Tag Archives: Anthony Walker

Cyient to support rollout of Decipher’s cloud-based TSF monitoring platform

Communications in mining, Environmental, IoT, Mineral processing, Mining maintenance, Mining services, Mining software, , , , , , ,

Cyient, a global engineering, manufacturing, and digital transformation and technology solutions company, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Decipher, a Perth-based company that provides a cloud monitoring and governance platform for tailing storage facilities.

As per the MoU, Cyient will support Decipher with the global rollout of its cloud mining platform for tailings and rehabilitation monitoring, it said.

Tailing storage facility failures that cause an uncontrolled release of water, waste material, or by-product constitute a significant environmental risk, Cyient says. With a cloud mining platform, mining companies will be able to replace manual processes and siloed data with a more robust and secure cloud platform that adheres to the latest industry best practices and compliance requirements.

Cyient and its subsidiary, IG Partners, will be playing a significant role in selling, implementing, and supporting the solution as it advances, Cyient said.

Speaking at the MoU signing, Herman Kleynhans, Sector Head for Mining, Cyient, said: “Decipher’s end-to-end solution and deep understanding of TSF monitoring and governance, combined with Cyient’s technical depth and global reach, will bring immense value to our mining customers. This partnership will also allow us to make a positive environmental and safety impact on communities engaged in mining operations around the world.”

Decipher’s CEO, Anthony Walker, added: “The reach and experience of Cyient, a leading global player, will greatly support the uptake of the solution for customers worldwide. The remarkable strides taken by the Global Industry Tailings Standard in challenging and leading the industry needs the support and systems that Decipher can deliver. We are delighted that Cyient and its subsidiary, IG Partners, have joined hands with us to make this collaboration a success.”

Decipher to help miners improve tailings governance, monitoring, reporting and disclosure

Communications in mining, IoT, Mineral processing, Mining industry recognition, Mining services, Water management, , , , ,

Decipher, a Perth-based cloud monitoring platform for tailings storage facilities (TSFs), has been working with industry leaders in the tech space to create an integrated TSF cloud solution to help mining companies improve governance, monitoring, reporting and disclosure of tailings data.

TSFs are integral to almost any mining activity but, due to their “toxic nature” and the vast volume of waste materials, mining companies are acutely aware of the risks and challenges that they pose, Decipher says.

“Mining operators have come to realise that a leakage or rupture can have considerable consequences such as loss of life, environmental damage, impact their social licence to operate, and cause potential financial hardship,” the company says.

Prior to the catastrophic failure of the tailings dam in Brumadinho, Brazil, in 2019, which caused a tidal wave of 11.7 million cu.m of mining waste, reportedly killing 270 people, most companies had been required to disclose relatively little information on their facilities and were able to transfer part of their tailings exposure into their General Liability, Property or Environmental Liability Insurance programs, according to Decipher.

“Almost overnight, insurers soon discovered the full financial impact that a significant failure can have on their own business, resulting in a complete overhaul in underwriting guidelines,” the company said. “As a result, mining operators are now required to be more transparent in the assessment of risks and have since experienced substantial premium increases while the insured value has dropped. According to industry experts, underwriters have recently refused to cover tailings dams where the required information was not forthcoming. Additionally, insurers have indicated that compliance with standards may be a consideration in determining future insurability and premiums for tailings facilities.”

Adding to this notion, Decipher CEO, Anthony Walker, explained that insurers can now afford to be selective in where they put their capacity.

“In order for mining companies to achieve satisfactory insurance renewal outcomes they need to be able to demonstrate that their facility adheres to governance processes and certain standards, and, that they are fulfilling their obligation to do whatever is necessary to avoid an incident from occurring, work collaboratively with auditors and underwriters on third-party reports, and comply with industry public disclosure requests such as the Investor Mining and Tailings Safety Initiative,” he said.

After speaking with several Tier 1 and 2 mining companies, Decipher has created an integrated TSF cloud solution to help companies improve governance, compliance, monitoring, reporting and disclosure of tailings data, which can potentially assist with the insurance process and flow of information, the company says.

“We have designed the solution so that customers can provide independent users such as insurers, investors, auditors and ITRB with secure access to a quick and effective knowledge management tool with selective data,” Walker said. “This enables our customers to visually demonstrate their good governance, enabling their stakeholders to better understand the facility, its risks and as a result, potentially reduce insurance premiums and improve investor sentiment.”

The solution draws on Decipher’s powerful monitoring capabilities, which has been built with Google Earth Engine at its core, and brings a variety of tailings data such as IoT devices, LiDAR, radar, CCTV, drones, inspections and remote sensing into one central location, offering customers an earth observation and visual approach to their TSF monitoring, it says.

In addition to this, Decipher has advanced tools such as InSAR Displacement, which integrates with industry leading providers so that users can more effectively monitor, measure and detect deformation of land surfaces over time and be automatically alerted to customer defined exceedances, driving greater safety precautions and reducing risk.

Decipher to help miners align with new tailings storage facility standards

Communications in mining, Environmental, IoT, Mining industry recognition, Mining services, Mining software, Sustainable mining, Water management, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Wesfarmers-owned software-as-a-service company, Decipher, says it has extended its successful TSF cloud platform to provide a solution to simplify the process of tailings storage facility (TSF) data disclosure as well as helping companies align with the new global tailings standard.

The recent Global Standard on Tailings Management was launched on the August 5, 2020. The historic agreement includes six topic areas, 15 principles and 77 auditable requirements, which covers the entire TSF lifecycle – from site selection, design and construction, management and monitoring, through to closure and post-closure.

With an ambition of zero harm to people and the environment, the standard significantly raises the bar for the industry to achieve strong social, environmental and technical outcomes by elevating accountability to the highest organisational levels and adds new requirements for independent oversight, Decipher says.

“These recent initiatives have encouraged mining companies to respond quickly to public demand for more transparency which has highlighted the need for a software solution which can improve tailings data management, reporting, monitoring, compliance and governance,” the company said.

This is where Decipher’s technology comes into play.

Decipher Chief Executive Officer, Anthony Walker, said the resources industry is actively seeking easily implemented, cost effective and globally accessible solutions.

“The early adoption from Tier 1 miners and general interest has been phenomenal indicating that there is a real need for a TSF data disclosure solution; it excites us that our technology platform can be leveraged to support better management and monitoring of tailings storage facilities,” he said.

Topic Area VI of the new standard requires operators to support public disclosure of information about tailings facilities, and participate in global initiatives to create standardised, independent, industry-wide and publicly accessible information about facilities. For example, the recent Investor Mining and Tailings Safety Initiative called upon 727 extractive mining companies to make public disclosures about their TSFs to form an independent global database – The Global Tailings Portal, developed by GRID-Arendal.

Due to manual processes, and often disparate and siloed datasets, mining operators have estimated it took them around six weeks per site to collate their tailings data, according to Decipher. “With many operators having well over 50 sites, this process is challenging and surfaced many inefficiencies,” it said.

After hearing these frustrations from the industry, Decipher designed a tailings database solution to help companies easily capture, manage and disclose tailings data, enabling them to meet data provision requests from industry groups such as the Investor Mining and Tailings Safety Initiative, it said.

Decipher has also been working closely with GRID-Arendal to create an API to facilitate automatic update of tailings data within the Decipher platform directly to the Global Tailings Portal.

“We believe this will significantly increase efficiency and provide a massive time savings for mining operators who choose to disclose regularly,” the company said.

Topic Area III of the standard aims to lift the performance bar for designing, constructing, operating, maintaining, monitoring, and closing facilities.

Recognising tailings facilities are dynamic engineered structures, this topic area requires the ongoing use of an updated knowledge base, consideration of alternative tailings technologies, and a comprehensive monitoring system.

“Decipher’s TSF solution is trusted by environmental, tailings, geotechnical and management teams globally to help improve monitoring, compliance, reporting, operational visibility and safety,” the company said. “The platform brings together data from laboratories, IoT devices, LiDAR, CCTV, drones, inspections and remotely-sensed platforms to serve users with up-to-date information to provide key data and insights, enabling teams to effectively monitor, govern and operate their TSFs.”

Armed with Decipher’s Tailings Database solution, Decipher says. customers can:

  • Comply and meet requests for data provision from industry groups such as COE, ICMM, UNEP, PRI, Global Tailings Review and more, with fields embedded for simple reporting and tracking;
  • Store an endless variety of tailings data in one location which is otherwise managed by a number of teams in disparate systems;
  • Operate with increased confidence knowing required data is being collected and monitored;
  • Easily visualise their operational TSF data on the map;
  • Cluster data into key areas such as safety, risk, compliance, construction, design, roles and responsibilities;
  • Assign actions and tasks for data collection with a register and audit trail of all actions and respective statuses to monitor progress, and reminder and escalation notifications;
  • View dam data across multiple sites in a single screen with the ability to easily export for reporting;
  • Facilitate automatic updates to databases and portals based on integration capabilities with third-party systems or public portals;
  • View spatial visualisation to display tailings dams in proximity to surrounding environment and communities;
  • Better align with standard such as the Global Tailings management; and
  • Access custom reports.

Decipher and K2fly team up for new tailings storage facility platform

IoT, Mining industry recognition, Mining services, Mining software, Water management, , , , , ,

Decipher, a Perth-based cloud monitoring platform for tailing storage facilities (TSFs), has partnered with K2fly, a global provider of technical assurance solutions for the resources industry, to evaluate an integrated monitoring and governance platform for tailings.

Tailing storage facility failures, in which there is an uncontrolled release of water, waste material or by-product, constitute a significant risk for industry, regulators and the environment. Industry best practice and legislation is requiring that an Independent Technical Review Board be assigned for each TSF to ensure proper governance and compliance, according to Decipher.

Decipher and K2Fly have come together to combine their complementary technology strengths to create a solution to help mining and resources companies in monitoring and governance of these risks, Decipher says.

Anthony Walker, Decipher Chief Executive Officer, said the resources industry is now looking for a solution that is cost effective, comprehensive and accessible.

“A recent report by KPMG identifies tailings management as one of the top 10 risks in 2020 to the global mining industry,” Walker said. “This is confirmation of the need for a timely solution which, together, Decipher and K2fly can provide.”

K2fly’s Chief Commercial Officer, Nic Pollock, said the proposed solution will ensure industry has access to a significantly better tool to aid monitoring and governance of TSFs to recognised standards.

“Our solution reflects best practice and will support compliance with the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management recently endorsed by the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), and other Global Tailings Review convenors, as well as standards set by national regulatory bodies,” Pollock said.

Decipher and K2fly have commenced discussions with several global miners about the proposed tailings management solution, which can also be deployed remotely during COVID-19.

There are an estimated 3,500 active TSFs globally, covering around 1 Mha of land, Decipher, a Wesfarmers company, said.