Modern Quarrying Q2 2019

THE FOURTH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND SURFACE MINING

NICO’S VIEW

There are many discussions around the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), but my view is that as the surface mining industry we are still far from it. There is no denying that 4IR is here – driverless trucks, new blasting methods and digital controls on site, are all part of a new era.

quarry are run by an integrated process and logistics-controlled system not even on the site. 4IR is not something that is far away from us – just look at Uber, Google and Tesla Electric cars, among other recent disruptions, to know that it’s already here. The difference is only that some sectors of society have already adapted, while the surface mining industry is still lagging behind. To give an idea, we still battle with things like a full-proof Proximity Detection System (PDS). My view is that as an industry we are still stuck in the first and second industrial revolutions. The first industrial revolution gave us mechanised means of production. The second industrial revolution gave us assembly lines and electricity, while the third gave us electronics. The Fourth Industrial Revolution, that we believe we are going into, is that of automating the production at such a rapid pace, that human beings are increas- ingly being rendered irrelevant. If we measure the industry’s citizenship in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, then we see that there are already many semi-conductor drivers – phones, com- puters and intelligent robots – all used for production, but the mining industry is far behind the automotive industry. However, for us to understand the slow pace of advancement to 4IR by the mining industry, we also need to grasp its political economy. Mining companies acquire mining rights from the regulator. A mining licence is a right to mine a particular mineral at a particular location for a particular period. To get this licence, the mining company must do an environmental impact assessment, as well as consult with the local community. Companies then put up mining infrastructure, employ people and operate the mine. In return, the government wants jobs, taxes and royalties. The concept is that the gain by one party is always a loss to the other party. The mining industry is a zero-sum game because minerals mined by companies are necessarily a loss to the minerals balance sheet of a country. What the government hopes is that the loss of mineral resources by a country is compensated by employment, taxes and royalties. The other reality is that employment relations in the mining industry have not changed much in the last 100 years. The wages in the mining industry remain low and the work environ- ment is not yet 100% safe. There are, however, reasons why the industry seems to be left behind. A few of these could be the conditions on the mines – dust, heat and other tough conditions. Mines also don’t work in straight lines, like a manufacturing plant, for example. Activities take place all over the place, which makes it complicated to automate systems in some instances. In conclusion, we can see that there is still some work, planning and serious thinking to be done in order to allow us in the surface mining industry to get to 4IR. This is definitely something to think about – maybe in a think-tank discussion. l

Nico Pienaar, director of Aspasa.

S o, what is Fourth Industrial Revolution? Well it says it all, this is truly the fourth industrial revolution era since the first one. So, where are we as the industry as far as this is concerned? The truth of the matter is that we are far from it, even though we must be at the forefront of 4IR to improve efficiencies and productivity to stay profitable and relevant. The South African surface mining indus- try, especially the quarrying sector, lags far behind other countries. The local quarrying sector has long been an industry with great traditions where change is at times very gradual. My view is that quarry owners have critical choices to make about every aspect of their businesses – they can either inno- vate or stagnate. The most fundamental change, right now, is how the industry can leverage the role of 4IR in enabling new capabilities. For example, in Spain, a big aggregate quarry has already fully automated its operations, with less than a handful of employees controlling this highly mech- anised operation. The workings of the

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MODERN QUARRYING QUARTER 2 - 2019