Case Study
Antucoya reduces spend on explosives by 9% using RHINO™
30 Nov 2023
Site Profile
Minera Antucoya, Antofagasta Minerals is approximately 1,400 km north of Santiago and 125 km north-east of the city of Antofagasta, Chile. Antucoya mines and leaches oxide ore to produce copper cathodes using the solvent extraction and electrowinning (SX-EW) process.
The situation
RHINO™ is an autonomous drillstring-mounted geophysical sensor that determines unconfined compressive strength while drilling. It enhances orebody knowledge in real-time, enabling miners to make better blast planning, improve fragmentation profiles and increase throughput. The RHINO™ sensor was installed (Figure 2) on three drilling rigs of Minera Antucoya. The goal was to optimise the use of explosives.
Through this system, it was possible to interpret the hardness of the rock during production drilling, and then use this data in order to adjust the loading designs.
“This project is an excellent addition to our organization, allowing us to adopt technologies and improve resource efficiency. The sensor allows us to precisely quantify the necessary amount of explosives depending on the type of rock, improving the extraction process and reducing the emission of particulate matter. This contributes significantly to reducing our carbon footprint in fragmentation operations.”
— Sergio Barrera, Drill & Blast Superintendent, Minera Antucoya, Antofagasta Minerals, Chile
Future state
Minera Antucoya, Antofagasta Minerals will explore future opportunities to improve short-term block model resolution, predict hardness in lower and adjacent benches and improve fragmentation requirements for the processing plant.
"We want to go further, we want to cover almost the entire mine with RHINO. We are on the data robustness part and then achieve much bigger things 'downstream'. It is focusing on what Antucoya 2.0 is, on crushing performance above expectations and marking milestones in mineral processing.”
— Maria Lois, Drill & Blast and QA/QC Engineer, Minera Antucoya, Antofagasta Minerals, Chile
Orica Digital Solutions wishes to thank Minera Antucoya, Antofagasta Minerals, Chile for their support and permission to publish this case study.
Reducing carbon footprint
The sensor allowed precise calculation of explosives, taking rock type into consideration, which led to improving the extraction process and reducing the emission of particulate matter.
"The efficiency in the use of explosives depends on the unique characteristics of each hole. Although geological and geotechnical information is fundamental for the design of the fragmentation, it is complemented and enriched through the use of RHINO.
Using RHINO, we have been able to interpret the compressive strength of the rock while drilling each hole and adjust loading designs. Initially, we focused on barren zones to precisely determine the energy needed to fragment the rock. As a result, we managed to reduce the consumption of explosives by 9% in the business, maintaining the granulometry required by the processing plant and without affecting the excavation rates of the shovels“.
— Sergio Barrera, Drill & Blast Superintendent, Minera Antucoya, Antofagasta Minerals, Chile
RHINO™
Learn more about how RHINO™ can support your operations.
