In January 2018, we launched the ‘Innovation Opportunity Fund’ for employees to submit innovative ideas to improve Kinross’ global operations by sharing best practices and promoting continuous improvement.
A recently-funded idea came from the Technical Services team at Tasiast who developed a technology for a new blast movement modelling and optimization project to improve ore movement tracking and reconciliation.
The idea was developed after the team identified a need to maximize efficiency and reduce costs when blasting. The technology uses an optimization tool to create dig lines and compute estimated costs based on mining directions. As a result, the team can decipher where and how to dig in order to maximize cash flow.
“This technology is an opportunity to re-evaluate the way we blast by tracking ore movement based on mining direction,” said Benoit Poupeau, Geology Superintendent, Tasiast. “Together, our geologists, planners and miners work together using this technology to our advantage and maximize production while reducing costs – it has been a great team effort.”
The success of this technology has allowed our mine operations and technical services teams to integrate this into their daily operations, resulting in improvements to material routing and reconciliation.
Do you have an idea or technology that can improve our global operations? Big, or small, we are always interested in innovative ideas that drive our operations forward. View our submission form here for more information.
