Developing the "One Network" wireless mesh infrastructure where everything runs on the same network.

1. Mine Monitoring &
Control Improvements
MineExpo, 23 September 2008
A Case Study of Kennecott Utah Copper’s
Bingham Canyon Mine
Scott Beer
Information Systems & Technology
Rio Tinto
Gary Anderson
Senior Vice President
Rajant Corporation

2. Rio Tinto Background
• World’s 3rd largest mining company
• Employs over 30 000 people in 40 countries
30,000
• Worldwide operations supply minerals and metals, including
– Gold
– Silver
– Coal
– Iron
– Aluminum
– B t
Borates
– Copper
• 2007 Revenue $33.5 Billion
$33 5
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3. A Broad Geographic Spread of Operations
source: Rio Tinto 2008 Chart Book
3

4. Strength in Diversity
Revenue in 2007 = $33.5B
source: Rio Tinto 2008 Chart Book
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5. Kennecott Utah Copper Corp (KUCC)
• Wholly owned by Rio Tinto
• 2nd largest copper producer in the
United States
• Provides about 13% of US copper
needs
• Located in the Salt Lake City Valley
• Operational for more than 100 years
• Produced more copper, 16.4 million
to es, than any
tonnes, t a a y mine in t e world.
e the o d
• Approximate annual production
– 272,000 tonnes of copper
– 500,000 ounces of gold
, g
– 4 million ounces of silver
– 30 million pounds of molybdenum
– 0.9 million tonnes of sulphuric acid (by-
product of the smelting process)
d t f th lti )
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6. KUCC Location
6

7. KUCC Aerial Photo
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8. The Challenge
• Mining operations run non-stop
• Wireless network requirement to manage and control
– 85+ 300–ton haul trucks
– 12 shovels
– 62 pieces of auxiliary gear (e.g. dozers graders backhoes stemmers
(e g dozers, graders, backhoes, stemmers,
water/fuel/cable trucks)
• Dimensions - 2.5 miles across x 1 mile deep (furthest dump site is 6.4
miles from the pit)
• Wireless network requires an enormous amount of coordination, scale,
planning and support infrastructure
• Wireless Mobilit (onl small n mber of fi ed wireless nodes)
Mobility (only number fixed ireless
• Scale - Able to connect hundreds of devices and grow the network on
demand
• Any change in the network cannot disrupt the rest of the network
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9. Key Application Requirements
• Modular MineCare® - Equipment health monitoring and maintenance system designed to reduce
mobile equipment lifecycle costs
• Modular Dispatch® - Mine management system that provides optimized haul truck assignments,
GPS based
GPS-based equipment positioning, equipment health monitoring, maintenance tracking & blending
• Caterpillar Aquila® - Drill Management System that makes drilling and blasting operations more
accurate, productive, and profitable.
• Caterpillar CAES® - (Computer Aided Earthmoving System) optimizes excavation equipment
performance for precise grade and slope control.
• Caterpillar VIMS® - (Vital Information Management System) a machine management tool that
provides a wide range of vital machine functions through sensors that are integrated into the vehicle
• Komatsu VHMS Communicator - (Vehicle Health Monitoring System) provides the means to
monitor the health of major components on large machines, enabling the remote evaluation of the
machine’s condition.
• Michelin MEMS - (Michelin Earthmover Management System) is a tire-monitoring system that
( g y ) g y
provides real-time data on tire air pressure and temperature.
• P&H Centurion – Shovel control system providing increased shovel productivity and reliability
• Banlaw Fuel Track™ - Electronic fuel monitoring system that provides a secure hydrocarbon
management solution
• Novariant High Precision Global Positioning System (GPS) - Ground-based high precision
GPS system
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G dP b SSR

10. Future Applications
• Additional Equipment health for Shovels, Drills, and Aux
equipment
• Lubricant Management
• Vision systems
– Drill navigation
– Bucket recognition
– Video Surveillance (safety monitoring, mine mapping, collision
avoidance and security).
• Voice Communications
– P t bl h dh ld phones can utilize th Wi Fi wireless network
Portable handheld h tili the Wi-Fi i l t k
for communication within the mine and external to the mine.
These VoIP phones do not rely on the services and coverage
from the cellular companies.
– Many VoIP phones have a dual-mode which allow the phone to
connect to a Wi Fi network or a traditional cellular network if
Wi-Fi
available.
• Photogrammetry – Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)
– Photogrammetry is the science of making measurements from
g y g
photographs. The output of photogrammetry is typically a map,
drawing or a 3-D model of some real world object or scene. Many
of the maps are created with photogrammetry and photographs
taken from UAVs.
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11. Vendor Selection Summary
1. One wireless network for all applications
• RF Noise
• Maintenance, Troubleshooting & Support
2. Application segregation and p
pp g g precedence
3. Compliance to Industry Standards (802.xx).
4. The ability to cover an ever-changing topography without continuously
moving, adding and rebuilding infrastructure such as towers.
5. Direct vendor support with commitment to the mining industry.
6. Network redundancy with no single points for failure.
7. Willingness to work with application vendors to integrate a cohesive
system.
system
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12. Vendor Selection Technology
• Mesh or Fixed Infrastructure
• Rooted or non-Rooted
• Static or Dynamic
• Reliability
• Redundancy
• Bandwidth
• Security
• Backhaul – More than ONE
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13. Why Rajant?
• Commitment to Mining
• True Mobility
• Manageability
– Quickly Builds Complex Infrastructure & Scale
y p
– Dynamically Adapts to Changes in:
• Network
• Environment
• Movement of Nodes
– Forms Self Organizing Structure
• Support – Installation, Training, Technical Support, Remote
Monitoring & Upgrades
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14. Rajant Background
Founded in 2001
Privately Held – Profitable – Growing
Corporate C
C Commitment to Mining
– Formed Mining Division 2007
– Hired Key Mining Engineers (50 Years Exp)
Proven Capability in Scaled Deployments
– Kennecott at Bingham Canyon – Rio Tinto
– Iron Ore of Canada– Rio Tinto, Mitsubishi Corporation &
Canada
Labrador Iron Ore Royalty Income Fund
– El Segundo – Peabody Energy
– Australian mines
Service, Service, Service
Supports Heterogeneous Equipment
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15. Rajant Background
World Class Board of Advisors
– Dr. Jonathan P. Peck, Ph.D. – Founder of Aquila,
Professor and CEO of Peck Tech Consulting
– Dr. Kevin L. Moore, Ph.D., P.E.– Distinguished
Professor of Colorado School of Mines
– David Lauriski – MSHA Administrator
– Ron Rudokas – RF Genius, IEEE
– Scott Beer – Rio Tinto IS&T
Worldwide Industry Partners
– Mine Site Technologies
– Carlson Software
– CAT Dealers
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16. Rajant BreadCrumb - Wireless Mesh
802.11x Compatible
Dynamic Mesh Networking
Agile, Adaptive
Mobile – Extremely Fast
y
Reconnect
No LAN Controller or Root
Node
N d required
i d
Self Forming, Self Healing
Supports Multiple Gateways
State of the Art Security
Multiple VLANS/SSIDS
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17. The Solution for Kennecott
Initial Deployment of 140 BreadCrumbs.
Additional 60 BreadCrumbs for Aux Equipment,
Small Vehicles, Dozers, Graders, Shovels, Drills,
etc…
Each BreadCrumb has 2 Radios
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18. Rajant Wireless Mesh
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19. Software Management Tools
BCADMIN® AND BC COMMANDER®
Graphically M i
G hi ll Monitor,
Control and Manage the
wireless network
Show Connections and
Bandwidth
Status & Configuration
Information
Security Management
Automatically Upgrade
Software on all Units
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20. Rajant Service and Support
Availability to Customer 24/7/365
Case tracking/RMA response time
Service Level Agreements
Managed Service Agreements
Response to Emergencies
On Site and Off Site Support
Install and Deployment Team on Staff
“Service in Mining is Everything”
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21. Rajant Service and Support
Service Staff Can Scale to Support Mine
Schedule Ch
S h d l Changes
Has Training Staff & Materials
Software Updates – No Cost
Warranty – 12 Months
Extended Warranty – 48 Months
y
“Service in Mining is Everything”
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22. Rajant Service and Support
Site Design for future additions
Site Survey Verification/Validation
y /
Network Management
Additional Services include:
– on-site engineering
– on-site training
– remote monitoring
e ote o to g
– installation and configuration assistance
“Service in Mining is Everything”
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23. Rajant Service and Support
Site Survey/Site Design
Project management?
Project Collaboration using eRooms.
What A li ti
Wh t Applications to Deploy now?
t D l ?
What Applications to Deploy in the Future?
Coordination Install with other Deployments
Advance Testing of Equipment/Applications
placed on the Network?
– Test operations before installing on a network
– Work out the bugs off site instead of on a Production
Network!
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24. Financial Benefits and Results
• Operational Cost Savings
• Production Boost
• Using “Real-Time” data running simultaneously on various
applications to monitor and manage its copper mining operations
• Quick Wins estimate savings
– $13,000,000 in the first 6 months of operation
• Haul trucks in maintenance bays
– averaged 24 for 2007
– less than 10 for first eight months of 2008
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25. Metrics
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26. Follow Up
• What Happens When It’s Done?
– Who supports?
– How do they support - remote/local?
– RRADS?
– Services?
– Training?
• Rajant Future Project/Plans
– Autonomous Mining
– Collision Avoidance
– Proximity Detection
– Real Time Personnel/Equipment Tracking
– Machine Guidance
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27. Future
• New Hardware and Software
• Defined by Mining Industry
• Higher Bandwidth
• Multiple Frequencies
• Enhanced Security
• Remote Management and Support
• Integration with Other Systems
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28. Thank You.
Scott Beer Gary Anderson
Information Systems & Technology Senior Vice President
Rio Tinto Rajant Corporation
scott.beer@riotinto.com ganderson@rajant.com
ganderson@rajant com
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