Micromine stakeholders recently visited the Prominent Hill mine in South Australia to witness firsthand the mine control and fleet management solution, Micromine Pitram. Prominent Hill is a copper, silver, and gold mine that is part of OZ Minerals, which became part of BHP on May 3, 2023.

Prominent Hill produces one of the highest grades of copper concentrate on the market, and Micromine Pitram was an integral step towards its vision of achieving a smart mining operation. “We have worked at Prominent Hill since 2020, and the relationship continues to develop,” said Micromine Chief Executive Officer Andrew Birch. “The team at Prominent Hill understand the importance of mining innovation and the value it creates to upskill their people and mine more efficiently,” he added.

For the past year, Micromine Pitram has allowed operators to capture, manage and analyse their activity, with core operational data delivered to provide relevant insights. Pitram Mobile was deployed to boost two-way operational information and minimise human errors.

Pitram Mobiles’ ruggedised onboard computers were installed within the machine cabs so that operators could enter cycle data, manage shift activities, and communicate with the control room. Once in network range, via Wi-Fi or Pitram Peer-2-Peer network, the devices sync data to the server and control room, where it can be visualised, tracked, and analysed.

Micromine says it will continue exploring new technology investment areas to assist Prominent Hill’s operations. Micromine’s next steps are to automate this data capture through OEM integrations in combination with other off-the-shelf tagging and AI solutions.