Tough times in the mining industry are driving more companies to turn to technology to boost performance and reduce costs. Mining companies from around the world gathered last month at MinExpo International 2016 in Las Vegas to talk about new innovations in big data and analytics, autonomous driving and automation.
While safety has always been a high priority in mining, more companies are turning to autonomous driving and automation to remove workers as much as possible from danger zones, including sites with explosives and monster trucks.
Japanese equipment manufacturer Komatsu displayed a cab-less 250-ton dump truck at MinExpo, developed to be exclusively autonomous and steered by pre-determined satellite navigation. Komatsu says the truck is the world’s first autonomous dump truck of this size for mining, and after the show, will be put to use in a mine in Tucson, Arizona.
Entire mining operations without workers on site are now being connected to central computer operations with 3G, 4G, wireless and fiber optics networks, both in and above the ground. The improved network speeds allow for real-time communications to and from the site.
Said David Fenstermacher at the show, who works for a Caterpillar partner, “Everything in a mine is very computerized. There aren’t a lot of people pushing paper around. I have digital records of what routes my trucks are on, who’s operating them, what repairs were done. We’re also bringing in a lot of external data like the weather.”
Caterpillar says today’s mining is akin to an industrial revolution, one where machines are talking to machines, ‘smart sites’ with sensors allow real-time fleet maintenance and planning, and everything is driven by data. Caterpillar group president Rob Charter: “In this age of smart iron, technology, data and automation are transforming the mining industry and changing the way mine sites operate. “
Dassault Systèmes gave visitors at the Expo a view of how a mine operates, offering ‘walkthroughs’ of a virtual working mine and virtual mine tunnels. Visitors also got a look at Dassault’s “3DEXPERIENCE Mine”, a platform offering immersive, 3D simulation that allows mining companies to explore ideas before they are implemented in a real mine. It’s a way for companies to try out innovative, and even challenging, ideas that would never be explored in real life, often due to risk or cost of failure.
The challenging economic environment for mining is driving the increased interest in tech. Sensor data and virtualization provide information that allows companies to maximize performance in real time, drive efficiencies and reduce costs. Says Mike Rikkola, senior program manager at Joy Global, “We’re a manufacturer of mining equipment and have multi-million dollar equipment. We need to know if it’s operating at an optimum.”
Virtualization and digitization are high on the list of companies’ investments to monitor valuable equipment. For example, using simulation software, operators can generate precise 3D representations of a mine’s environment without ever traveling to the site. Says Scott Phillips, president and CEO of GE Mining, “We use virtualization software to simulate a blast and understand what will happen. We put all that data into our cloud-based Predix platform.” Phillips said technologies such as cameras in the lime stone, sensors and geo fences all help make virtualization possible. He says 97 percent of the world’s top 100 mining companies list big data as a top priority.
The huge amounts of data being generated are forcing mining companies to focus on analytics, and to figure out ways to make the data more relevant and useful. Using data and analytics, mining companies can continuously monitor for anomalies, whether it be an individual machine or an entire site, and pre-empt problems before they occur. With the new tools and technologies, mining companies are starting to see big returns from their investments, helping to turn these challenging times for the industry into exciting times.
