ThoroughTec Simulators for Oyu Tolgoi Mine

MINING MAGAZINE – JUNE 2011

Rio Tinto recently selected ThoroughTec’s latest generation CYBERMINE4 mining simulators to enhance operator skill and safety at the Oyu Tolgoi project in Mongolia.

Richard Storrie, the technical services manager at Oyu Tolgoi, advocated the purchase of the simulators for the mine after witnessing the results attained by Aurora College and Rio Tinto’s Diavik mine in the Northern Territories, Canada.

“Oyu Tolgoi’s development workforce includes local employees and highly skilled expatriates entrusted with training and supervision. As mine development morphs into full-scale production however, more and more experienced local operators will be needed and Oyu Tolgoi is committed to having a minimum of ninety percent of its workforce employed from the local (Mongolian) community. To effectively train and up-skill these local operators for a mega-mine like Oyu Tolgoi will require specialised training equipment and an exceptional training programme,” said Mr Storrie.

“A vital cog in the wheel of local skills generation and proficiency optimisation.”

Dr John Waltham, ThoroughTec’s executive director said “The initiative taken by Oyu Tolgoi is becoming the norm within the larger mining houses that hold the same high regard for employee safety and skills enrichment. The CYBERMINE4 simulator systems purchased by Oyu Tolgoi will be essential in the rapid transfer of the much needed operator skills and safety habits to the local community, who have very little, if any, exposure to the operation of complex mining machinery. We are confident that the latest generation CYBERMINE4 simulators to be deployed at Oyu Tolgoi in Q3 of this year will again prove to be an unqualified success and a vital cog in the wheel of local skills generation and proficiency optimisation.”

Mr Storrie stated “In selecting ThoroughTec as our simulator systems provider, there were several essential requirements that had to be considered: Firstly, ThoroughTec’s off-the-shelf product range best matched our OEM equipment used at the mine and their development capability (for new simulator cabs) was deemed best able to support any future OEM equipment purchases. A second very important consideration was system reliability and maintainability – Oyu Tolgoi is in a remote area and this was considered extremely important in selecting the final supplier. ThoroughTec’s ISO 9001 quality management system coupled to the extremely high system reliability and availability experienced at Aurora College gave us the assurance we needed.”

In addition to purchasing the two containerised simulator base units, Oyu Tolgoi also purchased the following plug-and-play simulator cabs: Atlas Copco Boltec MC Bolter; Sandvik Toro 40D Mine Truck; Sandvik LH517 Loader and a shotcrete sprayer to be based on the Normet Spraymec 1050. The specified cabs have been purposely chosen to cover the primary mining activities at Oyu Tolgoi and will afford all employees valuable experiential training and evaluation following their classroom induction.

Although Oyu Tolgoi has purchased underground mining simulator base units, the operation has both underground and surface mining components. The new CYBERMINE4 range of simulators allow both underground and surface mining simulations in the same base unit, making use of a unique cross-platform adaptor kit. Oyu Tolgoi will therefore still be able to purchase surface mining cabs in the future as the need arises, significantly lowering the total cost of ownership.

To further increase the training experience on the simulators, ThoroughTec will be developing customised CYBERMINE “worlds” which will accurately replicate the tunnel geometry and operating conditions of the mine. Student operators of each of the equipment variants will therefore be familiar with Oyu Tolgoi’s underground mining environment even before venturing underground.