Sudbury's Creighton Mine is seeing the benefits of a six-year research collaboration between Vale Inco and MIRARCO through the installation of a Virtual Reality Laboratory (VRL).
This collaborative research has resulted in the creation of a tool that assesses all available data and integrates the information into a visual map which details the areas of potential seismic activity.
The Creighton Mine represents Vale Inco's deepest and oldest 100-year old operating mine, with depths of 8,000-foot and beyond. The risk of seismic activity grows ever greater the deeper one goes.
With these hazard maps, officials can better identify what steps can be taken to predict and deal with the associated risks. This will lead to safer mining practices and better underground working conditions.
Officials expect the laboratory could potentially have other important uses for the mine. This includes making use of MIRARCO's open source visualization software, ParaViewGeo, which displays the mine and ore body. With this, exploration and planning decisions can be made with greater confidence.
"The skill of our people, coupled with the advances in technology represented by the Virtual Reality Laboratory, will help us operate safely and successfully for decades to come," said mine superintendent Andre Lauzon in a release.
