Anglo American FutureSmart MiningTM wins “Best Use of Smart Technology for Sustainability” award at Mines and Technology 2017
London, 5 December 2017
Anglo American (LSE:AAL) has been awarded the prize for best use of smart technologies in sustainability at the 2017 edition of Mines and Technology. The prize, which was accepted for Anglo American by Donovan Waller (Group Head of Technology Development), was presented last week at a Gala dinner in London. This award was presented in recognition of the company’s innovative efforts to deploy and integrate Silixa’s non-intrusive optical process metering flow measurement technology at Mogalakwena Platinum Mine.
Mogalakwena Platinum Mine is located in a water stressed region with complex water management requirements. Working with Silixa, Anglo American’s FutureSmart MiningTM program installed the world’s first permanent, non-intrusive, multi-zone, flow metering system based on distributed acoustic sensing technology. Covering over 16km, the circuit requires no power, has no expensive sensing parts, requires no alteration of the pipeline and hence no interruption to flow. The system delivers robust flow measurements for automatic incorporation into water balance calculations. Borne from the Pervasive Sensing project theme arising from the 2015 FutureSmart MiningTM Open Forum on water, the technology is now being expanded into the process realm where the value addition is likely to be significant.
“This honour represents an important validation of the hard work of our extraordinary team at Silixa. Our corporate vision is to apply our distributed fibre optic sensing technology in creative ways to develop applications that help deal with the world’s greatest industrial challenges, whether that is safely optimising production, or providing effective flow metering. Our ultimate goal is to change how distributed sensing is used in industry,“ said Glynn Williams, Silixa’s CEO.
Mines and Technology’s Outstanding Achievement Awards and Gala Dinner attracted hundreds of senior representatives from all tiers of mining companies, investment institutions, government delegations as well as a range of technology providers. The night was an opportunity to honour the companies and individuals who exhibited outstanding achievement in 5 distinct technology achievement categories.
About Silixa
Silixa Ltd, based in London UK and the US, was established in 2007 and is supported by investors Lime Rock Partners, Chevron Technology Ventures and Statoil Technology Invest. Silixa is transforming how distributed sensing is used in the energy sector by applying the power of the world’s highest performing distributed acoustic (iDAS™ and Carina® Sensing System) and temperature sensing (ULTIMA™ DTS, XT-DTS) technologies. Silixa delivers distributed fibre optic monitoring solutions on both new and existing fibre cable installations with the highest levels of accuracy in the industry to improve performance, reduce operational costs and extend the lifespan of any asset.
About Anglo American
Anglo American is a globally diversified mining business. Our portfolio of world-class competitive mining operations and undeveloped resources provides the raw materials to meet the growing consumer-driven demands of the world’s developed and maturing economies. Our people are at the heart of our business. It is our people who use the latest technologies to find new resources, plan and build our mines and who mine, process and move and market our products to our customers around the world.
As a responsible miner – of diamonds (through De Beers), copper, platinum and other precious metals, iron ore, coal and nickel – we are the custodians of what are precious natural resources. We work together with our key partners and stakeholders to unlock the long-term value that those resources represent for our shareholders and for the communities and countries in which we operate – creating sustainable value and making a real difference.
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