Declining coal prices globally have prompted coal producers to optimise costs and improve efficiencies across their value chain, with an increased focus on combating coal theft and quality manipulation, says supply chain security specialists CoalPay chief geologist Tony Cumming.

As a result, innovative, cost- effective solutions are increasingly important in ensuring that operations remain viable. Key focus areas include smarter mining practices, processing, logistics and quality verification, along with enhanced security measures, he explains.

CoalPay assists coal producers in achieving this through its coal quantity and quality solutions, which offer AI-driven process control and audits of mining processes.

Cumming highlights the company’s security solutions – which target the entire value chain, “from pit to port” – such as automated and unmanned weighbridge systems, encrypted sampling and encrypted end-to-end payment solutions.

CoalPay also offers IT and operation technology system integration to confirm the quantity and quality of goods delivered, and automated reporting and invoicing, as well as cost-effective gantry designs.

The truck auger solution, paired with containerised sample processing units, includes online analysis for rapid truck-by-truck quality verification and management, as well as physical sampling for consignment verification.

The fixed gantry configuration allows for dual-lane sampling, consequently reducing project costs and doubling the throughput of truck and train sampling.

The company’s AI-driven operational technology monitors processes to prevent fraud and collusion, as well as the cloning of deliveries and loads from a client’s stockyard. Additionally, machine learning and executive dashboard reporting provide mining executives with timely insights, consequently allowing for swift responses to challenges.

User-friendly apps and alert systems enhance communication and coordination by providing real-time information on compliance. Management is immediately alerted to any anomalies or noncompliance issues, allowing for prompt intervention, explains Cumming.

Bridging the Gap
There is often a significant disconnect between the quality of coal contracted and the coal that is delivered, notes Cumming, adding that CoalPay’s systems work together to close this gap.

He emphasises the importance of payment based on actual goods received during the supply chain process, enabled through CoalPay’s auger systems and online analysers that confirm the quantity and quality of coal delivered on every truck or train wagon, prior to offloading coal.

Traditionally, contractual consignment quality certification relies on representative sampling and laboratory analysis taken from a sampling device, either over a moving belt or a falling stream.

During this process, the product is typically analysed either as delivered, in the case of direct conveyor mine-to-stockyard feeds, or pre-certified as product stockpiles, intended for dispatch by rail or road to the contracted client.

Clients then require dedicated and costly stockpiling infrastructure to verify contractual sample qualities upon delivery, adds Cumming.

“In a challenging environment of fraudulent manipulation of coal qualities and truck deliveries, it becomes ever more important . . . to effectively verify qualities on a truck-by-truck basis, either when leaving the source, or, more importantly, upon delivery at the pay point.”

Truck auger sampling of rail wagons or road trucks is an accepted International Organisation for Standardisation-compliant procedure for sampling and allows for every load to be sampled, ensuring that clients pay for the contracted coal quality, he affirms.

CoalPay offers fully leased fixed and mobile auger systems with integrated coal-quality checks. This allows for rapid quality verification of individual trucks and consignments, with a total turnaround time of about three minutes a truck, says Cumming.

He explains that every truck, or selected truck delivery, is auger sampled, with downstream online analysis for rapid quality verification – typically for ash and sulphur parameters – against the client’s contractual requirements.

Physical samples from the auger stream are also taken either per truck or as composite samples for laboratory analysis. This solution allows for the pay point to shift from pre-certification at the source to the point of delivery.

All data from weighbridges, encrypted sampling and laboratory reports is cloud-based, facilitating automated feedback and executive oversight. The software is fully integrated with enterprise resource planning systems such as SAP and Oracle.

Cumming also highlights CoalPay’s central control room, which is located remotely. This independent, centralised approach to monitoring and reporting significantly reduces the risk of collusion and fraudulent behaviour.

“Our AI systems integrate with our control room to red flag trucks that should not be in a stockyard or trucks avoiding and bypassing weighbridges.”

Drivers are independently verified to prevent individuals with a history of fraud from transporting goods for a client, concludes Cumming.