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Newgrange at the 15th North American Mine Ventilation Symposium

Newgrange attended the 15th North American Mine Ventilation Symposium in Blacksburg, Virginia at the invitation of Chasm Consulting. The Symposium ran from the 20th to the 25th of June at Virginia Tech and was very well supported with an International contingent from many of the major mining communities.

For some participants this was the first chance to get a quiz the Ventsim VisualTM software developer, watch demonstrations of the latest release features and learn how the software can help their operations. This was also the first release of the new PumpSimTM software into the mining industry and received a very favourable review.

The Chasm Consulting booth was kept busy over the three day conference with inquiries and demonstrations from a range of participants. Perhaps one of the reasons for the keen interest was the Ipad prize for the competition for highest score on destroying a ventilation network using the “Flight Path” function.

PumpSimTM training course completed for Newmont

Newgrange competed the first PumpSimTM training course for Newmont Mining in Denver, Colorado in early July 2015. The course comprised a day and half for the “Standard” version of the software.

The course included introductory sessions to introduce the functions of PumpSimTM and hands-on Tutorials to practice the functions outlined in the sessions.

An outline of the course is shown below:

Day 1 – Introduction to PumpSimTM

Session 1 –PumpSimTM Network Construction
Tutorial 1 – Constructing a Simple Network
Session 2 – Managing the Files, Data and Display
Tutorial 2 – Enhancing Networks
Session 3 – What if Scenarios
Tutorial 3 – Introduction to network optimisation and building a drainage network

Day 2 – Mine Water Systems and Workshop

Session 1 – Building Mine Water Systems
Session 2 & 3 – Mine Water System Workshop

The Mine Water System Workshop explored the recently completed “Proof of Concept” that built the mine water networks for supply, drainage and de-watering based on the project mine design. Newgrange would be please explore how the new PumpSimTM can benefit your operation by helping to minimise the operating and capital costs of the mine water system.

Some minors like to explore the more practical side of water systems.

Coming Soon – the Launch of the Latest Chasm Consulting Software

Chasm Consulting will soon release the latest version of VentSim Visual (Version 4) that will include many new features to improve fan data input, new import file formats and many othe enhancements – see link to Chasm Software http://www.ventsim.com/news-articles/ventsim-visual-4/
The good news is that current Ventsim maintenance holders will be able to upgrade at no additional cost.
In addition, the final beta testing of PumpSim™ has been progressing well and the software is also expected to be available in the near future. Newgrange has been involved in the beta testing and is looking forward to the commercial release of the software.

PumpSim™ Proof of Concept commences for Newmont

Newgrange has been engaged to complete a “Proof of Concept” for Newmont Mining in Denver to demonstrate the features and benefits of the PumpSim™ software for mine water management. The initial work will build the mine water networks for supply, drainage and de-watering based on the project mine design.
PumpSim™can then be used to analyse the result flow information to help minimise the operating and capital costs of the system. The primary mine water gravity supply networks will model the water supply demand based on alternative schedules and mine equipment.
MIne water can then be delivered to de-watering network via mine drainage channels and drain holes. Pipe sizes can be optimised and specific pumps installed to check their suitability and estimate the overall costs of the system

Software Distribution, Training and Mentoring

Newgrange is an authorised distributor of the Chasm Consulting suit of software, including PumpSim™ and VentSim Visual™ . These two products are the industry leading software for the design, simulation and optimisation of mine ventilation and mine water management.

In addition to software distribution, Newgrange can provide introductory level or custom designed training and mentoring in the application of Chasm Consulting’s software. Training can be delivered on-site using client supplied data as part of the initial purchase of the software or as part of a broader implementation of the MPxQ or MINES process.

Newgrange’s years of experience with the design and management of ventilation and mine water management projects can help your project achieve the maximum return on infrastructure investment with mentoring or peer review of the system. Clients have the opportunity to gain access to skill sets and experience that have proven ability to optimise their infrastructure network using the MINES process.

Mining Study Management

Newgrange’s years of experience with management of mining studies at all levels of confidence can help your project achieve the maximum return on the investment or provide a fresh set of eyes to review the mine design. In addition to delivering a range of feasibility studies, peer reviews and life of mine strategies, Newgrange has championed the development of innovative solutions for the challenges of mine planning processes, reserve/resource estimations and the analysis of mine services network.

Newgrange’s expertise in mine planning can help identify the critical processes, map the process flow, determine the supplier-customer relationships and define roles/responsibilities that help complete a mining study on time and exceed the clients expectation. Our clients can benefit from the synergy of our knowledge and skills as well as theirs to help develop solutions for new projects, existing life of mine plans or network constraints and challenges.

Newgrange can provide assistance with the tender documentation and evaluations. In addition, Newgrange has an extensive network of affiliated mining professionals that provide a range of services that can extend Newgrange’s capability in transparent and compatible environment.

Mine Network Evaluation and Simulation

The existing water services (supply, drainage and de-watering) and ventilation capacity can quickly become inadequate as the mine workings are extended if the mine service networks are not treated as critical aspect of the production process. The opportunity cost of inadequate mine service capacity is often ignored while productivity reduces due to increased delays from poorly designed or located service infrastructure.

To optimise the performance and capital costs of mine infrastructure, 3-dimensional analysis is required to provide meaning results due to the spatial components of service networks. The Chasm Consulting suite of software provides true scale 3-dimensional models that can simulate both existing and planned service networks.

The Mine Network Evaluations and Simulations (MINES) process uses the simulation results from mine water and ventilation models to evaluate their ability to support the planned mining activities. All stages of the network duty cycle (development, production and conduit) can be analysed over the life of mine design and the results used to improve productivity as well as capital budgeting.

The results generated from the MINES process can help deliver benefits such as improved optimisation of capital infrastructure, better matching of capacity to requirement and help with quick cost-benefit analysis of “what-if” questions. The MINES process can simulate the duty at one point in time to demonstrate the networks capacity over a given time period using dynamic simulation.

The design parameters can be easily transferred across the project or operation as a template for less experienced engineers to help simplify future mine planning. This provides the potential for cost saving by “standardising” the mine infrastructure design and components .

Mine Planning Services

A robust mine planning process is critical to any underground mine in order to ensure resource development, reserve conversion and mine infrastructure capacity can support the scheduled mining activities over the long term. Mine Planning by Quarters (MPxQ) has been developed to ensure that all stages of mine planning, operations and mine services are integrated within the business plan.

The MPxQ has been used and modified for over 10 years at several locations and helped deliver improved production and compliance to the plan across the full range of planning horizons as measured against planning indicators. After the implementation of the MPxQ process at one mine the standard deviation of monthly production compared to quarterly forecast was reduced to 4kt from 11kt and compliance to budget was up to nearly 90% or close to a 10% improvement from the previous year.

A pillar of the MPxQ concept is a strong medium term planning capacity that provides a strong link between the life of mine plan and the short term operations schedules. This is achieved by evaluating the degree of resource conversion, level of engineering design confidence and scheduling detail required to allow the seamless flow of long term plans into achievable short term schedules.

The impact of delays due to inadequate or unavailable mine services are often ignored in many mine plans especially when they are built from historical mine productivities. Newgrange can model the existing mine services networks in order to demonstrate whether the designed ventilation and mine water network have the capacity and reliability to support the planned mining activities.