The highlight for mass mining specialists around the world is Massmin. This year’s event, which was held from June 10-14 in Canada, was no different, with a strong presence of caving specialists.
We heard from a range of speakers, including Alan Moss (Rio Tinto), who spoke about, “Back to the basics – The need to measure”. We were delighted that the presentation was in line with the core message of our own presentation held during the conference.
A growing number of presentations at the conference also contained references to the Smart Marker System, which is excellent news, as it reinforces the work we do.
Our discussions with specialists from research institutions, mining and consulting companies during Massmin have confirmed our approach – that we need to close the feedback loop in underground mining in order to improve mining performance by reducing dilution and ore loss.
Our goal is to achieve real improvements in ore grade. A systematic way of achieving this goal is for mines to adopt a system of measuring their ore flow, analyzing the data, trying changes to the mining method and then measuring the result. Our meetings at Massmin have made us even more confident that real improvements will be found by repeating this process. A number of mines are now planning to use Smart Markers to implement this approach.
We are delighted to have met generations of intelligent, curious and experienced caving professionals, and look forward to working together with them and contributing our share to make caving a successful low-cost and low–risk mining method. The future of caving is bright.
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