MaxMine, a technology solution for open-pit mines sites, has chosen Snowflake, the data cloud company, to help mine sites become more efficient, safer and environmentally sustainable as customers race to achieve net zero by 2050, it says.

Under the collaboration, Snowflake’s single, integrated platform will manage more than 25 TB of MaxMine’s operational data from its mining clients, providing high-quality data and near real-time analysis to help mining supervisors and operators, including those in remote locations, improve equipment lifespan, optimise their operations, make informed decisions faster and deliver operational changes in their sites.

By leveraging the Snowflake data cloud, MaxMine continues to build out its core product analytics capability, creating large critical data sets in running complex and large-scale queries on regular schedules, it says. The Snowflake data cloud will equip the company’s customer-facing business intelligence and product development teams to decouple their workloads to maximise value to our customers, MaxMine says.

Tom Cawley (pictured), Executive Chair and Interim CEO, MaxMine, says the average open-pit mine can reduce Scope 1 emissions by up to 10-15% by leveraging data.

He said: “MaxMine employs data enabling the average open-pit mine to improve productivity whilst also reducing its carbon footprint by around 15,000-20,000 t of CO2. At the same time, MaxMine’s safety solutions use data to determine incident causes and opportunities to improve truck operator behaviour. Huge amounts of data are vital to our mission to get Mining Done Different, so we needed a partner of Snowflake’s calibre. With Snowflake, we are able to derive greater value and deliver tangible benefits to our customers, supporting them and accelerating their decarbonisation journey.”

Ben Chartier, Head of Product Development, MaxMine, added: “We were impressed with Snowflake’s approach to decoupling compute and storage from the underlying data technology. With Snowflake, we were able to get a technical proof of concept up and running in a week, and so were able to demonstrate a meaningful capability uplift with a short time to value.”

Theo Hourmouzis, Regional Vice President, Snowflake Australia and New Zealand, said: “Snowflake looks forward to the continued collaboration with MaxMine, using data as the driving force, leveraging advanced analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence, enabling more mining operators globally to improve efficiency and achieve their net zero goals.”

MaxMine equips customers by maximising payloads, reducing idle time, off-haul or wasted operation and more efficient driving, the company says. With MaxMine’s innovative technology and data analytics capabilities using custom-built smart algorithms, AI and intuitive software, the company can support mining companies in developing a pathway to lower carbon emissions that maintains or even increases production.