The quarry of tomorrow
Are full-scale digital solutions for small- to medium-sized mining operations talk of the future or have they already become a reality? The OEM agnostic smartQuarry suite by German start-up firm talpasolutions uses automated data acquisition from networked mining machines and analytics tools to help operate the quarry of tomorrow. By Dr Michael Suciu and Alexey Shalashinski, talpasolutions, Germany.
Figure 1: mounting the datalogger talpacortex on mining equipment
When it comes to quarry operations, who would not be interested in answers to questions such as:
• what route do the dump trucks take?
• how many haulage cycles are needed to meet production targets?
• what are the idle times of the fleet?
• how many tonnes have been hauled?
• what is the volume of fuel consumption?
• when is the next maintenance due?
• are vehicles being driven in a safe manner?
To answer all these questions without having to leave one’s desk requires an intelligent solution.
