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The Ambatovy mine in Madagascar has received a CYBERMINE high fidelity training simulator for their heavy equipment operators
In a first for Madagascar, Sherritt International’s Ambatovy operation has commissioned their CYBERMINE heavy equipment, operator training simulators. Ambatovy is a world class nickel and cobalt mine situated 80km from the country’s capital, Antananarivo. The surface operation represents the biggest ever foreign investment in Madagascar and ranks as one of the largest nickel mines in the world.
“Most world class mines globally have added simulators to their training and development programmes and we can now add ourselves to that list,” says Mason Blum, Mine Training Superintendent at Ambatovy. “Investing in this technology will reduce the cost of training over time, especially when it comes to the fuel cost when training operators on the actual equipment.” Blum also believes these simulators will entrench safety procedures.
“ThoroughTec is the industry leader in this field, with an excellent end-user interface, perfect for training in developing countries,” says Blum. “They’re reliable and offer excellent customer support. They understand the customer’s business needs.”
“With decades of experience supporting mine operator training throughout the developing world, our range of CYBERMINE products is uniquely tailored to support the development of a safety conscious, performance-oriented workforce, regardless of operator background or qualification.” says ThoroughTec’s CEO, Justin Collins.
“Human and community development is very important to our operation. With over 25 years of mining life here in Madagascar, sustainability, and skill development will ensure the future success of the business in the challenging world environment,” says Blum. “We believe that mining can give back and our products help operations achieve this, says Adam Smallman, VP of EMEA and Americas at ThoroughTec.
Ambatovy has received two, latest generation, CYBERMINE training simulators along with a containerised 6 degree-of-freedom motion base unit, all engineered and built to ThoroughTec’s exacting military standards. The easily interchangeable simulators have been designed to train operators of Caterpillar 777 haul trucks and 6020 excavators.
“Besides our ability to support mining operations in remote locations, our quick development lead-times played a big part in us winning this order and I’m happy to report that we produced and delivered these simulators in impressive time,” says Smallman. “Designing and building hitherto un-developed simulators is what we do best. Whether you operate CAT, Komatsu, Hitachi or something else, we can build it all and we can do it faster and more accurately than anyone else.”
“These high-fidelity simulators will give Ambatovy’s operators a lot of practice and exposure to operations in a safe, controlled environment. Zero risk and very low cost.” says Smallman. “Rather let the operators learn from their mistakes in the simulator than on the actual machine, it’s much cheaper that way.”
Interestingly the material mined at Ambatovy has a high moisture content of 38% due to the high rainfall the area receives. This makes the mining process a challenging affair for the heavy equipment operators and ThoroughTec’s simulators will accurately replicate these challenges to support and enhance the training of operators. “Most of the ore body is top loaded, because the haul trucks cannot drive on the bottom surface,” says Blum. This makes it difficult to manage safety and productivity effectively. “There’s a higher risk of vehicle-to-vehicle contact when top loading with both machines on the same level. With the simulator we can practice and hone this loading technique so as to ensure the risk is reduced to an absolute minimum.”
CYBERMINE 4 Surface Base Unit
About ThoroughTec Simulation:
The team at ThoroughTec Simulation has been designing simulator based training systems for over twenty-five years. During this time the company has grown into one of the world’s leading training simulation organisations, supplying the mining, construction and military sectors.
Providing Operator Training Systems and Tactical Training Systems for a range of vehicles and applications, ThoroughTec is the de facto supplier of simulator systems to the South African Military as well as supplying a number of European militaries. This military engineering has been utilised in the development of CYBERMINE mining equipment simulator systems, elevating them above competitors through military grade quality, reliability and low cost of ownership.
ThoroughTec’s range of CYBERMINE mining simulators is the broadest in the industry, encompassing all aspects of both surface and underground mining operations for hard and soft rock and capable of replicating a mine’s entire working fleet from load and haul through to the most complex production and ancillary equipment. CYBERMINE mining simulator systems are designed and engineered to make mines safer, more productive and more cost effective.
ThoroughTec’s R&D efforts have been focussed in recent years on providing complete heavy equipment workforce optimisation solutions. They have added Operator Familiarisation Trainers and E-Learning to their CYBERMINE product range, complementing the CYBERMINE Full Mission Simulators and answering the call from the mining industry for optimised heavy equipment workforces who reduce costs per tonne and improve overall mine safety. This R&D push has recently resulted in the advanced new CYBERMINE Workforce Excellence (WX) platform. Pronounced “WeX”, this revolutionary platform will for the first time allow mine decision makers to scientifically analyse and continuously improve heavy equipment operator performance.
ThoroughTec’s headquarters and R&D and production facility are in Durban, South Africa, with global sales and support subsidiary offices in Perth, Australia; Santiago, Chile; Toronto, Canada; Salt Lake City, USA and Moscow, Russia.
