Hecla Mining’s Casa Berardi is a gold mine and mill located in western Québec, some 95 kilometres north of La Serre. In 2018, the mine produced 130,647 ounces of gold and it has been in operation since 1989 and currently employs about 580 people.
Casa Berardi wanted to improve their productivity by reducing maintenance costs. To do that, the mine needed to cut down wear and tear on their equipment and they also needed to be able to monitor machines to catch equipment problems before they became major failures.
Brake tests are an important step in keeping operators safe. With Newtrax technology, Hecla was able to monitor these in real-time, so they were able to see when tests were being performed correctly.
Newtrax was also able to install a sensor suite that gave mechanical technicians the ability to more easily identify problems when a machine is brought in.
Saved 30 minutes per shift thanks to fewer delays.
The mine was able to go about 2% over its budgeted quantities for the year.
Observed a 10% drop in over speed and a 50% drop in transmission abuse
Saved 7.8% overall in maintenance costs for every hauled tonne.
Realized an 8% increase in LHD availability.