Post by John on Oct 16, 2006 9:12:20 GMT -5
I was watching a show on the Science Channel the other day, it was about a Canadian company that was automating it's mines.
Scooptrams were being driven from a surface control room, the operator just drove the Scooptram into the stope, filled his bucket up, reversed it to the road and the computer took over while he did the same with a couple of other scoops. He had to take over at the tipping point and unload it, other than that, the computer brought the machine to and fro from face to tipping point by itself.
They were also drilling shot holes with a jumbo drill rig the same way, experiments are ongoing to automate the roofdrilling rigs, but this has so many operations, that so far it's elluding the boffins.
There are a crew who travel underground lubing the machines as required though, so there will always be manpower underground.
Scooptrams were being driven from a surface control room, the operator just drove the Scooptram into the stope, filled his bucket up, reversed it to the road and the computer took over while he did the same with a couple of other scoops. He had to take over at the tipping point and unload it, other than that, the computer brought the machine to and fro from face to tipping point by itself.
They were also drilling shot holes with a jumbo drill rig the same way, experiments are ongoing to automate the roofdrilling rigs, but this has so many operations, that so far it's elluding the boffins.
There are a crew who travel underground lubing the machines as required though, so there will always be manpower underground.
