The Centre for Mining Technology works with industry and researchers to create and seek out innovative technologies in the following areas:

• Economics and safety aspects of mining technologies
  • Operations monitoring and control systems
  • Time and cost studies
  
  
• Technical evaluations of new mining technologies
  • Engineering modelling and evaluation of mining technologies or systems.
    
    
• Systems Engineering
  • Performance assessment and simulation
  • Maintenance management and reliability engineering
    
    
• Safety systems and virtual reality modelling with a safety and training objective
  • Discrete event and process simulation
    
    
• Development of new drilling technologies
  
  
• Water jet and abrasive-water jet cutting or drilling for mining applications
  
  
• Materials handling systems with a specific focus on Integrated Transport Systems
  (Integrating vertical and horizontal materials handling systems)
  
  
• 3D Laser Scanning

Simulation

MIRARCO - Mining Innovation offers simulation services as part of research projects. Simulation is the imitation of a real-world process or system over time. It involves the generation of an artificial history of the system and the observation of that artificial history to draw inferences concerning the operating characteristics of the real system being represented.

Simulation is an indispensable problem-solving methodology for the solution of many real-world problems. It is used to describe and analyze the behaviour of a system, ask ‘what-if’ questions about the real system, and aid in the design of real systems. Both existing and conceptual systems can be modelled with simulation.

Examples of simulation models:

• What-if scenarios
  
  
• Sensitivity, bottleneck and risk analysis
  
  
• Performance and equipment selection
  
  
• Evaluation of new concepts or designs
  
  
• Training tool for new processes or designs

3D Laser Scanning

MIRARCO - Mining Innovation and Blaze Information Technology Inc. have joined forces to exploit opportunities created by the Virtual Reality Laboratory (VRL), a state-of-the-art facility designed for complex data interpretation in the mineral resource industry. CMT is proud to offer 3D laser scanning services for a variety of mining research applications for use within or outside of the VRL facility.

Mensi GS100 scanner specifications: 2-100m range 360° (horizontal) by 60° (vertical) field of view 1mm accuracy (high precision mode) 1000 points per second scanning speed

Laser Scanning Research Applications

• Drift and stope surveys for mine modelling and schedule updating.
  
  
• Equipment and infrastructure modelling for line of sight safety concerns.
  
  
• Over / under break assessments and muckpile profiling for blast monitoring.
  
  
• Tunnel convergence and deformations for geotechnical analysis.
  
  
• Digital Terrain Mapping (DTM) for modelling solid, liquid and gas contaminant flows.

Further information on 3D Laser Scanning can be obtained from:

Paul Dunn
Director, CMT
(705) 675-1151 x 5074
pdunn@mirarco.org