Axis bolsters the first fully automated drill fleet in Africa

Mission

Kumba, Anglo American’s iron ore business in South Africa, cemented its position as an early adopter of new technologies when it implemented automated drilling on the Kolomela Mine. This project was the first fully automated drill fleet in Africa and aimed to increase utilization, improve safety and performance, boost reliability and productivity, and save costs. The remote command of mining equipment relies on line of sight through remote drill monitoring to honour the guidelines of the Mine Health and Safety Act, specifically guidelines towards Trackless Mobile Machinery (TMM). As the preferred supplier to Kumba Iron Ore, Sedna Industrial IT Solutions (Sedna), were asked to provide visual monitoring to support this.

Solution

As an Axis Development Partner, Sedna naturally collaborated with them for the project. The team has worked together on several mining applications in the past, and Sedna relies on the durability and performance of the Axis products. AXIS P3905-RE Network Cameras were installed on the drills in order to replace the onboard visibility during the absence of an operator and the Geo-Cam was used with AXIS Q6115-E as the base platform for drill and bench monitoring, from a distance providing a 360 coverage of the entire working area of the drill. AXIS Q8722-E were used as the base for the Thermal Geo-Cam; drill and bench monitoring in poor light or high dust conditions.

Result

The custom-built, world-class mining application reinforces the project through real-time visual monitoring for automated process optimization and early problem detecting. As a result, the Kolomea Mine benefit from increased efficiency, improved safety, minimized downtime and lowered operating costs.