"Since installation at New Windsor Quarry, I've had a great experience with FRAGTrack, with several operational impacts."

— Kwaku Boakye, Regional Mining Manager, Heidelberg Materials

The situation

Control of product sizing is important at New Windsor to maximise returns and minimise waste material. Before the deployment of FRAGTrack™, quarry operators at New Windsor had to stop the belt and take a belt cut to sample the belt contents and monitor the particle size distribution using traditional manual sieving techniques. This was performed as often as once per week, all year round.

Over-crushing could also occur due to the lack of real-time monitoring and adds increased costs associated with crusher power draw and equipment wear. FRAGTrack™ technology was shared with Heidelberg Materials as a potential solution to these operational constraints.

Technical solutions

Orica’s FRAGTrack™ Conveyor solution was implemented in November of 2022 as a complete solution for automated capture and aggregation of particle size for the conveyor system at New Windsor. A post-primary location was decided upon for the installation location. This would be the ideal location to monitor for the resulting crushed sizes being produced by the primary crusher and help to improve the quality control over the first processing stage.

As part of the FRAGTrack™ deployment, Orica’s regional technical services team would assist the quarry operators in targeting an ideal powder factor using the measured results from FRAGTrack™. Automated reporting dashboards were created using Microsoft PowerBI™ and the FRAGTrack™ external API as part of the data services of FRAGTrack™ in collaboration with New Windsor. This work aids in ensuring that important metrics are quickly viewable with no additional work required and summarized in an automated daily email. This custom dashboard is used to quickly review the fragmentation performance of the past day. 

"(FRAGTrack) Eliminates labor to perform belt cuts for PSD lab analysis, saving on tangible and intangible cost."

— Kwaku Boakye, Regional Mining Manager, Heidelberg Materials

The result

As a result of the improved data visibility from FRAGTrack™, several key changes were implemented in the quarry operation. The fast data collection and presentation of the FRAGTrack™ results allowed a quicker response to size control, helping to better target needed product sizes. Results that were only updated once a month before, are now available within minutes without any operational downtime.

With the introduction of automated fragmentation measurement, New Windsor was able to completely stop performing the belt cuts that had been performed to sample the size distribution. In addition to the safety benefits of being about to avoid working around the belt, this led to an estimated savings of USD $10,000 per stoppage, once per month. Ending the sampling belt stoppages avoids restart costs and added strain on equipment, which can be an additional cost of USD $8,000 per event. In total, on an annualised basis this would contribute over $216,000 USD in operation efficiencies gained, through added production, reduced power charges, and reduced equipment wear.

"(FRAGTrack) Gives real-time analysis of PSD data, therefore in turn adjustment of the spacing of the impact crusher can be done to reduce over-crushing. The elimination of over-crushing of the crusher to produce fine graduation helps reduce power usage and wear rate."

— Kwaku Boakye, Regional Mining Manager, Heidelberg Materials

New Windsor utilises the FRAGTrack™ system in day-to-day operations which allows for a quick check that crushed rock is in the expected size range, 4.5-5 inches P80. This allows rapid response and adjustment if the rock is outside the expected product size. Using the automated dashboard, the quarry is now able to reset the closed side setting on the crusher to help meet the Particle Size Distribution (PSD) target for the raw mill. Helping avoid over crushing (creation of fines) minimises undesirable byproducts and reduces power use. The formerly used belt cut method did not allow for this fast adjustment.

In collaboration with Orica technical services, an increase in typical blast pattern size was made, from 15x15 to 16x16 ft, reducing blasting costs. Using the measurements from the FRAGTrack™ system, the performance of blasting and effects on the processing circuit were able to be closely monitored for optimum throughput. A target powder factor of 0.6 lbs per ton was achieved with the help of data from FRAGTrack™, which helped to improve floor control.

Orica Digital Solutions wishes to thank Heidelberg Materials for their support and permission to publish this case study.

Author: Sean McDaniel

Contributors: Toby Forney, Kwaku Boakye