Tag Archives: IoT

Satellite-enabled IoT can be mining industry game changer, Viasat says

Automation, Communications in mining, IoT, Mining safety, Mining services, Mining software, , , , ,

As the mining industry faces mounting pressure to enhance its sustainability efforts, a significant majority (86%) of mining leaders have expressed intent to bolster their Internet of Things (IoT) adoption, according to Viasat’s Nicholas Prevost*.

This may point to growing acceptance in the industry that connectivity can help meet operational demands and demonstrate tangible sustainability progress to customers, investors and the general public in the coming year.

The capabilities of IoT – such as remote monitoring and control – are extensive for mining firms. The technology can support a variety of needs, whether it be through connected machinery that collects and analyses data, or through weather analysis to predict and mitigate against extreme weather.

To recognise IoT’s value and increase its use, it is vital for mining firms to first understand how the technology can enhance its mission-critical operations. Overall, IoT can help companies improve workforce safety, operational efficiency and offer cost-savings; as well as reduce environmental impact of their operations. All of which can lead to safer and more sustainable mining operations.

Safeguarding workforce and assets

According to the European Commission, mining and quarrying had the highest count for fatal accidents at work in the EU in 2020. By its very nature, the mining industry can be dangerous if operations and staff are not closely monitored and protected in near real time.

IoT-enabled capabilities, such as remote dam monitoring and pump control, can help mining companies reduce the need for personnel on the ground. This in turn, supports efforts in minimising accident rates and helping to prevent fatalities as the number of staff operating in challenging environments is reduced.

More widely, through solutions like weather monitoring, companies can also help protect their staff and assets from extreme events, like storm or lightning strikes. This also reduces accidents that can be associated with being in remote, unsheltered locations.

Additionally, capabilities like remote vehicle tracking can help mining operators keep a closer eye on personnel. An example of this is Viasat’s partner, Ivanhoe Mines, that has integrated satellite-connected telemetry solutions to track assets and improve driver safety. In doing so, operators can closely monitor the speed at which their staff are travelling between locations and reduce the risk of accidents occurring. Through location monitoring, it can also establish if a vehicle hasn’t moved for a period of time and the driver can be contacted as a precautionary measure or if an issue occurs.

Enhancing operational efficiency and cost-savings

IoT also holds significant potential in improving everyday efficiencies for mining firms. For example, closed mine sites, which are either abandoned or in ‘care and maintenance,’ require careful monitoring. Although sites may not be in operation, companies are still responsible for compliance with environmental regulations, health and safety and security. Companies must send staff out to check in on these sites – which can be costly and potentially dangerous due to legacy infrastructure, hostile climates and remote environments.

Monitoring of these mines can be supported through IoT sensors automatically, remotely and in real time: reducing the need for personnel to be physically present. Solutions can include air monitoring or on-demand HD video and access control, all of which can provide peace of mind for managers, reduce costs, improve visibility and allow monitoring of the biggest risks including flooding events and waste management.

Monitoring for ESG

With growing pressure on all industries to improve their sustainability initiatives and take clear action towards net zero goals, ESG has become a main concern in mining. Considering this, investing in IoT solutions can provide a noticeable return for mining companies who are looking to not only improve the sustainability of operations. Examples include areas like water management and tailings storage to avoid leaks and failures that can impact operations, communities and the environment – and streamline ESG reporting.

Through real-time monitoring and alerting, IoT solutions can help to capture and analyse data from sensors on sites and feed into automated reporting solutions on user-friendly platforms. These capabilities allow mining specialists to make more informed and quicker decisions in relation to water usage or failures and help mitigate the considerable impact on operations.

Real-time updates can also improve transparency in reporting, which is paramount for mining companies to maintain the trust of their investors and to be seen to be compliant with industry standards. By connecting the operations of the mining sites, firms can more easily track compliance with ESG regulations and reduce the risk of fines or legal action. That ensures a degree of transparency that can improve relationships with stakeholders.

Leverage satellite connectivity

Due to the typically remote locations of mining sites, conventional terrestrial connectivity is often unavailable or unreliable. With its global reach and reliability, satellite connectivity offers a vital alternative as well as a resilient back-up to terrestrial networks, regardless of a mine’s geographic location.

Satellite-enabled IoT solutions are being used in many cases within mines around the world. Viasat says it plays a pivotal role in ensuring these solutions are supported.

Leveraging Viasat’s L-band network – a global satellite network for IoT solutions – mining firms can benefit from high network availability of up to 99.9% through a globally standardised satellite connectivity solution, according to the company. Increased availability is also particularly relevant for short-term contractors or mining companies operating in regions that are remote and seismically unstable. In both cases they may not be willing to invest in costly, fixed communications infrastructure.

Overall, considering its benefits across operational efficiency and sustainability, the adoption of satellite-enabled IoT has the potential to be a game-changer for mining firms looking to future-proof their operations amid changing business environments.

*Nicholas Prevost is APAC Market Development Manager and Director of Mining at Viasat

Huawei boosts Shaanxi Coal production efficiency & safety with 5G-backed solution

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The intelligent mine solution powered by 5G and the industrial internet that was jointly developed by Huawei and Shaanxi Coal Industry Co Ltd hit its one-year milestone on April 26, 2023, marking a full year of continuous operations and significantly improving production efficiency and operational safety at the two mines of Shaanxi Coal Company. This makes a powerful case for intelligent upgrade for the global mining industry.

Jun Xu, CTO of Huawei’s Mining BU, said that through Huawei’s extensive field involvement of mining production and cooperative application of Huawei’s 5G, cloud and AI image splicing technology to Shaanxi Coal Company’s Hongliulin Coal Mine and Xiaobaodang Coal Mine, the mines have successfully implemented above ground monitoring and control on operation of fully automated underground mining face cutting. It thereby also initialised the core intelligence of the underground mining process.

Through leveraged application of Huawei 5G, cloud and AI/IT technologies throughout the whole mining cycle, such as mine geological exploration, tunnelling and belt transportation, intelligence can be implemented across the entire mining process, for example, various deployments of underground robots.

These technologies are also widely used in all aspects of mine management, for instance, an industrial Internet platform with a three-level architecture for Shaanxi Coal Company, its mine subsidiaries, and the coal mines themselves, enabling collaborative management and control, intelligent sensing, and efficient decision making; and enhancing employee happiness and experience, for example with a downloadable underground mine-taxi app.

The above three levels of solutions are modular – Hongliulin Coal Mine and Xiaodang Coal Mine worked closely with Huawei on customised development, which led to simple, easy and result oriented implementation. As a result, Hongliulin Coal Mine now has 18% fewer workers working underground; 97.7% of its mine faces now support intelligent mining, and intelligent management has been made possible for the underground mine face using 5G video splicing and video calls.

More than 2,700 sets of equipment at the mine are now interconnected using unified data standards, with 170 million pieces of data streamed to the data lake every day. This data has been used to create over 100 digital models. This data can also be used to inform production and operation decision making and develop new digital applications using ‘zero-code’ development tools.

Xiaobaodang Coal Mine’s underground workforce has been reduced by 42%. Key facilities in the mine, such as the underground pump rooms and substations, have achieved intelligent, unattended operations, thanks to machine patrol inspection and video-based collaboration. In terms of production safety, environmental monitoring devices are able to autonomously detect and give out warnings related to gas build-up, fires, flooding, ventilation issues, and geological events, and enable real-time data interconnection. This can support more informed decision making to greatly improve safety management in the mine.

Xu said that Huawei’s Mine BU has developed many intelligent mine references by working with partners and mining enterprises. He added that it is committed to quickly bringing digital technology to every mine on the basis of industrial Internet. To achieve this goal, Huawei is working to provide digital services for major coal and metal mining enterprises around the world to enable safer and more efficient intelligent mine management with fewer staff working underground.   

Worldsensing to expand critical asset monitoring portfolio with Bentley Systems agreement

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Bentley Systems, Incorporated has entered into a non-exclusive commercial agreement with Worldsensing to, Bentley says, strategically accelerate the adoption of Infrastructure IoT and further unlock value for infrastructure designers, constructors and owner-operators in their use of infrastructure digital twins.

The transaction will see Worldsensing acquire the sensemetrics Thread connectivity business to expand its portfolio offering.

Worldsensing’s acquisition of the sensemetrics Thread connectivity business will, Worldsensing says, expand and complement the company’s product portfolio, offering new options to its customers where adaptive sensor integrations or active sensor management are a key requirement.

The company offers sensor solutions for mining in critical asset monitoring applications.

Thread, Worldsensing says, offers broadband sensor connectivity uniquely to connect dynamic, high-power, or high-speed sensors and stream sensor data to the cloud for analysis. It is a fully autonomous sensor connectivity device with optional integrated 4G/LTE cellular modem, wireless mesh networking and battery pack in a weather-resistant enclosure. Each broadband device also serves as a gateway for wireless smart sensors.

“Combined with Worldsensing’s existing market-leading offerings, Thread will be a driver for new growth opportunities,” the company says. “Worldsensing will become a preferred sensor connectivity partner to Bentley and Bentley will become a preferred IoT software partner to Worldsensing offering mutual users a best-in-class fully integrated end-to-end sensor management solution.”

Ignasi Vilajosana, CEO of Worldsensing, added: “The acquisition of the sensemetrics Thread connectivity business will expand our portfolio and allow us to provide more options to our customers. We are pleased to become a preferred sensor connectivity partner for Bentley iTwin IoT as it confirms our position as the reference connectivity platform for mining, construction, rail, and infrastructure monitoring.”

Justin Schmidt, Vice President, Corporate Development with Bentley Systems, says: “We are excited to partner with Worldsensing and believe that this strategic agreement will bring significant benefits to our respective user bases. We are confident that the combination of Worldsensing’s expertise in IoT solutions and our leadership in infrastructure digital twin software will create a powerful offering for the market.”

Worldsensing enhances portfolio with underground mining-focused IoT network technology

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Internet of Things (IoT) remote monitoring company, Worldsensing is enhancing its support for the mining industry with an offering that, it says, provides seamless data acquisition and transmission underground to help improve risk management.

The new monitoring suite includes an IoT network technology that has been specifically developed for underground environments.

As an enhancement to Worldsensing’s existing portfolio, a repeater device now extends the reach of the company’s LoRa IoT configuration with what the company calls “tree topology”. This edge repeater expands the network range and data transmission to almost 10 km underground when sending data in three “hops”, the company explained.

Worldsensing’s LoRa network runs on a sub-gigahertz radio frequency. In underground environments and, as part of the LoRa Tree network, repeaters can retransmit data from nodes to the gateway in a multi-hop setup. Each repeater can reach a gateway up to several kilometers away in a single hop provided the route is near a straight line. In comparison, medium-range mesh networks which use sub-gigahertz frequency can reach a gateway some hundred meters away in a single hop. Short-range mesh networks based on 2.4 gigahertz setups can obtain single-hop ranges of some meters underground, according to the company.

Even in more complex underground environments, the LoRa tree topology still outperforms wireless alternatives by allowing continuous data flow with a range of hundreds of metres, the company says. Overall, this long-range underground technology leads to cost reductions and time savings given that comparably fewer devices are needed to create the monitoring network which leads to lower maintenance to keep the network running and data flowing.

“We have worked with top mining companies to deliver a unique solution that pushes the boundaries of what is possible in underground monitoring,” Andrew Frost, Worldsensing’s Chief Product and Marketing Officer, said. “With this launch, we are reinforcing our commitment to safety in the mining sector, giving mine operators access to the same data underground as they use today to monitor operations on the surface.”

As part of the LoRa tree technology, Worldsensing is launching a edge repeater device that can connect to and retransmit the data of hundreds of nodes. A cloud-based version is planned for the future.

According to Andrea Bartoli, Worldsensing’s Chief Technology Officer, this solution addresses underground monitoring issues, including scattered data collection, highly transited, harsh environments and intricate topologies.

“This new technology has been tested extensively in operational mines and has demonstrated the best cost efficiency for devices deployed and coverage obtained,” Bartoli said. “We have seen that the solution can even reach up to 15 km in range. With this offering, we are deepening our strong links to the mining sector, adapting our offering to provide the best possible operational results for underground environments.”

SES and AXESS to connect remote mining operations with O3b mPOWER

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SES and AXESS Networks say they are accelerating the digital transition of the mining industry with a collaboration focused on SES’s second-generation medium earth orbit (MEO) system O3b mPOWER.

Under this multi-year, multi-million-dollar agreement, mining sector users will be able to benefit from the cutting-edge low-latency Onshore Energy & Mining mPOWERED connectivity service, they say.

SES’s Onshore Energy & Mining mPOWERED service will provide the highest throughput available from a satellite system and deliver dedicated and carrier-grade networks to AXESS’ customers reliably regardless of their remote locations. O3b mPOWER can deliver up to multiple gigabits per second per site, enabling AXESS’ customers to accelerate the digitalisation of their operations and sites globally, boosting profitability through access to new applications and efficiency, as well as improving staff safety and welfare.

SES’s second-generation MEO connectivity service also brings the cloud closer to the end customers and can enable edge computing to support the use of 5G and IoT in the mining industry, it says.

Simon Gatty Saunt, Vice President of Networks Sales, Europe, at SES, said: “Transition towards smart mining is already turbocharging profits, and revolutionising industry’s environmental and societal impact. We are proud of the success our partnership with AXESS has already had in facilitating this change, thanks to our multi-orbit GEO and MEO network, and are excited to further accelerate it with the O3b mPOWER service.”

Guido Neumann, President AXESS EMEA, said: “This agreement builds on a long and successful relationship with SES, which has helped us to provide our customers with the best-in-class, reliable and resilient connectivity for their operations. As we are seeing a considerable uptake in demand for the carrier-grade solutions globally, but especially in the EMEA and APAC region, we are honoured to play an active role in scaling the digital transition in the mining sector through introducing O3b mPOWER and the Onshore Energy & Mining mPOWERED service.”

hiSky twins Smartellite terminals with Inmarsat GX network for improved IoT device comms

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hiSky Ltd, a developer and provider of satellite IoT solutions, has announced the successful completion of compatibility testing of its Smartellite™ terminals with the highly sophisticated, award-winning and high-speed Global Xpress (GX) network from Inmarsat, a leader in global, mobile satellite communications.

The move marks the first step in a long-term partnership between the two companies, using Inmarsat’s geostationary (GEO) Ka-band capabilities to provide a low-cost, high-value offering to hiSky’s IoT customers. The technology will be available to customers active in enterprise sectors including agriculture, transport, mining, energy and utilities across selected territories.

hiSky’s proprietary Smartellite terminal technology has proven to communicate highly effectively with Inmarsat’s GX network – with its high-speed and reliable signals being received by ground infrastructure in Scotland and transferring throughout hiSky’s IoT network offering, hiSky says. This service enables the successful running of IoT devices, as well as voice calls and messaging for both mobile and static enterprise assets.

Mike Carter, President of Inmarsat Enterprise, said: “Inmarsat is pleased to confirm the successful testing of hiSky’s technology with Inmarsat’s GX network. This partnership provides an exciting opportunity across a range of industries to speed up their IoT adoption through affordable and scalable solutions. It is part of our long-standing mission to increase the uptake of satellite-enabled IoT capabilities: from new entrants and disruptors, to established companies of any size.”

Through the partnership, hiSky and Inmarsat have uncovered an opportunity to leverage Inmarsat’s expansive GX network to provide customers with access to the world’s most sophisticated GEO global Ka-band satellite network, typically used by leading companies in the aviation and maritime industries. hiSky’s network is designed to operate within existing satellite networks, enabling fast deployment at minimum capital cost.

The unique Smartellite low-data-rate network leverages the GX’s high throughput to harness IoT operations ideal for typical enterprise use cases, such as dynamic vehicle monitoring. The partnership will allow hiSky’s customers to benefit from a unique Ka-band-driven IoT solution supplied by Inmarsat’s proven resilient high speed and capacity offering.

Phil Meyers, General Manager at hiSky, added: “Improved connectivity can be a game-changer for businesses located in remote, hard-to-reach locations – enhancing productivity, as well as maintaining the safety and wellbeing of those touched by the technology. We’re looking forward to progressing the partnership into use-case scenarios and partnering with major industry players to demonstrate the efficiencies, both in cost and in operations that Inmarsat’s GX network can provide to hiSky’s customers.”

Inmarsat’s abundant Ka-band capacity combined with hiSky’s cost-effective terminals will offer IoT solutions anywhere, affordably, for all remote industries. For customers looking to reduce upfront costs by spacing out their IoT investments, hiSky provides technology to enable businesses of all sizes to quickly scale up IoT monitoring across every touchpoint of their business, accelerating the rate at which they can benefit from the efficiency gains the technology brings.

Sibanye-Stillwater to roll out Newtrax OptiMine Collision Avoidance System at Stillwater mine

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Sibanye-Stillwater is to invest $17 million in OptiMine® Collision Avoidance System (CAS) technology to reduce accidents, injuries and fatalities at its Stillwater PGM underground mining operations in Montana, USA, Newtrax says.

Newtrax and Sibanye-Stillwater have been working together since 2017 on various digitalisation projects to improve safety and productivity at Stillwater.

OptiMine increases safety and optimises underground mining operations, which align with Sibanye-Stillwater’s CARES values of commitment to safety, accountability, respect and sustainability, Newtrax says. These values support safe operations, allow growth, underpin business strategy and promote competitiveness and success.

This year marks the beginning of a new chapter with the mine-wide implementation of the new OptiMine Collision Avoidance System that links intelligent cap lamps to a warning system inside the cab of underground mobile equipment.

The system provides the vehicle operator with a virtual view of any pedestrians in the immediate area of the machine, along with an escalating warning system for both as the distance between them narrows.

This escalation transitions from a warning to vehicle intervention, where the vehicle automatically reduces speed and comes to a controlled stop should the system recognise the presence of any pedestrian wearing an intelligent cap lamp in the high-risk zone.

The same technology is also designed to improve the safety of vehicle-to-vehicle as well as vehicle-to-locomotive interactions and will be used as the digitalisation platform for real-time operations management, Newtrax, which is owned by Sandvik, said.

Jacques van Rensburg, Vice President and Group Head of Engineering, Sibanye-Stillwater, said: “Newtrax provides us with a safe, proactive and integrable solution to our operational needs. The OptiMine system integrates all the telemetry, tracking and proximity detection technology we need to run our operations safely, transparently and efficiently. And they are humble enough to leverage the global experience we’ve had with other collision avoidance systems globally, to make their system even better.”

Jean-Phillip Bouchard, Vice President – Americas, Newtrax, said: “Sibanye-Stillwater is a key customer for Newtrax. We are pleased to expand their current system and take on the challenge of developing and delivering OEM-agnostic intervention controllers to enable slow-to-stop control of all their equipment.”

Last year, Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions, together with Newtrax, introduced what it said was the next generation of the OptiMine solution, which combines the Newtrax digitalisation offering with the existing Sandvik suite of digital process optimisation tools as one integrated OptiMine product.

Inmarsat research notes COVID-19-inspired uptick in mining’s use of IoT

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New research by Inmarsat, a leader in global mobile satellite communications, reveals a rapid increase in the maturity level of industrial Internet of Things (IoT) adoption across the mining sector since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Respondents from the sector reported that COVID-19 has demonstrated the importance of IoT to their businesses, with many accelerating IoT deployments in response to the pandemic.

According to the research, adoption has seen huge progress from 2020 to 2021. Some 82% of mining respondents have now fully deployed at least one IoT project, with 37% having achieved this in the 12-month period from the June quarter of 2020. Of the remaining 18% of mining respondents that have not yet adopted IoT in any form, all of them are either currently trialling it, or plan to deploy or trial at least one IoT project in the next two years, according to the research.

A further 81% of mining respondents indicated they have or they intend to accelerate the adoption of IoT in response to challenges related to COVID-19. This figure includes 40% who have already accelerated IoT adoption to respond to COVID-19, versus 21% who will accelerate over the next 12 months and 20% who will accelerate beyond the next 12 months.

The 40 per cent that have already accelerated IoT adoption are less likely to state that COVID-19 has negatively impacted their ability to operate, demonstrating a link between IoT and business continuity during the pandemic. Additionally, nearly half (47%) of respondents in the sector indicated that business and operational challenges related to COVID-19 have underlined the importance of IoT.

Commenting on this acceleration of IoT in the mining sector, Nicholas Prevost, Director of Mining Innovation at Inmarsat, said: “While the mining sector has, historically, lagged behind other industries in its adoption of radical ideas and new technologies, our latest research reveals that the sector has made considerable progress in terms of IoT adoption and development over the last few years and is very upbeat about its potential. The COVID-19 crisis has only served to accelerate the rate of IoT adoption in many mining businesses and we are now seeing evidence that those companies that are increasing the speed of adoption of IoT and associated technologies are gaining an advantage, through their ability to keep operations going autonomously and with greater insight.”

Mike Carter, President of Inmarsat Enterprise, added: “The rapid increase in IoT deployments over the last few years highlights the considerable progress global industry has made to overcome some of the world’s most challenging forces. It is particularly interesting, though logical, that COVID-19 has further catalysed businesses to increase their reliance on Industry 4.0 technologies, and particularly the industrial Internet of Things, in order to maintain business continuity. Those businesses implementing IoT technologies ahead of their competition and across their value chains are those who stand to win in the long-term.

“While our findings point to IoT driving significant uplifts in efficiency, sustainability and safety across global supply chains, there are areas where organisations can make improvements to draw the optimum benefits from the technology. Connectivity, data management, skills shortages, security threats and investment levels remain challenges as the world’s production and supply chains become increasingly digitalised and intertwined.

“Inmarsat’s global ELERA network is inspiring new possibilities and enabling organisations from all sectors to access IoT anywhere. Ideally suited to the rapidly evolving world of IoT, our industry-leading narrowband network provides global reach, extraordinary resilience, and the fastest speeds, along with the smallest, low cost terminals in their class.”

Skycatch maps out autonomous mining future with DJI M300 mapping, analytics solution

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San Francisco-based Skycatch has been making waves in the drone space with a range of mapping solutions tailored for mining applications but, according to Chief Technology Officer, David Chen, it thinks of itself as a “software-first company”.

He explained to IM: “We are really a computer vision company, and we focus on building not only the drone solution, but the software that enables it.”

This sees the company provide data capture automation, processing, visualisation and analysis tools to the industry for efficient decision making.

Chen added: “We work with a number of the top mining companies across the globe, providing them with unique solutions that they are using every day to complement their existing survey processes.”

The company, which has become a leader in highwall mapping through these solutions, is expanding beyond surveys into other areas.

This will be facilitated through software like its Flight1X, a cloud-based solution designed specifically for the recently launched DJI M300 drone that, Skycatch says, delivers unprecedented drone mapping accuracy and inspection automation for operations like mines. The proprietary software offers the most complete end-to-end high precision industrial drone capabilities available today, according to the company.

Flight1X, launched at MINExpo 2021 today, comes with proven data and network security via Skycatch servers in the USA, with the Android-based flight planning application running on the M300 Smart Controller. When combined with Datahub, Skycatch’s cloud-based solution, the pair offer mission planning and data visualisation.

Chen expanded on some of these capabilities.

“The majority of drone software out there has been focused on 2D mapping, whereas we have seen that mining, which comes with dynamic and undulating terrain, requires something different.

“What we are building is an automated mission planner where the primary view is of 3D terrain. This planner allows you to bring in existing terrain data from elsewhere or capture and process data from our own platform. The user can then rotate around this map and see the exact mission profile in 3D for improved visualisation and decision making.”

This data integration piece, which hinges on the cloud-based Flight1X platform, could provide Skycatch with an ‘in’ to the tailings dam monitoring market.

“While we’re already providing some survey solutions for tailings dams, the combination of high precision survey (with cm-level precision) for dam movements, fully automated section missions based on RGB and thermal imaging, and machine learning could provide data on dam seepage, for instance,” Chen said.

“We also want to integrate IoT sensors around dam movement and other areas into this cloud-based platform to provide an overall view of the tailings management facility.”

Skycatch is currently working on integrating the DJI M300 and L1 & P1 sensors – purpose built for mapping and surveying – into its offering, with Chen seeing the process as just the next stage in facilitating the autonomous mine of the future.

“The one thing that fully autonomous mines need is a map of the mine for these autonomous machines to operate off,” he said. “We have a focus on making data more accurate, accessible and faster; making it faster is the key for fully autonomous mining.

“Right now, with the current photogrammetry process, it’s still: capture, process and wait a few hours for a map. To be fully autonomous, you need that dynamic map in near real time, which is what we can offer the industry.”

Maptek helps Anglo American with continuous drill and blast process improvements

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Maptek’s BlastLogic drill and blast software is helping Anglo American’s mines significantly improve its processes, the Australia-based company said in its latest Forge Newsletter.

The miner commenced implementation of Maptek BlastLogic in 2017 to deliver the digitisation of critical drill and blast information. The goal was to transform inconsistent practices into an integrated function underpinning safety and value protection.

In a Technical and Innovation update from May 2021, Anglo American reported a 50% improvement in drill and blast execution versus plan, which, it said, was enabled via real-time, in-field digital platforms.

Dr Alan Tordoir, Lead Drill & Blast Group Mining Technical & Sustainability for Anglo American, oversees drill and blast for 20 surface and 12 underground operations. He benchmarked the original rollout of BlastLogic at six open-pit sites, which has enabled streamlined uptake at a total of 15 global locations so far, according to Maptek.

“It’s a really exciting time to be in the industry, with a lot of new technologies and processes emerging,” Dr Tordoir says.

Traditional paper-based drill and blast processes are inefficient, complicated by multiple platforms contributing to design, hole placement and tie-up, according to Maptek. Data transfer between stages leads to further communication challenges between the field and office.

BlastLogic stores a single source of truth for all processes, Maptek says, with the outcome being a significant increase in downstream productivity and better management of explosive risks. It is an all-in-one solution adding value to open-pit operations through streamlined drill and blast design, tracking and analysis.

“It enables operations to make blast implementation decisions with reference to mine plans, geology and geotechnical data with instant data connection and visualisation in the field or office,” Maptek says.

Anglo American, Maptek says, has found that design and execution teams have been brought closer together by using BlastLogic, while providing the data in a timely manner allows every level of the organisation to make proactive decisions.

“However good a new system is, the changeover phase can be disruptive,” Maptek says. “Maptek supports customers through BlastLogic configuration, training and implementation, aiming for minimal disruption to the production environment.”

Dr Tordoir paid particular attention to proving the benefits during the Anglo American rollout, mapping out the process and troubleshooting at the original sites so that replication was straightforward for subsequent sites.

Benchmarked data was made universally available, so teams could track their adoption trajectory curve.

“When an operation can see how others have overcome initial problems, uptake is faster,” Maptek says.

Maptek has found that other customers have a similar change management experience.

“Recent graduates may be initially more comfortable with new systems, but longer-term players soon recognise the benefits of digital processes and quickly absorb them into a new integrated workflow,” it says.

Anglo American found continuous improvement is much easier when multiple sites are sharing the same system.

“Operations can learn from each other and can see what good practice looks like,” Maptek says. “The key performance indicator data showed how some sites were performing better than others.”

Having a unified platform for design work enables consistent training and upscaling. This ensures that engineers are performing at the required level to deliver fit for purpose designs that promote safe and efficient operations.

“Improvement is a never-ending journey,” Dr Tordoir concluded.

Upcoming releases of BlastLogic will introduce a drilling data entry on the blast loading tablets for sites with contractor drill rigs, so all the drilling and charging data is captured for analysis, Maptek says.

“Automation of the blast design process is an exciting innovation by Maptek to advance analysis of the interaction of different factors as part of blast design,” it said. “Engineers can then better understand how they can trade off objectives to determine the value that can be gained by small incremental design changes.”

The future will also bring blast design deeper into the upstream planning process and broader cross-operation scenario design, according to the company.