MICROMINE has won a contract to implement the Pitram fleet management and mine control software at Independence Group’s (IGO) Nova nickel-copper-cobalt mine in Western Australia.
The roll out of Pitram at Nova started this month and is expected to be complete in early 2019.
IGO launched commercial operations at the Fraser Range site in July 2017. The company produced 22,258 tonnes of nickel, 9545 tonnes of copper and 740 tonnes of cobalt at Nova in the 2018 financial year.
Pitram operations manager Daren Hinchliffe welcomed the opportunity to help IGO identify operational efficiencies that would optimise Nova’s production, while also improving safety and control room transparency at the underground mine.
“MICROMINE’s fleet management and mine control solution Pitram, will be used by operations personnel, to capture insights and data from mobile equipment and underground mining activities, in real time,” Hinchliffe said.
“Using Pitram’s voice-based mine control system, underground operators can call in their activities, locations and status to mine control, and performance results can be monitored constantly, allowing for continuous improvement.
“Using Pitram’s automated technology, shift supervisors can keep track of what is going on throughout the mine, at all times, results and performance can be monitored constantly.
“This will provide IGO with critical data as to how the mine is performing and, help identify bottlenecks, enabling the company to respond quickly to opportunities to implement process improvements.”
IGO chief operating officer Matt Dusci believes Pitram will drive significant value through productivity efficiencies and cost savings at Nova and ultimately serves as a platform for future integration with automation at the mine.
“We are pleased to implement an excellent system such as MICROMINE’s Pitram at Nova, which we believe will improve production, decrease costs, and offer real time data to ultimately enhance the overall capabilities of our operations,” Dusci said.