Explain how wireless technology has assisted Dundee. Discuss the issues and how

Question

Explain how wireless technology has assisted Dundee. Discuss the issues and how the benefits have provided success.

Wireless Technology Makes Dundee Precious Metals Good as Gold

Dundee Precious Metals (DPM) is a Canadian-based, international mining company engaged in the acquisition, exploration, development and mining, and processing of precious metal properties. One of the company’s principal assets is the Chelopech copper and gold mine east of Sofia, Bulgaria; the company also has a gold mine in southern Armenia and a smelter in Namibia.

Wireless Technology Makes Dundee Precious Metals Good as Gold

Dundee Precious Metals (DPM) is a Canadian-based, international mining company engaged in the acquisition, exploration, development and mining, and processing of precious metal properties. One of the company’s principal assets is the Chelopech copper and gold mine east of Sofia, Bulgaria; the company also has a gold mine in southern Armenia and a smelter in Namibia.

The price of gold and other metals has fluctuated wildly, and Dundee was looking for a way to offset lower gold prices by making its mining operations more efficient. However, mines are very complex operations, and there are special challenges with communicating and coordinating work underground.

Management decided to implement an underground wireless Wi-Fi network that allows electronic devices to exchange data wirelessly at the Chelopech mine to monitor the location of equipment, people, and ore throughout the mine’s tunnels and facilities. The company deployed several hundred Cisco Systems Inc. high-speed wireless access points (in waterproof, dustproof, and crush-resistant enclosures), extended-range antennas, communications boxes with industrial switches connected to 90 kilometers of fiber optic lines that snake through the mine, emergency boxes on walls for Linksys Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phones, protected vehicle antennas that can withstand being knocked against a mine ceiling, and custom walkie-talkie software. Dundee was able to get access points that normally have a range of 200 meters to work at a range of 600 to 800 meters in a straight line or 400 to 600 meters around a curve.

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Another part of the solution was to use AeroScout Wi-Fi radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to track workers, equipment, and vehicles. About 1,000 AeroScout Wi-Fi RFID tags are worn by miners or mounted on vehicles and equipment, transmitting data about vehicle rock loads and mechanical status, miner locations, and the status of doors and ventilation fans over the mine’s Wi-Fi network. AeroScout’s Mobile View software can display a real-time visual representation of the location of people and items. The software can determine where loads came from, where rock should be sent, and where empty vehicles should go next. Data about any mishap or slowdown, such as a truck that made an unscheduled stop or a miner who is behind schedule, are transmitted to Dundee’s surface crew so that appropriate action can be taken.

The Mobile View interface is easy to use and provides a variety of reports and rules-based alerts. By using this wireless technology to track the location of equipment and workers underground, Dundee has been able to decrease equipment downtime and use resources more efficiently. Dundee also uses the data from the underground wireless network for its Dassault Systemes’ Geovia mine management software and IBM mobile planning software.

Before implementing AeroScout, Dundee kept track of workers by noting who had turned in their cap lamps at the end of their shift. AeroScout has automated this process, enabling staff in the control room to determine the location of miners quickly.

It is also essential for workers driving equipment underground to be able to communicate closely with the mine’s control room. In the past, workers used a radio checkpoint system to relay their location. The new wireless system enables control room staff workers actually to see the location of machinery so they can direct traffic more effectively, quickly identify problems, and respond more rapidly to emergencies.

Thanks to wireless technology, Dundee has been able to reduce costs and increase productivity while improving the safety of its workers. Communication costs have dropped 20 percent. According to Dundee CEO Rick Howes, the $10 million project, along with new crushing and conveyor systems, helped lower production costs to $40 a ton from $60. In 2013, Chelopech ore production topped two million tons, a 12 percent increase over the previous year.

networking, RFID technology, and AeroScout MobileView software to automate tracking of workers, equipment, and ore as they move through its Chelopech underground mine.

The chapter-opening diagram calls attention to important points this case and this chapter raise. The Dundee Precious Metals production environment in its Chelopech mine is difficult to monitor because it is underground yet requires intensive oversight and coordination to make sure that people, materials, and equipment are available when and where they are needed underground and that work is flowing smoothly. Tracking components manually or using older radio identification methods was slow, cumbersome, and error-prone. Dundee was also under pressure to cut costs because the price of gold had dropped and precious metals typically have wild price fluctuations.

Management decided that wireless Wi-Fi technology and RFID tagging provided a solution and arranged for the deployment of a wireless Wi-Fi network throughout the entire underground Chelopech production facility. The network made it much easier to track and supervise mining activities from above ground. Dundee Precious Metals had to redesign some aspects of its production and other work processes and train employees in the new system to take advantage of the new technology.

Here are some questions to think about: Why did wireless technology play such a key role in this solution? Describe how the new system changed the production process at the Chelopech mine.

Explanation / Answer

Display Unit Control System (DUCS) positioned in the central control room has enabled Dundee to plan and program responsibilities that can be allocated to individuals located underground. The information captured from technologies and equipments are conveyed to the surface automatically via the Wi-Fi wireless technology connections and settings.

Thus the accountability and task of reporting the proceedings consequently shifts from manual to automatic real-time reporting of procedures straightforwardly from machines. The system makes available straight forward reporting of the final outcomes of all allocated responsibilities by making use of the information accessible from the equipment.

Moreover the control room facilitates with a single point access to observe and scrutinize the multiple systems and permits status verification and conformity and the necessary intrusion and involvement as needed. Further it helps to develop remote administration of business procedures, right to use the information’s, resolving significant and decisive problems, reducing interruptions and postponements etc thus leading to augmented competency and effectiveness.

Control room administration arrangement is intended to make use of assimilated touch screen dashboards in the underground vehicles where worker can perceive information and allocated responsibilities. The dashboard automatically sends response to the system on the progress of precise tasks. A camera attached to the control panel of the vehicle facilitates the worker in effective implementation of his responsibilities.

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