H&L Conference Returns to Tucson

Live event offers ideas on how to better manage pit production

By Steve Fiscor, Editor-in-Chief

After a 4-year hiatus due to COVID-19, mining professionals will gather at the Haulage & Loading (H&L) conference, April 2-5, 2023, at the Hilton El Conquistador in Tucson, Arizona, USA. The conference, which is geared toward open-pit mining in general with an emphasis on truck-shovel mining, offers two full days of presentations followed by a half-day workshop. Participants will learn from some of the best in the business.

The H&L 2023 technical session opens Monday morning, April 3, with a discussing about the future for haulage and loading techniques. Two sessions follow with presentations on emissions reduction efforts and the use of novel approaches to power haul trucks. During the afternoon, there will be a lively discussion on autonomous and operator-assisted operations. Dr. Tim Joseph, who was instrumental in organizing the H&L 2023 technical program, will host a panel discussion that summarizes the future direction of haulage and loading operations.

On Tuesday, April 4, the discussion turns more toward operator experience. Three speakers from mining operations will discuss their experience with operational improvement programs. A session on consumables, such as tires and shovel wear analysis, closes out the morning. During the afternoon, attendees will hear more about operational improvement with presentations that cover safety and productivity improvements. Tuesday afternoon will close with a discussion on data and maintenance and how emphasis on these areas can improve sustainability.

On Wednesday morning, April 5, Dr. Joseph will host a workshop. Participants will learn how to create roads that are more effective, longer lasting and efficient for the haulage fleet, generating higher hauler performance and lower maintenance issues. From the way a hauler interacts with the road to the impact on emissions and tires; attendees will receive actionable ideas they can immediately implement at their mining operations.

Prior to the event, Mining Media International (MMI) will host a golf outing at the Oro Valley golf club on Sunday morning, April 2. That evening, delegates are invited to the opening reception with a western-style BBQ with entertainment and a Texas Hold’em poker tournament. Breakfast and lunch are included throughout the event. Afterwards, Cat/Finning has agreed to host a small group at its Tinaja Proving Grounds. Advanced registration is required.

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Haulage & Loading 2023 Technical Program

Keynote: Rethinking Haulage & Loading Techniques

Monday April 3, 2023, 8:30 a.m.

By Adriaan Davidse, director, Deloitte

Session 1: Emissions Reduction Efforts

Monday April 3, 9:00-10:15 a.m. 

Advances with Electric-powered Hydraulic Excavators

By Peter Buhles, vice president, Komatsu Germany GmbH

DT-74: Journey to the World’s First At-scale Zero-emissions Haul Truck

By Krunal Desai, director of electrical engineering, First Mode

Reducing Carbon Intensity While Optimizing Performance

By Cayce Kerr, director-mining, Finning Canada

Session 2: Trolley-assist, Batteries and Beyond

Monday April 3, 10:45 a.m-Noon 

Implementing Trolley-assist at New and Existing Operations

By Joy Mazumdar, vice president-product management, Wabtec

Trolley Technology Advancements

By George Shehata, project development-processing industries, ABB

Lunch Served in the Exhibit Area (Noon-1:00 p.m.)

Session 3: Autonomous and Operator-assisted Operations

Monday April 3, 1:00 p.m.-2:00 p.m. 

AHS and The Valley of Despair

By Craig Gillespie, manager, AHS deployments, Absolute
Autonomous

Automation Isn’t ‘All or Nothing’– A Practical Example of Incremental Automation in Drilling

By Curtis Stacy, sr. product manager, autonomous, Hexagon

Practical Considerations for Autonomous Mining

By Diederik Lugtigheid, president, ASI Mining

Panel Discussion: Future Haulage Options

Monday April 3, 2:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m.

Moderator: Dr. Tim Joseph, principal, JPI Mine Equipment & Engineering

Session 4: Progressive Operations

Tuesday, April 4, 8:30-10:00 a.m. 

Integrating Road Management Into Operations to Improve Pit Productivity

By Paul Pepper, mine operations superintendent and Josh Prinsen, engineering superintendent, Agnico Eagle’s Detour Gold Mine

Innovative Operations Management, Technology Solutions and Real Time System Development

By Steve Engler, director of information services, KMC Mining

Gains & Losses – A Collection of Truck-Shovel Continuous Improvement (and Unimprovement) Stories

By Terry Morris, mine manager, Nevada Gold Mines

Session 5: Consumables

Tuesday, April 4, 10:30-Noon

Why Tire Strategy Matters

By Mark Goode, director, business insights, Kal Tire

Development of the Air Suspension Wheel

By Zoltan Kemeny, president and CEO, Global Air Cylinder Wheel

Rope Shovel Wear and Performance Analysis

By David Harcus, researcher, Innotech

Shovel/Excavator Decarbonization: Look to Revitalization & Optimization

By Jerry Gohre, director of power electronics, Flanders

Lunch Served in the Exhibit Area (Noon-1:00 p.m.)

Session 6: Operator Improvement

Tuesday April 4, 1:00 p.m.-2:15 p.m. 

Advanced Analytics Puts Our Haul Truck Drivers in the “Drivers Seat” of Safe Production and Operational Excellence

By Megan Golden, senior mine engineer, Freeport McMoRan, and Brianna Griffin, enterprise product leader, Freeport McMoRan

Lessons Learned From Haul Truck Operator Near-Miss Events

By Jonathan Hrica, general engineer, Pittsburgh Mining Research Division, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

Mining Asset Optimization with a focus on Operation Actions

By Ken Bell, vice president-strategic planning, Syncrude Canada

Session 7: Using Data and Maintenance to Improve
Sustainability

Tuesday April 4, 2:45 p.m.-4:00 p.m. 

Enabling Connectivity and Data Access at the Detour Lake Mine – A Case Study

By Kirk Petroski, founder and executive chairman, Symboticware

Good Economics for Engines and the Environment

By Arthur Brown, vice president-technical services, Crown CRT

Using Machine Learning to Improve Mine Haulage
Sustainability

By Kevin Dagenais, CEO, Cascadia Scientific

Intelligent Dump Bodies

By Marcelo Medel, managing director, Duratray, and Pablo Rossi, regional manager, Duratray

Session 7: The Essentials Workshop

Wednesday April 5, 8:30-11:30 (Continental Breakfast Included)

By Tim Joseph, principal, JPI Mine Equipment & Engineering 

Participants will learn how to create roads that are more effective, longer lasting and efficient for the haulage fleet, generating higher hauler performance and lower maintenance issues.

Session 8: Post-conference Tinaja Tour

Wednesday, April 5, 2:00-8:00

Cat/Finning has agreed to host a limited number of delegates at its Tinaja Hills Proving Grounds, registration fee includes transportation to and from the hotel, and tacos and beer after the event.

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H&L 2023 Exhibition in Print

More than 30 suppliers will showcase their mining equipment and technology during the event. What follows is a brief description of what delegates can expect to see, including:

Absolute Autonomous

Absolute Autonomous is an international company focused and committed to the operational performance of autonomous haulage systems (AHS). Absolute is a team of dedicated professionals that strive to maximize AHS performance through proven efficiency improvements, and AHS operational teams upskilling. The company’s performance consultants are high-level SMEs, all passionate, advanced end users of these systems.

Airth.Io

With end-to-end understanding of data from mining operations, Airth products and solutions can help eliminate the gaps between planning and operation. Airth’s Solutions use data integration and predictive analytics to improve visibility throughout your decision-making process. Companies that use Airth have a full picture of how changes in both operations and plans will affect downstream financial outcomes and can act intelligently on those insights to continuously improve productivity, profitability and sustainability.

Australian Diversified Engineering

Australian Diversified Engineering (ADE) specializes in water trucks and haul road operations and supplies innovative water truck spray systems to the global mining industry. ADE Spray waters roads at a metered rate, automatically lowers spray rates when driving on ramps and can be integrated with third party fleet management systems. In addition, ADE has developed a free iPhone app to measure haul road friction so that mining operations can make informed decisions around wet weather and watered haul roads.

Crown Carbon Reduction Technologies

Crown Carbon Reduction Technologies is the exclusive distributor of CRT Catalysts, designed for diesel and dual-fuel frac applications. Its catalysts increase dual-fuel displacement by 5%-10% and improve combustion efficiency by 8%, on average, regardless of engine tier. Not only do CRT Catalysts lower overall fuel costs, they deliver reproducible scope emission reductions and result in cleaner engine oil.

Custom Linings

Custom Linings uses a heated high-pressure spray system to deliver the most durable abrasion, corrosion, and chemical-resistant coatings available for use on steel, concrete, wood, and earthen substrates. Product lines include sprayable shaft lining support, shaft lining over/under mesh, tailings/leach pond lining, heavy equipment protection, pipe or duct lining, tank cell coating and corrosion/rust protection.

Driver Industrial Safety

Driver Industrial Safety manufactures market-driven safety products for industrial and commercial industries. Safety is all we do.  The company’s combined 100 plus years of LED and electronics manufacturing provides the best engineered products available for worksite safety. Its five branded product lines lead the industry in robust quality and engineering: NVIZN Identification Displays, SafetyWhips Warning Whips, Helios Warning Lights, Toro Wheel Chocks, and Industrial Decals Co.

Fireball Equipment Ltd.

Fireball Equipment is a hydrocarbon management and emissions tracking firm.

Flanders

Founded in 1947, Flanders is a global leader specializing in the distribution, service, repair, design, and manufacturing of electric rotating machines, AI-powered-condition-based monitoring, custom controls, systems integration, and automation for the industry’s largest and most demanding applications.

FlowTech Fueling

FlowTech Fueling’s non-pressure fuel overfill prevention systems eliminate fuel spillage, improve personnel safety, reduce tank maintenance, and minimize environmental impacts. FlowTech’s Fueling’s systems are easy to install and maintain, and they are reliable. The company’s mobile fueling depots provide the efficiency and flexibility of a high-flow, multi-station fueling facility with the added benefit of easily moving it as the mine plan requires. A mine that recently installed two 60,000-gallon depots, decreased fueling times nearly 50% for a fleet of 240-ton class haul trucks, improving production by over 8,000 tons per shift.

Hexagon’s Mining Division

Hexagon is a global leader in digital reality solutions, combining sensor, software and autonomous technologies. The company puts data to work to boost efficiency, productivity, quality and safety across industrial, manufacturing, infrastructure, public sector, and mobility applications. Its technologies are shaping production and people-related ecosystems to become increasingly connected and autonomous — ensuring a scalable, sustainable future.

Hilliard Brake Systems

The Hilliard Corp. offers an entire range of industrial modular brakes, caliper brakes, rail and disk brakes, electric brakes and products such as power units, mounting brackets, and discs and hubs. The company has a complete line of fail-safe and active braking systems to meet the needs of specific applications.

Holloway Houston

Holloway Houston is the leading supplier of superior lifting products and services to energy and construction markets worldwide. Holloway’s extensive inventories, quality manufacturing, value-added services, testing facilities, and state-of-the-art equipment combine to deliver end-to-end industrial lifting solutions.

Honeywell

Honeywell is dedicated to the mining, metals, and minerals industry, establishing collaborative partnerships to drive business success across the entire mining operation. The company helps mine operations harness their valuable data, anticipate opportunities and risks, work together better across the enterprise, manage assets remotely, and make the best and most informed decisions. Honeywell offers leading technologies from pit to port in addition to the boardroom as well as comprehensive lifecycle services that help to ensure more productive and stable operations.

Immersive Technologies

As a global technology leader in the mining industry, Immersive Technologies’ mission is to increase site profitability by optimizing the safety and productivity of operators through our workforce optimization strategy, aligning people, process and technology. With the largest deployment of mining simulators in surface and underground, a global customer base, industry endorsement, proven real results and engineering expertise, Immersive Technologies is the recognized and trusted leader in mining training solutions.

MagShield

MagShield are experts in magnetic filtration for key fluid operating systems. The company offers high-quality asset protection and diagnostic solutions to capture iron contaminants not captured by existing filters. Avoiding downtime; extending component life; improving operating costs; and maximizing productivity of high value equipment is a constant priority. MagShield offers a new, enhanced and complementary solution to ferrous contamination.

Matrix Design Group

Matrix Design Group provides a platform with hardware, software and analytics that delivers leading-edge products and actionable insights for mine operators. The company’s product line includes systems data networking, communication and tracking systems, mining proximity detection systems, industrial collision avoidance systems and data and analytics software. Matrix’s innovation has been demonstrated by winning the NIOSH Mine Safety & Health Technology Innovation Awards in 2020 for its OmniPro collision avoidance system.

Monico

Monico provides data capture, remote condition monitoring, data visualization and analytics solutions. Monico works with customers to identify their data acquisition needs, recommends and offers data capture hardware that includes the ability to perform protocol conversions, data buffering, edge analytics, exception reporting and much more. Monico’s hardware solutions coupled with their Remote Condition Monitoring Solution, MonicoLive, provides a solution for collecting, storing, visualizing, and analyzing machine data.

NMT Group

With many decades of experience, the NMT group has established an excellent reputation in the mining industry. The company has worked alongside world-class mining companies, contracting firms and engineering consultants serving the global mining industry for many decades. The NMT team’s extensive knowledge ensures that they can custom design solutions (especially haulage solutions, shaft related solutions, loading and unloading solutions) to work in any country and every situation.

Philippi-Hagenbuch, Inc.

PHIL is the premier supplier of fully custom-engineered off-highway truck bodies, water tanks and lowboy trailers to the mining industry, since 1969. Based out of Peoria, Illinois, Philippi-Hagenbuch works with our clients around the world to create unique, one of a kind products to maximize the efficiency of our clients operations.

Pressure Systems International

Tire. Intelligence. Delivered. Pressure Systems International (PSI) is the global leader in onboard tire management systems for commercial vehicles. The company’s portfolio includes automatic tire inflation systems (ATIS) for commercial trailers, tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS), and related TPMS telematics products. PSI’s ATIS can be combined with TireView TPMS and TireView LIVE telematics with data analytics for proactive tire management. 

Rigid Industries

Rigid products are proudly designed, engineered, torture tested and approved at state of the art facility in Phoenix, Arizona, USA. The company’s highly trained and workforce takes pride in building each Rigid LED light. This commitment to quality is backed by an industry-leading, 10-year warranty on Rigid Mining products.

Siemens

With innovative, integrated technologies for electrification, automation and digitalization across the entire life cycle, Siemens’ large drives division helps mining customers navigate the energy transition and decarbonize their portfolio. Siemens sustains competitiveness through service aimed not only at optimizing the productivity, reliability, safety and efficiency of system components but also at achieving lasting improvement in processes.

Southwestern Scale Co., Inc.

Southwestern Scale is the only full-service scale company in the southwestern U.S. With weighing system products, accessories and services, Southwestern Scale has placed more equipment in service for more customers than any other single scale company in the mining market. The company offers truck scales for sale as well as rentals, and services such as scale calibration and repair, load testing, and weight studies.

Strata Worldwide

Strata Worldwide is a leader in safety and the company’s offerings in proximity detection and collision avoidance systems are cutting-edge. These work to prevent accidents and injuries involving mobile machinery. Through partnerships with domestic and global chemical companies, Strata offers a full suite of specialty shotcretes, grouts, resins, liners, waterproofing membranes and cellular concretes.

Symbioticware

Symboticware is a leader in data extraction and a technology partner for some of the world’s largest natural resources companies. For more than 15 years, Symboticware has pioneered state of the art in asset utilization, productivity, reliability and life-cycle management across asset categories. 4-Sight.ai, Symboticware’s telemetry management platform, enables capturing, tracking, and analysis of the data using advanced AI and ML-based algorithms.

Total Power, Inc.

Total Power is a strategic provider of fuel additives, fuel management systems, and relocatable fuel docks. With more than 25 years of experience in the mining, the company’s goal is to work cooperatively with mining engineers to develop fuel strategies related efficiency KPI’s, emissions, and refueling.

Vulcan On-Board Scales

Vulcan On-Board Scales has weighing solutions for underground and surface vehicles. Miners can weigh payloads at the pickup point while also tracking truck frame fatigue, according to OEM protocols. The company offers model specific on-board weighing solutions for trucks carrying greater than 20 tons. The scales include a meter in the cab and warning options to let the loader know when the maximum capacity has been reached.

Walz Scale

Walz Scale provides weighing and volumetric scanning solutions with the latest technology to industries, including but not limited to transportation/haulage, agriculture, chemical, laboratory, aggregate, waste, recycling, and mining applications. Today, thousands of businesses across the globe rely on Walz Scale for their measurement and production tracking needs.