MINING AUTOMATION PROGRAM

On January 1st 1996 Inco Limited, Tamrock OY, Dyno Explosives Group an d CAN MET formed a consortium for the development of robotic mining eq uipment. This project is a five year research and development agreemen t thar combines the talents of the above organizations to facilitate t he creation of mining equipment and systems for robotic mining. The pr ojects are based on the communication system developed by inco Mines R esearch and currently sold and marketed by Automated Mining Systems li mited Main projects include the development and implementation of a po sitioning and navigation module (including a software mapping system t hat will be inherent to each piece of equipment), robotic systems for development and mining, and software systems to support the use of thi s equipment, included in the program is the establishment of a test mi ne, at Inco's 175 orebody at Copper Cliff. This facility will allow co llaboration of companies and research organizations for the design and testing of techniques and equipment for Robotic mining. This paper di scusses the creation of this new research alliance, the Mining Automat ion Program or MAP.