Training simulators are being seen as a central part of mine operations - a sound investment that will up-skill employees and elevate the surrounding community’s skills base.
ThoroughTec experienced a year of continued growth in 2013 thanks to some big players buying the technology to enhance their fundamental performance measures.
“More and more mine operators are realising the advantages that simulation can bring to their mine sites around the world,” ThoroughTec executive vice-president of global business development Greg Lew said.
“We’re continuously receiving reports from mines about how simulation is aiding in the recruitment process, improving productivity and reaction times in emergency situations.”
ThoroughTec broke into several new markets last year, including India and Kazakhstan.
“Because mine vehicles are being used for fewer training tasks, the associated running costs of training are greatly reduced,” says Lew.
“Damage and wear-and-tear on mine vehicles decreases as green operators are able to familiarise themselves with the controls of the machines and iron out their mistakes on the mining simulator instead of the real machine.
“This means less unscheduled maintenance and lower maintenance and training costs”, he continued.
Expansion in Latin America continued with entry into the lucrative and copper-rich Collahuasi region in Chile.
In the US, military standard mining simulation penetrated the oil sands market with the largest oil sands company in the world, Syncrude invested in the technology.
Lew said that miners also used the simulation technology during recruitment to weed out the bad operators and pinpoint the experienced and good operators, before they even reach a mine site.
ThoroughTec Simulation has been operating for more than 20 years supplying the mining, construction and military sectors.
CYBERMINE technology encompasses all aspects of surface and underground mining operations for hard and soft rock.
It is capable of replicating a mine’s working fleet from load and haul through to complex production and ancillary equipment.
