Unearthed Brisbane leads to business gains for Petra Data Science and Newcrest Mining

BACKGROUND

Earlier this year, Penny Stewart of Petra Data Science (PETRA) attended Unearthed Brisbane 2016.

Petra Data Science develop analytics and prediction solutions that are easy to implement and help in extracting value from mining data.

EXPERIENCE

At the Unearthed Brisbane hackathon in March 2016, Team PETRA developed Real-time Breakdown Algorithms in response to Newcrest Mining’s Predictive Maintenance for Cyclone Feed Pumps challenge.

These algorithms are designed to use Newcrest’s existing monitoring equipment and the Digital Control System (DCS) sends customisable automatic alerts to maintenance teams and supervisors to let them know when pumps have a high probability of breakdown, with 7 days – 24 hours’ notice.

Penny found the open innovation event to be a fantastic initiative that allows direct contact between problem solvers and companies with significant challenges.

“It’s great to have the Unearthed voice in the public arena and it has helped me to get past procurement hurdles that would have been much more difficult to tackle alone” – Penny Stewart.

PROGRESS

Following Unearthed Brisbane, Penny kept in touch with Newcrest and not long afterwards they scheduled a meeting onsite to investigate the potential application of her algorithms.

She showed the team an example of her solution from the cyclone pump challenge and they were very interested, as it was complementary to what they had done in the past, except it used big data; referencing longer periods of time going back further the process. The algorithms also involved real time machine learning, and enabled proactive changes to be made.

The team at Newcrest soon discovered that Team PETRA’s solution from the event was applicable to a similar challenge that they had with a different pump within the organisation.

An operating condition of the pump was not desirable, so PETRA used time series analysis (time warping) to manipulate the data into a useable resource. This enabled the creation of an algorithm that is able to predict the undesirable operating behaviour with 24 hours’ notice and 80% reliability.

PETRA has since trademarked this product as FORESTALL™.

RESULTS

Newcrest were satisfied with their results, as Penny delivered on their brief: an algorithm that predicts a pump’s undesirable operating condition with 24 hours’ notice and 80% reliability.

FORESTALL™ is computable and complementary with Newcrest’s current systems with a low cost of implementation.

The Forestall process also uncovers the root causes or contributing factors to this condition and can potentially reduce the risk of it occurring.

INSIGHTS

Newcrest were proactive and determined to see changes in how technology can be implemented into their organisation.

Penny was impressed by their approach: “I was given clear guidelines around what they wanted to achieve from the outset and timely feedback on the many iterations along the way.”

It was advantageous working directly with corporate and technical contacts alike, who were very responsive and allowed timely access to data.

These combined factors ended up being crucial to the successful running of the project and the subsequent desirable outcomes for all parties involved.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Petra Data Science currently has three active proposals with Newcrest nearing completion. Another six proposals have also been requested and are in the pipeline.

Penny credits Unearthed with providing the platform for industry challenges and solution providers to meet. Her algorithm from Unearthed Brisbane initiated the events leading to growth for her business.

Petra Data Science now has many projects, products and services on the go, and two new employees to boot. Penny predicts that, aside from FORESTALL the biggest growth area moving forward will be with their PRODFINDER™ data integration solution, which enables analysis and data visualisation from any raw mining data (e.g. geology, milling, blasting, load & haul etc.)

Unearthed wishes Petra Data Science and Newcrest every success in their future endeavours.

 

For further information about upcoming Unearthed hackathons, visit our event page.