Despite an initially slow uptake of digital solutions, the mining industry in South Africa is increasingly turning to technology to cut costs and improve efficiencies.

Solutions and systems that have been tried and tested in other industries, such as defence, aerospace, manufacturing and oil and gas, can deliver comparable results in the mining industry.

“Traditionally, only specific parts of the mining process were digitised, whereas digital transformation is an end-to-end process,” says French software leader Dassault Systèmes business consulting director Andy Mulholland.

“When you look to optimise or transform just one part of the value chain, it is often done in isolation.”

While this can result in good outcomes if the focus is solely on the strategic mine-planning process, for example, digital transformation is transferable across the entire value chain.

“Over the last couple of years, we have seen the percentage shift to the majority of our customers at least starting to think about digital transformation, if they have not already started down that path,” adds Dassault senior portfolio manager Jessica Jensen.

“Two years ago, it was mainly a wait-and-see approach, with only the Tier 1 companies willing to take that crucial first step.”

However, while many customers are eager to undergo digital transformation, they do not know where to start.

“We have a broad portfolio to assist – from exploration to prefeasibility, all the way to the logistics of getting the end product to the customer,” Mulholland explains, noting that the company undertakes an upfront assessment to understand what makes its customers tick.

“Although the mining value chain is generally the same across the industry, there are differences, depending on the mining method and commodity or business processes specific to different companies or mining houses,” Jensen adds.

The company determines specific requirements using the general assessment to identify the key performance indicators driving success, business processes and main stakeholders, as well as any opportunities or challenges in their business.

“This helps refine what solutions are best to use in each case. It is important for customers to have a defined mandate to embark on digital transformation,” Jensen explains.

“It runs the gamut from medium-term or tactical scheduling to real-time execution, where Enterprise Collaboration forms the basis for the solution of daily operations,” she continues.

Multiple starting points can be elected, including machine learning for analysis of drone data during surveys, geomechanics simulation and even processes as basic as file management.

Enterprise Collaboration, the foundation of Dassault’s 3DExperience platform aimed at optimising geoscience, mining and production operations, is key to unlocking this approach in the mining industry, Mulholland says.

“A trend now [prevalent] is equipping mining customers with a short-term scheduling capability to support short-interval control, which represents a major opportunity to add value and boost efficiency.”

Further, wireless technology and equipment sensors in the mining industry can enable the response of real-time data, as opposed to traditionally waiting for end-of-shift changes.

This is where Enterprise Collaboration plays such a critical role, Mulholland says.

With the main impetus being growth, there was previously no framework in place for collaboration, which indicated a profound gap in productivity and efficiency.

“We partner with our customers to help guide them on their journey. As each part of the organisation uses its data, new insights emerge to be deployed so as to enrich the information even further.

“This is not just about simply placing data in a shared directory, but [also about] creating a shared understanding of all of the information that is available, and sharing that across the organisation.”

This delivers a life cycle management of ‘shared know-how’, which transforms into what Dassault calls a ‘single source of truth’ that differentiates between information and raw data.

Companies are increasingly making digital transformation a central pillar of their operations, which means they are embracing Enterprise Collaboration.

“While some are eager to begin . . . others are not quite at the tipping point yet. It is critical to engage all customers about the benefits of Enterprise Collaboration, which can kick-start a basic discussion about the full advantages posed by adopting digital transformation,” Jensen says.

“Here we can start with the most elementary basics, such as what is the best mine design. While these are simple issues to resolve, the results are significant, and can point to even bigger value-add in the future.”

An assessment of the current situation, where value can be added and developing the best solutions, before embarking on digital transformation initiatives, is critical – or the actual problem will not be solved.

“Our goal with 3DExperience is to give our mining customers a platform to even out the cyclical peaks and troughs. Enterprise Collaboration can indicate where efficiencies can improve, so that our customers do not experience any bottlenecks.”

The major benefit of our 3DExperience platform lies in its configurability, which allows Dassault to partner with mining customers for the long term, as opposed to just providing off-the-shelf solutions.