As miners chase their mid- and long-term ‘net-zero’ ambitions, MaxMine’s CEO, Coert du Plessis, says they can start cutting their open-pit carbon output by 5-20% today with MaxMine Carbon.

MaxMine’s sensors and cloud-based processing system (MaxCube) extract and process 10,000 times more data from mining equipment and operator behaviour than incumbent systems, according to the company.  It is this platform that MaxMine Carbon is leveraging to reduce operations’ carbon emissions.

“MaxMine’s secret is providing highly accurate, trusted data that is automatically converted and contextualised into practical measures that mines can take to significantly reduce their carbon emissions,” it said. “Covering mine, machine and operator performance, urgent actions and decisions are communicated directly to operators, improvement leaders, and mine operators.

“In just 12 months, MaxMine has also increased site productivity by up to 12% at mines all over the world.”

MaxMine Carbon leverages trusted, high-quality data and operator behaviour that helps customers understand and manage their carbon footprint, according to du Plessis. “Our customers will be able to leverage the MaxMine Carbon Driver Tree and our new online MaxMine Carbon Calculator to provide a baseline of their current carbon emissions,” he said.

Backed by over 5 million hours of machine asset and operator data, the Carbon Calculator helps mines build their case for change, according to the company, allowing sites to quantify their current carbon emissions and then make critical trade-off decisions towards reducing emissions, while maintaining and even improving productivity.

“The MaxMine Carbon Calculator really is a first for the industry,” du Plessis said. “The first step in reducing carbon emissions, is being able to accurately quantify your current starting point.”

MaxMine Carbon measures a highly detailed carbon footprint across the entire mine, from every piece of equipment to each individual operator’s behaviour, according to the company.

“There are many operators in the mining chain with vast variations in behaviours,” du Plessis says. “An example might be one worker who drives fast and another slowly who holds up both trucks whilst producing unnecessary diesel CO2 and nitrous oxide. Or both trucks are loaded but not filled.

“Had they been fully loaded, only one carbon-free trip would have been required.”

MaxMine Carbon generates significant $/material tonne cost savings and early mover CO2/tonne of material savings, according to the company.

du Plessis said: “Clients can expect MaxMine Carbon to pay for itself in just 20 weeks from fuel savings alone. When combined with the broader MaxMine suite, this figure drops to less in 10 weeks.

“The average mine site is 150,000 t/y of carbon from the diesel fleet, and we can save up to 30,000 t of that CO2 right now every year.

“If we don’t reduce carbon every year, raw material prices will rise significantly across the supply chain, hampering net-zero for the world.”