Caterpillar and Wheeler Machinery, a Cat dealer servicing the western U.S., recently completed the installation of a Cat MineStar fleet management system at the Kennecott Bingham Canyon mine, located near Salt Lake City, Utah. Rather than upgrading the mine’s previous fleet management system, Kennecott chose to deploy MineStar Fleet. This has optimized the mine site’s equipment tracking, production recording, material management and truck assignment, and it has further expanded the relationship between Cat and Rio Tinto, which owns Kennecott.
“For 15 years, Rio Tinto has used MineStar Terrain and has expanded its MineStar capabilities in recent years at locations like Gudai Darri and Marandoo, autonomous mine sites in Western Australia,” said Ryan Howell, mining technology commercial product manager for Caterpillar. “The Bingham Canyon mine is the first MineStar Fleet site in Rio Tinto history, and this extends the company’s application of MineStar capabilities.
Even though it wasn’t the easiest route for the mine, the cost-benefit analysis showed significant benefits long-term using MineStar Fleet, including seamless integration with MineStar Terrain, which is currently used by the mine. “A true partnership with the supplier, dealer and customer allows for large-scale technology projects like this to be completed successfully with minimal impact to production,” said Mike Gray, general manager for Wheeler Machinery.
An incremental approach was devised to minimize the system installation loss-time impact on mining operations for bringing nearly 100 trucks plus more than 40 supporting dozers, shovels and drills online with MineStar Fleet. Caterpillar and Wheeler worked together to provide a quick turn-around time with best-in-class implementation.
“The close collaboration between the Rio Tinto Group team, Caterpillar, [Wheeler] and Kennecott ensured a successful deployment at Kennecott and their desire to be the flagship for future MineStar sites,” said Joshua Wood, principal advisor, Surface Mining Centre of Excellence at Rio Tinto.
“We have been impressed with the partnership, and we share the same vision and have the correct team to get us there,” said Bryce Olson, mine monitoring and control superintendent at the Kennecott Bingham Canyon mine. “We flipped the switch, and we haven’t gone backward. We immediately started using MineStar Fleet’s open assignment, load-haul-dump and auto fuel advanced features.”
MineStar Fleet automatically records and tracks data up and down a mine’s value chain, providing insights that help miners identify what is working and fix what is not to meet production targets. The platform allows miners to view the entire operation at a glance on a computer and gain insights into key cost drivers – such as fuel, tires, service parts, and idle time – and improve haul fleet production and shovel utilization.
