your smart phone.”

Chappell added that the device is LTE (4G) capable and can use two sim cards.

“When you’re on your mine site you can use it to be on your lock down radio network or LTE network. When you’re in town you roam on to Vodaphone, Optus, Telstra, whatever it is and use the application to get back into your dedicated system on site.”

“It works in water and is dust proof,” he said, “you can drop it from three levels and it won’t break.

“Those are the sort of devices that we’re pushing down into the market in terms of mining.”

Communications across Australia

Chappell believes Australia is at the forefront globally when it comes to implementing wireless communications on site.

“This goes back 30-40 years for analog radio systems that were rolled out through lots of mines across Australia,” he said.

“Most of them now have been upgraded to digital for various reasons, mainly to get greater coverage, better voice quality and to bring on a suite of applications, and those applications deliver a multitude of benefits to the mining companies.

“So I think Australia has been early adopters in terms of heading down that digital road on two-way radio and enjoying the benefits that you get from that.”

In terms of the future of mining communications, Chappell considered more progress would happen through applications.

“I think it’s probably more around the application side, so the benefits that they’re getting out of apps in terms of worker safety, in terms of journey management – being able to track the workers from point A to point B – doing that autonomously so it’s automatic,” he said.

He also spoke of blast tones on site to aid workers.

“They can send out blast tones over the network [so] that people are warned that there’s actually blasting that’s taking place in certain areas,” he added.

“That’s where it’s all heading, and I think it’s heading towards workers being focused on their particular job at that point in time as opposed to having to muck around with technology to make sure it’s working. So there’s a lot of applications around that, in terms of keeping the safety of workers at the forefront.”

Motorola’s communications platforms

Chappell explained that Motorola has three different communications platforms; the P25, which is predominantly in the public safety arena; the Tetra, which is a European standard; and digital mobile radio (DMR).

While Motorola has a mining focus, it also has offerings for the oil and gas industry, such as the Tetra ATEX MTP8000EX portable radio, which has a higher standard to stop any chance of it sparking or igniting a fire.

Although it invests in all three of its communications platforms, one of its main focuses is its DMRs.

“There’s a big emphasis on digital mobile radios, and then from an LTE perspective, Motorola’s doing a lot of work around LTE in terms of infrastructure, to deliver that higher bandwidth data across mine sites or indeed across public safety.”

In terms of delivering the right communications on site, Chappell emphasised selecting platforms that are standards based and companies that have been in the business for a long time.

“Another way that they can ensure it is by working with the vendor and the vendors’ partner community who have been in the business for a long long time,” he added.

“You would also be looking towards a company and a partner who can not only deliver the products and the system from the outset, but support it through its lifespan, whether that be 10, 15 or 20 years.”

A glimpse ahead

While the company looks ahead at further developing its DMR range, it also has big plans for its software capabilities, especially in analytics and predicting events to increase worker safety.

“Motorola talks a lot about that in terms of its public safety business and how we are now analysing and predicting for crimes going to take place in a particular area. That is also starting to play into the mining space where we can predict a potential accident happening or collisions of vehicles,” Chappell said.

“So lots and lots of emphasis over the next year to 24 months around what those pretty significant software suites can do in predicting as well as getting a return on investment, journey management, route management, all those type of stuff that mining businesses are acutely aware of these days as they continue to further drive costs down and improve their ROI.”

The company has already seen a lot of success in its public safety business over the past year in the mining sector, securing contracts with BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance (BHP BMA) in Queensland’s Bowen Basin, BHP’s rail business in WA’s Pilbara, Wesfarmers and a yet to be identified major international oil and gas producer.

With technology constantly evolving and upgrading, who knows what will be next for radio communications.

A new Deloitte report has found the mining and mining equipment, technology and services (METS) sector has accounted for 15 per cent of Australia’s gross domestic product (GDP), highlighting its significant contribution to Australia’s economy.

The report, which was commissioned by the Minerals Council of Australia, found the mining and METS sector contributed $236.8 billion in 2015-16.

Both sectors support 1.1 million jobs nationwide – around 10 per cent of overall employment.

Although the sector makes a major contribution nationwide, there are particular regions where this is more significant, particularly in Western Australia.

The mining and METS sector accounted for a $37.8 billion economic contribution to WA’s Pilbara region – 88 per cent of total regional economic activity. It also accounted for nearly 94,000 jobs both directly and indirectly in the area.

This is followed by Queensland’s Bowen and Surat region, where the sectors made a $18.6 billion economic contribution (63 per cent of the region’s economic activity) and supported 99,700 jobs.

The sector also made a significant contribution to New South Wales’ Hunter region, accounting for $15.2 billion (34 per cent of total regional economic activity) and supporting 93,600 jobs.

The report also highlighted that a key feature of the mining sector was in its high exports.

During 1969, agriculture dominated Australia’s exports, with minerals and fuel making up 17 per cent. However, this has increased significantly, with minerals and energy exports accounting for 64 per cent of Australia’s exports in 2015-16 due to growing demand in Asia.

The report also focused on METS innovations such as semi-autonomous equipment, drones, data analytics software that have helped increase productivity, safety and yields on mine sites.

It indicated that Australia’s advantage in the mining and METS sector relies not only on innovation, but also on policies that reinforce competition, support skills growth and capital, and for companies to adapt to changing market conditions.

In order to sustain the mining and METS sector in the future, the report highlighted the need for the government to implement a range of initiatives including flexible workplaces, being open to foreign investment, a fair and competitive taxation system and continued support for collaboration between the sector and research groups.

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As operators seek to optimise income from mining, operational excellence and the ability to find new productivity gains are key focus areas.

Tactics to achieve this include a re-evaluation of a mine’s maintenance and procurement approach. The two are entwined because a tendency to exhaust equipment and/or rely on tried, tested and sometimes under-performing components can lead to more frequent downtime.

Whether it’s a planned service or an emergency shutdown, any interruption to operations can have costly consequences.

An example where this approach is being put into practice is in milling technology for mineral processing, where new equipment and processes are being introduced to optimise production efficiency. This includes reducing the number of production lines in action at any one time, so increasing mill sizes to enable the same, if not greater, throughput levels.

One of the key advantages to this approach is that scheduled and unscheduled downtime is reduced. However, the activity levels of each mill must be closely managed to ensure that productivity remains high.

Similarly, components used within the mill must guarantee optimum performance and reliability, so that unexpected maintenance or replacement is minimised.

According to Trelleborg engineered products technical manager Zane Thomas, mill liner design and material selection is important to ensure the optimum flow of minerals and longer lasting performance of the lining.

“Liners play an important role in protecting the interior mill shell from impact and wear, while transferring energy to optimise grinding efficiency. These conflicting requirements mean that the lining must be carefully designed to ensure optimum, long lasting performance and reduced load stress on the mill,” Thomas said.

“A key consideration is the material used to make the lining and lifter bars. For some materials, such as composite steel linings, the wear life can be unpredictable due to the quality of the steel, bonding techniques and the cracking of inserts.

“This can become a safety hazard requiring frequent maintenance and replacement, not to mention the additional load in the mill. The result is a loss in efficiency and throughput, increase in power draw and downtime losses, all affecting the dollar per tonne recovery.”

 The benefits of rubber compound versus composite steel linings

Used in most secondary, tertiary and a number of primary milling applications, rubber mill linings are almost half the weight of composite steel liners and come with huge advantages, such as the elimination of cracking or falling of inserts during mineral impact, as well as reduced noise levels during milling.

Rubber mill linings are easily monitored and wear life is predictable. Some components can also be designed with wear indicators incorporated, making it easier to identify when the lining needs to be replaced and therefore, when to schedule appropriate maintenance.

As the pressure to reduce unplanned downtime builds, in order to improve efficiency and mill productivity, the ability to measure liner wear becomes invaluable.

An all-rubber lining has been developed for composite lifter bar solutions. For example, Trelleborg recently developed and supplied a cost-effective, long-lasting rubber lifter bar solution for a ball mill in Australia.

The success with the 1605AM rubber compound and design has given Trelleborg the opportunity to offer its clients an alternative to composite steel lifter bars.

“Composite lifters can not only add to the load in the mill, but are also difficult to handle in confined spaces and take much longer to install, adding to downtime and installation costs,” Thomas said.

“The lifter bars made with new 1605AM rubber compound come with added benefits such as easy handling, quick installation time, reduced power draw and noise pollution. The reduction in overall weight decreases the impact on rotating components.”

Downtime is a significant issue faced by the mining industry, and the mining and material processing industry is always looking for ways to enhance availability of the mills that grind and blend materials, Thomas added.

“Trelleborg’s rubber lifter bars offer increased operational efficiencies, significantly reduced downtime, simple wear monitoring and life predictability. In addition, when compared with steel, a rubber solution also provides superior resistance to the severe impact, high temperature and abrasion caused by the comminution of the ore within the mine’s grinding mill, enhancing the life of the mill,” he said.

Trelleborg offers a wide range of rubber lifter bars and plates for ball mills, rod mills and drum scrubbers. The standard rubber lifter sizes from Trelleborg range from 50mm to 250mm wide and 50mm to 350mm in height.

They come with aluminium and steel tracks, with different face angles to suit the milling or scrubbing application. A wide range of shell plates, grate plates, head plates and filler segments, including the backing rubber to protect the mother plate of the mill are also available.

 Conclusion

Accessible measures and practices are available to help operators to get the most out of every mill.

Though considered just one of many components vital to mining operations, the lining of a grinding mill plays a key role in optimum comminution and mineral dressing.

Lines are subjected to severe impact and abrasion from the mineral being ground and the media introduced into the mill to help break down the product.

As such, a high quality and high wearing lining is an important part of keeping a mill online and operations running to plan.

Roy Hill has partnered with IT consulting and services provider Ajilon to boost its business analytics processes.

Built on Microsoft Azure, Ajilon’s Business Analytics platform will allow Roy Hill to gain key insights across its operations by rapidly processing, amplifying and visualising information.

It will further enhance Roy Hill’s operational processes; increasing productivity and driving down costs.

Jeremy Dennis, national analytics aead at Ajilon, said the platform is capably of processing vast amounts of data (big data), streaming analytics (Internet of Things), visual analytics, data science and model management, from a single technology stack.

The platform can ingest large volumes of data in real time, enabling data scientists and engineers to self-serve visualisation tools, develop predictive algorithms, and combine disparate information sources to discover real value.

Using IoT technology, the platform can also stream near real-time sensor data from the mobile assets to allow faster process analysis.