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FutureSmart Mining^TM

Transforming the very nature of mining for a safer, smarter, more sustainable future.

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Enter the world of FutureSmart Mining^TM

Enter the world of FutureSmart MiningTM -

Enter the world of FutureSmart Mining^TM

Watch this video for a brief summary of what we mean when we talk about FutureSmart Mining^TM and how it fits with our broader strategy and purpose.

Technology, digitalisation and sustainability working hand in hand

These are the step-change innovations that will transform the nature of mining – how we source, mine, process, move and market our products – and how our stakeholders experience our business. It is about transforming our physical and societal footprint.

We envisage a much-reduced environmental footprint from new ways of mining, including by using a number of precision mining technologies and data analytics, while our collaborative approach to regional economic development and our ambitious global stretch goals, aimed at delivering improvements to areas such as health and education, are at the heart of how we will create truly sustainable and thriving communities.

The four concepts underpinning a new way of mining

Through technologies and digitalisation, we envisage four concepts for the future of mining: Concentrating the Mine, the Water-less Mine, the Modern Mine, and the Intelligent Mine:

Concentrating the Mine^TM

Intelligent Mine

Modern Mine

Water-less Mine

Concentrating the Mine^TM

Please select

Overview Coarse Particle Recovery Bulk Sorting Ultrafine recovery

Overview

Concentrating the Mine™ is looking to address the need for increased precision in mining, with minimal energy, water and capital intensity. We are applying technologies that more precisely target the desired metals or minerals, delivering greater than 30% reductions in the use of water, energy and capital intensity, and producing less waste in the process, in line with our overall trajectory towards carbon neutral mining. This includes coarse particle recovery, bulk sorting and ultrafine recovery.

Coarse Particle Recovery

This process crushes particles to 2.5 times larger than normal, reducing energy consumption and mill time and leading to a 20% increase in throughput and 85% water recovery.

Bulk Sorting

Eliminates waste early, which leads to a 5 - 7% increase in head grade. The recoveries are even higher when combined with grade engineering principles, where higher grades tend to be found in finer fractions, ensuring further upgrading.

Ultrafine recovery

We lose around 10 - 15% of recovery today because the mineral particles are too small. We are testing two ultrafine recovery methods and expect to increase recoveries in future by a further 4%.

Intelligent Mine

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Overview Data analytics - VOXEL^TM Digital twins Advanced Process Control

Overview

The Intelligent Mine is one in which vast quantities of quality data are transformed into predictive intelligence, leading to a safe, fully integrated, systemised and self-learning operations.

Why?

The aim is to remove the uncertainty and variability that characterises mining today. We are re-imagining the mining value chain with the power of data, from discovery to marketing.

How

We are building a digital ecosystem that underpins a digital way of working, operations are being digitised through sensors and other instrumentation, and artificial intelligence is being used to accelerate a range of processes, beginning with ore body characterisation.

Data analytics - VOXEL^TM

Anglo American is transforming into a truly data driven organisation. Our Data Analytics team is helping to maximise the value of our data and digital footprint, including for many of our stakeholders.  We are leveraging the potential of our data through integrated digital software, for planning, simulation, execution and monitoring across the core of our value chain.

We are building an integrated end-to-end data solution that brings together the discovery of the mineral in the ground, the mining processes, the processing of the final product, and the logistics and delivery to the port and our customers.

This data transformation is contributing to the delivery of our business performance targets, by developing our people and transforming our processes, improving safety, health, sustainability, efficiency and optimal stable operational performance, through our technology platform – VOXEL^TM.

Our digital products and services are designed to maximise the safety and productivity of our people and assets, to provide us with a robust ability to predict the outcomes of our operational plans and to support our financial performance and Sustainable Mining Plan goals.

Digitalisation, together with numerous physical technologies, will fundamentally redesign many of our mining processes, delivering the Intelligent Mine – a key part of our FutureSmart Mining™ programme.

For example, we have implemented predictive maintenance models that are detecting failures before they occur and reducing unplanned down time, thereby increasing our throughput at sites including Barro Alto, Mogalakwena and Amandelbult.

Digital twins

Our machine learning digital twins are generating accurate “best operational recipes” for complex processing units – with a few clicks on a smartphone, six hours ahead of schedule. This means our sites are able to make the best decisions and can multiply mineral recovery from each load of ore, while reducing the energy and water required.

Advanced Process Control

With Advanced Process Control we are reducing process variability and enabling further throughput efficiencies (<5% range and even higher when considering energy efficiency). For example, at Los Bronces, we have achieved an 8% absolute energy reduction across three SAG mills and a 12% reduction in specific energy consumption.

Modern Mine

Please select

Why? A new generation of engineered controls Automated and continuous rock-cutting vehicles Remotely operated machinery

Why?

Safety is our number one priority, we want to ensure that all our people go home safely, every day.

A new generation of engineered controls

We are developing a new generation of engineered controls to reduce the exposure of people to risk. This includes using existing modernisation technologies, like electro-hydraulic drills, and by removing scraper winches.

From there, we can move operators further out of harm’s way and deliver efficiencies in continuous mining at depth through advancements in hard rock cutting.

Automated and continuous rock-cutting vehicles

These safely extract the targeted ore deep underground without the need for explosive blasting. These innovations make it possible to mine lower grade ores and complex mineralogy, creating a safer and more productive environment, with lower operating costs.

Remotely operated machinery

Swarm robotics will be the next generation of mining, and will ultimately mean the removal of people from safety risk exposure, while upskilling employees in new technologies and approaches.

Water-less Mine

Please select

Overview Coarse Particle Recovery Novel Leach

Overview

The work we are doing on Concentrating the Mine™ is creating pathways to the Water-less Mine.  With 75% of our assets located in water constrained areas, we must reduce our dependence on water and associated tailings facilities. We will always need water, but we can get closer to full recovery recycling. Through an integrated system of technologies including Coarse Particle Recovery, Novel Leaching and Hydraulic Dry Stack, we are reducing fresh water usage, moving to closed loop and ultimately dry-processing in our operations, thereby eliminating the need for wet tailings and instead creating stable, dry, economically viable land. The construction of the first such facility is under way at El Soldado, in Chile, to validate the engineering at scale. 

Coarse Particle Recovery

This process allows water to release from the much coarser particles, which improves energy efficiencies and water savings by ~30%. This technology will reduce the risks associated with wet tailings and help ultimately to eliminate them altogether. When combined with low cost additives, it is possible to dewater residual waste and produce dry stackable tailings. This technology remains a focus area for us as water sent to tailings facilities often represents the largest water loss at a mine.

Novel Leach

Leaching is the least energy intensive method of processing, has significantly lower water consumption and disproportionate benefits when compared to conventional concentrator processing. However, until now we have been restricted by recoveries (within the 40-60% range). Novel leaching explores new leaching systems that are now enabling us to be more specific in how we target minerals through the leaching process, significantly enhancing recoveries (i.e. 80 – 90%) in lower grade ores and changing the capital equation. 

FutureSmart Mining^TM: Our Sustainable Mining Plan

Anglo American has long shown itself to be a leader across many fields and such leadership is called for again as society changes with and around us. Mining must play its part to address the environmental challenges of a carbon-constrained world and society’s wider expectations of us as enablers of change, while we continue to meet the ever-growing demand for our products.

Our Sustainable Mining Plan is designed to tackle many of these challenges, both environmental and social, and we are making encouraging progress that is changing how our employees and stakeholders experience Anglo American, in line with our Purpose.

Our global sustainability pillars

Our Sustainable Mining Plan is built around three major areas or Global Sustainability Pillars aligned to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and we have set Global Stretch Goals.

Trusted corporate leader

Developing trust as a corporate leader, providing ethical value chains and improved accountability to the communities we work with.

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Healthy Environment

Maintaining a healthy environment by creating water-less, carbon, neutral mines and delivering positive biodiversity outcomes.

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Thriving Communities

Building thriving communities with better health, education and levels of employment.

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These Global Stretch Goals are deliberately ambitious and designed to challenge us to lead and innovate. We’re putting all our efforts into delivering them between now and 2030.