Abstract

Victoria Gold’s Eagle Mine.

Hear how Canada’s newest Gold Mine is Leading Yukon’s New Gold Rush. The Eagle mine commenced operations in September 2019 and throughout the pandemic, driven by necessity, they sought out what technologies would enable key operational efficiencies in an ever-changing landscape of manpower shortages, and remote operating conditions.

Now in active operation, VGC is working closely with their technology partners on a planned approach for further productivity & efficiency improvements. These include areas such as material movement, manpower, machine utilisation, and carbon emissions tracking.

The Eagle Gold Mine is the newest and largest gold mine in Yukon history and is anticipated to produce 2.4 million ounces of gold over 11 years. The mine, located 80 km to the south near the village of Mayo, employs approximately 500 people as well as numerous contractors and consultants.

The Eagle Gold Mine has a long-standing Comprehensive Cooperation and Benefits Agreement with the First Nation of Nacho Nyak Dun, within whose traditional territory the mine is located.

Deployment of an FMS was seen as fundamental for VGC to achieve their mining objectives to have a real-time understanding of their operations for material tracking, operator management, optimisation of loads, and the efficiency of excavation efforts. This core technology with access to real-time data from their fleet and operations, then paves the way for even further operational improvements.

Overcoming Remote Location & environmental conditions

One of the challenges is executing the mine plan in accordance with the operating boundaries of the equipment. Due to the extremely remote location of the mine, and the difficulties in obtaining spare parts or technicians to maintain the fleet, it was important to operate the equipment within OEM design parameters.

The iVolve FMS supplied by Brandt, provided a simple and robust solution to allow the site to quickly setup an environment to support these goals.

Operational Insights

• Improved operator effectiveness: operators have real-time feedback on where to operate and the operating parameters that they are to work in. Optimising the Load Cycle without overstraining the assets was the first step of realising value from the FMS.
• Understanding of excavation area: mine plans can be loaded into the FMS Guidance solution which allows operators to precisely discern the difference between ore and waste.
• Knowledge of vehicle utilization & availability: The plan for the next 12 months is to focus on the time usage model and to fully understand the operating times for assets, looking to ensure that operators maximise productive time. Warnings are issued to operators to ensure that they don’t exceed break times, meaning the productive time of the asset is maximised and the non-productive engine idle times are minimised.

Moving forward VGC are working closely with their technology partners Brandt and iVolve on future value studies utilising the FMS data available to support the site’s intentions to minimise its greenhouse gas emissions.