The game changer

Jolanthe de Meyer and Gary Skinner work in the future. They are part of the Sandvik Trans4Mine team that helps customers optimize their operations. They do this primarily by identifying how electric, digital or automated solutions can achieve the best results possible at a specific mine in terms of sustainability, safety, performance and productivity.

“We put together systems,” says Gary Skinner, Global Trans4Mine Manager, Sandvik Mining South Africa. “We look at a specific greenfield or brownfield mine layout, and in partnership with the customer work out what their requirements are and how to achieve those requirements in the most optimal way. So we work in the future. We are part of a team that designs mines for future operations.”

Trans4Mine has been assisting Sandvik customers more than 20 years. But the recent development of the MineGame simulation tool is a game changer for their capabilities and the future of mining.

“We traditionally used other tools, such as Excel, to help us with feasibility studies,” says Jolanthe de Meyer, Global Trans4Mine Specialist, Sandvik Mining South Africa. “But since we started using MineGame we cannot go back. It is a tool that opens a massive number of doors and gives us a capability that surpasses everything we had up to this point. It means that the support that we can give to customers has exploded.”

MineGame allows Trans4Mine to dynamically simulate underground mines and how different machines operate within them. It can simulate the features of the mine, such as ramp gradients, turning points and areas where traffic congestion will occur and then show how different pieces of equipment will perform. From this data, the most optimal set-up can be determined in terms of type of equipment, how much equipment and where to locate areas such as passing bays and battery charging bays. I

“It is a de-risking tool for customers,” adds Skinner. “Showing customers the optimal place to put a charging bay or passing bay or how to avoid traffic congestion can save them millions. And it gives them peace of mind before they start digging.”

Through constant development, MineGame has become so powerful that it calculates complexity beyond the capability of the human brain. Its main features are its speed, geospatial accuracy and how clearly it shows results.

“The geospatial accuracy is very important because the duty cycle of a truck tramming flat for four kilometers will look completely different to the same truck tramming up a ramp,” says de Meyer. “And whereas an Excel tool shows a static linear progression of output from, for example, simply adding trucks to the operation, MineGame works out at what number of trucks congestion will occur and when output will then flatline. MineGame takes into account all interactions.”

“Each mine is unique,” adds Skinner. “So a battery-electric vehicle is going to operate differently every single time. MineGame considers the dynamics of the entire operation. And it is fast. It can produce results in a couple of days and we can do iterations quickly. It is also very easy for customers to understand what they are looking at, especially with the animation it produces of vehicles moving and interacting inside the mine. This is a wow factor with customers. They automatically recognize their mining operation because they have this 
3D view of it. Some customers 
even present these animations for board approval.”

MineGame has now been used at around 80 customer sites around the world. “Customers love it,” says de Meyer. “They want to know where 
they can buy it. And it gives us the 
edge that no other company has. MineGame’s speed and accuracy is incomparable with any other simulation tool currently available.”

“MineGame puts us into the DNA of a project,” Skinner concludes. “It enables us to work in partnership with the customer to change the way mines are operated in the future.”