JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) - Software company Dassault Systemes on Thursday hosted a National Resources Forum conference, which showcased how mining technology, and the thinking behind it, has evolved as a result of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).

Dassault Systemes natural resources director Fiona Carew discussed orchestrating an ecosystem for mining success, highlighting that mining has evolved from planning on paper to company-wide use of disruptive technologies such as a computer, which opened the door for software. “Priorities and means of implementing them have changed rapidly.”

In turn, software enabled the creation of models in three-dimensional (3D) perspective, which expands the ecosystem further.

She said the next disruption came, not from technology, but from people in the ecosystem – investors, who set conditions of sustainability before investing capital in projects.

They also required community development, social advancement and protection of the environment.

Carew pointed out that responsibility then became centered around local economy, social development, government interaction, community interaction, instead of just pulling minerals out of the earth.

She said opportunity for innovation did not come for many years, until miners decided to look at the value chain and talking to all the shareholders – smelters, refiners, logistics managers, suppliers and the end-user. “The ecosystem started centralising around interaction and interceding, which is challenging in an industry that is isolated and insulated.”

Carew noted that the expansion of the mining ecosystem is becoming increasingly critical, since deposits are becoming fewer, lower in grade and in more remote locations, which requires new thinking and methodologies.

She said that, at the same time that 4IR is disrupting industry, the world has spawned a new generation of workers that will not accept what some mines are still currently doing.

“Everyone talks about and considers 4IR technologies, such as Big Data with analytics, robotics, 3D printing and augmented reality, but she questioned whether it is embedded in mines’ ecosystems.

COLLABORATION IN MINING
Carew said miners can not continue to operate in silos. For example, the most significant change in the mining industry has come about with battery minerals. The European Battery Alliance (EBA) comprises various battery value chain companies, which works towards clean energy and setting standards for the battery manufacturing market.

The EBA has put down a cross-industry framework, which entails securing material, promoting innovation and putting in place rules for battery production, incorporating service providers, manufacturers, universities, governments and suppliers. Carew said this will undoubtedly affect the mining industry, since the minerals for batteries are mined and also because mines are increasingly using electric vehicles on the mines.

The battery boom provides opportunity for upstream thinking and, therefore, innovation, averred Carew.  Miners need to adopt upstream thinking to ensure competitiveness and a healthy ecosystem with stakeholders, looking at what will, ultimately, be manufactured and even designed for recycling in collaboration with value chain members.

Carew said collaborations are the way of the future to enable innovation. She added that drivers towards this movement in the mining industry will be changing deposits, changing business models and 4IR, as well as workers that believe in social and environmental improvement.

“We need to orchestrate the digital operation, bringing virtual and reality together, looking at the operability of the parts of the ecosystem and doing things differently.

“Ultimately, mining is still about the tonnes produced, but evolving relationships can bring about traceability, flexibility, productivity and efficiency.”

TECH TO SUIT
In this collaborative environment, it is necessary to use social tools that can take an idea to monetisation, said Dassault Systemes brand Geovia CEO Raoul Jacquand.

“For example, with electronic communication, which facilitates transparency, urgency, centrality and collaboration, all of which accelerate the process of innovation” he explained.

Jacquand said collaborative innovation tears down organisational silos, owing to the free flow of data that enables co-creation and, ultimately, creates more opportunity for creativity.

Geovia portfolio management director Andy Mulholland discussed the technologies the company offers to facilitate collaborative innovation and an expanded ecosystem.

Dassault offers 3D Experience, which is software that is able to create a digital twin of a mine, city, plant or machine, representing the real-world entity or system.

Dassault’s 3D Experience can capture data from remote sensing information, input from experts, drone surveys, as well as from machines that operate on site, and even other asset management systems. Data is then combined into a single, unified model, which is accessible to other stakeholders in the mines’ ecosystem, if the mines wish to share information.

Data can be integrated into the software across the exploration phase, geology, engineering, scheduling and planning, production and logistic aspects around the mine, to create a digital mine twin.

Mulholland said the software assists the autonomous mining process, enabling terrain modelling, virtual tours, interactive planning and geological modelling of the mine.

Jacquand concluded that the low-hanging fruit, through the adoption of appropriate technologies, is already there for mines to reap.