AN OLD dog cannot learn new tricks, right? Fortunately that is not the experience a mine simulator maker discovered.

ThoroughTec, a South Africa-based simulator maker that is on the verge of setting up an operation in Australia, found its offerings paid big benefits at an open pit iron ore mine.

Its CYBERMINE™ simulators were installed at Sishen Mine in South Africa and helped it make a 60% cost saving on the basis of the dump truck haul trip alone. This has come from an annual training program for experienced haul truck operators on the simulators.

From an Australian point of view the mine's haulage operation is pretty familiar - diesel haul trucks with payloads of about 136-154 tonnes -except for one thing. The Sishen mine makes use of pantographs, also known as trolley assist, that allow its trucks to use electrical power to make the uphill haul easier. This greatly reduces fuel consumption. It also increases the top speed on the steep uphill sections of the pit from 10 kilometres per hour to 18kph.

It is this pantograph-assisted part of the haul where the mine discovered significant productivity improvements and greater cost cuts since it introduced simulator training. Sishen Mine head of functional training Kenny Hand said there had been a problem of one sort or another with the pantograph system on virtually every shift.

"Even our very experienced operators would have problems concentrating on the many intricate operational requirements of the pantograph line as well as the myriad of other safety and efficiency issues they need to continually think about while hauling nearly 200 tonnes of ore uphill" he said.

"Because of this divided attention to detail there would be minor accidents or delays quite regularly."

These delays would cut into the mine's productivity rate. "Now we put all our operators through the CYBERMINE™ training simulator once each year to sharpen, retrain and introduce new systems even to our longest-serving drivers," Hand said. "There has been a 60 per cent improvement in the cost of operations of pantographs since we began this, so you can be sure we'll continue." Another major benefit we're finding is safety. Because the 'virtual' emergencies in these simulators are so well designed and incredibly realistic, our training instructor can create every type of emergency situation in a matter of seconds. "So even situations that would be quite impossible for us to actually set up in real life training are presented so correct procedures can be taught."

There are some training time reduction benefits too. "Obviously CYBERMINE™ simulators allow us to train more operators more quickly than in a real machine," Hand said. It is also easier and more comfortable than in-truck training. Hand said the mine's safety regulations requiring separate seats for both trainee and the driver-instructor could make for a difficult and uncomfortable training experience. Sishen Mine has also been running a regular program whereby several of its training instructors travel to the ThoroughTec plant.

There they undergo the latest simulator training procedures under the watch of experienced instructors.   Providing regular simulator training to experienced operators has made a big difference to costs at an iron are mine. "I tell you, regular simulator training for trainees as well as experienced operators is a compulsory part of the mine's operation," Hand said. "There is too much hard, supportive 'efficiency' data - let alone the potential injury and accident avoidance side of things -for Sishen Mine to even consider not continuing."

Sishen Mine has nearly 4000 employees. The mine operates three 8-hour shifts, six days a week. It is one of the seven largest open cut mines in the world . The pit is about 11 km long. 1.5km wide and about 400m deep. The mine is owned by Kumba Iron Ore.