Broken Hill, with a rich history in mining is naturally situated in a dry climate. The orebody is still actively mined for Silver, Lead and Zinc.

Our client’s mining operation is located very close to the town and residential areas. This provides them with several challenges including managing the risk of mine-generated Dust Pollution which can be both a nuisance and a health risk to humans.

Timely information is critical for managing and controlling the mining-generated dust and minimising disruption to the operations.
However, publicly available weather information or weather apps fall short for mining operators for two reasons: the data is general and it is not tailored to the operator’s needs.

Outsmarting your Dust Risk

Proactive Dust Risk Management Process

Weather Intelligence focuses on understanding the operator’s needs, provides a streamlinable solution to forecast relevant data, and presents it in a meaningful way that facilitates preparedness.

Kite generates a site-specific Dust Risk forecast. Factors such as receptor location, wind speed and direction, and dust liftoff index are used to generate an hourly risk forecast for the site. Kite’s Dust Risk forecast is then delivered to all key stakeholders as a Toolbox Report before each shift. Additionally, when Category 1 alerts are forecasted, alerts are sent via SMS and email to all identified stakeholders.

The Toolbox Report is widely used by the key personnel to plan the shift activities to reduce the Risk of Mine generated dust. During ‘Extreme’ risk conditions, additional water carts are dispatched.

Kite Dust Risk Toolbox Report is used daily by all of our key stakeholders. The product very accurately predicts when the dust pollution risk is high and produces a simple to read report. Armed with this information, we are able to make swift operational decisions at the start of every shift.
Environment Superintendent

Streamlining your Environmental Management of Dust Risk

A site-based risk assessment and tailored reports delivered in an actionable format

Widespread adoption of Kite by all the stakeholders has resulted in the mine being able to get a better handle on the approaching risk of dust pollution.

During forecast high-risk periods, the mine will typically schedule alternative work such as maintenance to avoid dusty activities.

Some of the perceived results are:

• More than 46% reduction in disruptions to operations
• More than 30% decrease in alarms generated by the boundary dust monitors
• Simpler and more effective decision-making.