Digitalisation – the pathway to sustainable, high-productivity mining

Mining’s digital transformation opens up a world of opportunities for you to increase throughput without compromising on sustainability goals. Our broad offering encompasses a unique portfolio of digital tools and services. You can utilise machine learning and AI to enhance operating efficiency. And you can take advantage of our expertise remotely and in real-time, no matter where or when. The value you get back from digitalisation is incredible: Greater understanding of your processes, increased availability of your equipment due to easier maintenance and remote monitoring, and, ultimately, higher productivity with lower total operating costs.

Mining in the age of Machine Learning

Machine learning and data-driven technologies will be at the root of enhanced productivity across the minerals processing industry. Data-gathering digital tools help you understand more about the materials you are working with, as well as giving a valuable window on how well your machines are performing.

Couple this enhanced data with specialist decision-making algorithms and you get streamlined processes that are programmed for optimisation. Nothing wasted. Just productivity gained.

A better connection with the IoT

Connected machines and processes are able to communicate – with each other, with your operators, and with us. Interconnected processes work seamlessly to increase efficiency, improve quality and optimise and automate other processes such as the advance and timely ordering of wear and spare parts.

Faster response, remotely

Connected machines can be operated remotely, and if there’s an issue, remote services are a highly responsive route to a solution. In fact, we have digital tools that are built to ‘listen’ to your machines, watching for the earliest indicators of a problem. We can then feedback to you with recommendations for corrective actions. It’s the advanced warning you need to be proactive with your maintenance – and even eliminate unplanned downtime.

Optimising sustainability with digitalisation

What does a sustainably productive mine look like? Zero water waste, zero energy waste, zero emissions and improved productivity. Digitalisation is an irreplaceable tool when optimising your operations to achieve these goals. We need the speed and responsiveness of digital technologies.

Human operators simply aren’t capable of the levels of resource-use efficiency these specialist algorithms can reach. But the more we learn about our processes, through data and human expertise, the more we are able to streamline them. And it’s a virtuous circle, too – because the more digital mines there are, the more data exists to help us find the efficiencies we are seeking.

Increase safety with automation

Digitalisation doesn’t just offer productivity gains – it also benefits operator health and safety. Automation takes the human factor out of operations, freeing workers from hazardous situations. In a time of skills and labour shortages, this is a significant benefit – and it comes on top of the additional speed, precision and consistency gained through automation.

Are we digitalising fast enough?

In short, no. The 2021 Digital Acceleration Index (DAI) from Boston Consulting Group found that the metals and mining industry is approximately 30 – 40 % less digitally mature than comparable industries. But with collaboration and innovation, we can catch up – and reap the benefits of automation and other areas of digitalisation across the mining flowsheet.