Modern Mining October 2020

in technology, along with decreasing costs overall, harnessing the power of digital has become more practical and achievable for all sizes of operations – to the extent that it is now becoming an imperative. “From what we have seen in the industry, these systems can now pay for themselves fairly quickly and depending on the level of digitalisation that a mine wants, for example, basic telemetry reporting off the equipment may not cost much per machine per annum than what a single service kit costs – just changing filters and oil,” he says. “The question is no longer about affordability, it’s about whether the

when changes are made. In essence, it takes the guesswork out of operational improvements,” says McCoy. Mines depend on multiple pieces of fixed plant and mobile equipment, and digitalisation can help improve overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), which holds the key to increased productivity. According to McCoy, digitalisation allows operations to see what is happening with their mission-critical assets in real time. “Digital tools give you an accurate view of what is happening in the entire mining process and allows

Sandvik OptiMine is used for analysing and optimising mining production and processes underground.

AutoMine is suitable for the use in surface drilling applications.

for accountability with all teams. With digitalisation mines now have a full view of all factors that affect OEE, including operational delays, late starts and early finishes, among oth- ers. The data is visual to everyone and with connectivity it is available in real time. Decisions can be made immediately to rectify deviations from the mine’s plan in an informed man- ner. In short, it takes the guesswork out of mining,” reasons McCoy. Phased approach While mining majors have been investing in digital technologies for several years, McCoy believes that now and post-COVID-19 is the era in which the digital agenda should be moving into the domain of the broader mining industry, including junior miners. With rapid advances

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