Canadian gold producer Agnico Eagle cuts accident frequency rate in half with help from Intelex EHS Software
Company Size
1,000+
Region
- America
- Europe
Country
- Canada
- Finland
- Mexico
Product
- Intelex EHS Management System
Tech Stack
- Data Management
- Real-time Reporting
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Employee Satisfaction
- Productivity Improvements
Technology Category
- Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics
- Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Data Management Platforms
Applicable Industries
- Mining
Applicable Functions
- Discrete Manufacturing
- Quality Assurance
Use Cases
- Predictive Maintenance
- Real-Time Location System (RTLS)
Services
- Data Science Services
- System Integration
About The Customer
Agnico Eagle Mines is a Canadian-based company with nine mines across Canada, Finland and Mexico and exploration and development activities that extend to the United States. Agnico Eagle is one of the largest gold mining companies in the world, with approximately 5,500 permanent and contract employees.
The Challenge
In 2010, Agnico Eagle began searching for a formal EHS Management System that would work with them to apply best practices in accident management. Their Excel spreadsheets had become inefficient and Agnico wanted to centralize their approach to training, incidents, inspections and other critical business activities. This would simplify the process of individual sites reporting back to corporate on their environmental, health and safety data, and would allow the company to access real-time information and build real-time reports that top management could use to act upon their commitment to accident reduction. Agnico Eagle also needed a system that would accommodate multiple languages across their site locations.
The Solution
The leadership demonstrated by Agnico Eagle’s management team was essential to the success of their implementation. Beginning in January 2011, Agnico Eagle assembled an internal team and held a meeting every two weeks to address potential hurdles and ensure things were progressing as planned. Agnico Eagle also led an observation and interaction program in collaboration with employees to ensure good practices in accident management would be followed. Within 5 months, the new software system was up and running at all locations. Following their initial implementation, Agnico Eagle continued to expand their use of the system. The company has grown from six divisions to nine; their Intelex system has grown with them over the years and has been subsequently implemented at each new division. Agnico Eagle has also taken advantage of the Intelex system’s configurability to design and implement their own forms, questionnaires, reports and more.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
Case Study missing?
Start adding your own!
Register with your work email and create a new case study profile for your business.
Related Case Studies.
Case Study
Underground Mining Safety
The goal was to produce a safety system to monitor and support underground mining operations; existing systems were either too simple (i.e. phone line) or overly complex and expensive, inhibiting deployment, and providing little-to-no support in event of an accident. Given the dangerous nature of the mining work environment and the strict regulations placed on the industry, the solution would have to comply with Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) regulations. Yet the product needed to allow for simple deployment to truly be a groundbreaking solution - increasing miner safety and changing daily operations for the better.
Case Study
Mining Firm Quadruples Production, with Internet of Everything
Dundee Precious Metal’s flagship mine, in Chelopech, Bulgaria, produces a gold, copper, and silver concentrate set a goal to increase production by 30%. Dundee wanted to increase production quality and output without increasing headcount and resources, improve miner safety, and minimize cost.
Case Study
Fastenal Builds the Future of Manufacturing with MachineMetrics
Fastenal's objective was to better understand their machine downtime, utilization, quality issues, and to embrace cutting-edge manufacturing technology/process improvement capabilities to bring their team to the next level. However, there was a lack of real-time data, visualization, and actionable insights made this transition impossible.
Case Study
Joy Mining Systems
Joy equipment faces many challenges. The first is machine integration and control. The business end of the machine has a rapidly-spinning cylinder with 6-inch diamond-studded cutting teeth. It chews through rock at rates measured in tens of tons per minute. The system grinds through the rock in front, creating a rectangular mine tunnel. Hydraulic lifters support the ceiling as the machine moves forward. Automated drills and screws drive 3-ft long screws into the ceiling to stabilize it. The rock and coal fall into a set of gathering "fingers" below the cutting cylinder. These fingers scoop up the rock and coal and deposit it onto a conveyor belt. The conveyor passes under the machine and out the back. A train of conveyor belt cars, up to a mile long, follows the cutter into the mine. The rock shoots along this train at over 400 feet per minute until it empties into rail cars at the end. Current systems place an operator cage next to the cutter. Choking dust (potentially explosive), the risk of collapse and the proximity of metal and rock mayhem make the operator cage a hazardous location.
Case Study
Improved Monitoring in Industrial Manufacturing Facility
When your crane is moving tons of magma-hot iron, you can’t afford an unexpected failure. McWane Ductile knew monitoring the crane motor metrics within their facility could help prevent a mechanical failure that would strand an enormous bucket of molten metal overhead. Unfortunately, their legacy wired monitoring system couldn’t work with moving objects in this extreme environment. If they could integrate wireless capabilities into their existing equipment they could extend their monitoring capabilities without starting over from scratch.
