Posted on December 18, 2018
In a global industry first, MineWare’s Pegasys Dragline Monitor has extended its capability to support underwater digging.
Enhanced with MineWare’s new Machine Terrain Mapping (MTM) Technology module, Pegasys can now help miners locate and recover material up to 100 feet below water.
MineWare North America Regional Vice President Greg Ladewig said this is a significant development for the mining industry globally, making underwater materials retrieval safer and more efficient.
“Identifying and reaching mineable material on the pit floor is a key challenge for underwater dragline digging and dredging operations,” he said.
Equipped with MineWare’s MTM technology, Pegasys addresses this issue by enabling operations to locate mineable underwater reserves that were previously out of reach.
Bedrock Resources was the first to adopt the technology at their limestone mining operations in Florida, USA. The system has been in place for 11 months.
“Pegasys has provided Bedrock with a new level of situational awareness of their underwater digging conditions,” said Ladewig.
“This technology represents a major step forward for the industry with significant potential for productivity gains in dredge mining, re-mining and the mining of flooded areas— where operations traditionally need to cease.
“These inaccessible or hard-to-reach areas are now back on the table.”
MineWare’s MTM technology has also been successfully implemented by a coal mine in South Africa.
Ladewig said the team was quick to implement the technology after substantial rain caused the coal pit to become submerged in 32 feet of water.
“Utilising Pegasys’ new capability, the mine was able to productively continue their operations with little to no downtime,” he said.
“Pegasys uses bucket position information to allow operators to mine underwater where they cannot visibly see.
“This latest development is another example of the high degree of flexibility and interoperability built into our Pegasys system.
“We are continually working on ways to improve our technology for our customers, with practical solutions that meet common industry challenges across the mining value chain.”
Pegasys’ new underwater digging capability is now available to all existing and new Pegasys customers in global mining markets.
About MineWare
MineWare supports over 230 systems across more than 130 surface mining operations around the world to improve their performance and productivity. Delivering productivity gains of up to 16%, while reducing costs, MineWare’s monitoring systems provide mine sites with independent machine guidance and payload monitoring information for their large ground engaging machinery in real time. In 2017, MineWare joined the Komatsu group of companies. www.mineware.com
About Pegasys
Pegasys is well regarded as the world’s number one payload and mine compliance monitoring system for draglines. The interoperable, all-in-one integrated system provides precise real-time feedback, in-seat coaching and peer benchmarking. The system enables dragline operators to make fast, confident and correct decisions on a variety of production, maintenance and safety tasks. Pegasys delivers real-time actionable information on board as well as to the off-board crew remotely via mRoc Desktop.
About Greg Ladewig
MineWare Regional Manager (Americas) Greg Ladewig oversees the global mining technology firm’s rapidly expanding North American operations. With his extensive knowledge of surface mining equipment and their application to the industry, he has overseen the expansion of MineWare to become one of North America’s leading providers of mining technology for primary ground engaging equipment. Greg’s industry experience is further strengthened by his dual Bachelor degrees in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology.
Source: mineware
