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Digitisation brings innovation opportunities

STEPHEN DU PREEZ More mining companies need to view all technologies as enablers for their business

DIGITAL CONNECTION Global visibility is achieved by becoming a connected, digital mine

17th August 2018

     

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Digital transformation brings opportunities for innovation and doing business in new and exciting ways – elements that are critical to business success in a volatile economic market, says global communications provider BT Global Services major deals lead and mining, oil and gas head Stephen du Preez.

He notes that technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace, where developed and emerging economies alike are coming to terms with the Fourth Industrial Revolution and what this adaptation will mean in their industries and regions.

“More mining companies need to view all technologies as enablers for their business,” Du Preez suggests.

He explains that information and communication technology solutions can assist mining companies to mobilise parts of their back-office operations, automate their processing or metallurgy operations and overall significantly improve their information visibility and sharing that can directly influence better decision-making and to gain a competitive edge.

Du Preez stresses that mining remains key to economic growth, pointing out that many African countries – including South Africa – that have resources that can be mined are still reliant on the extractive and related trade industries for economic growth in their countries.

“Therefore, consideration of and any decision to adopt the latest available technological innovations can have significant impacts, not only on the mine’s operations and outputs, but on its social contributions to its immediate local economic, as well as its micro and macro-economic contributions to the industry and gross domestic product.”

However, he says these industries are asset intensive and they need to be managed and driven effectively to allow for continued growth. Moreover, at a time of rapid change in the sector and markets overall – which is being driven by digital technologies – establishing visibility over distant global operations has never been more critical for those operating across mining industries.

“Mining companies therefore need to examine which technology investments will have the biggest positive impact on their business, as well as the value potential and return on investment of investing in these technologies.”

Further, Du Preez highlights that global visibility is achieved by becoming a connected, digital mine; however, connectivity is a constant challenge for mine operators, owing to the remote locations of their operations. He notes that new trends in autonomous and centralised operation centres are changing the reliance on connectivity, forcing organisations to rethink the way they design, deploy and manage this critical infrastructure.

While the long-term outlook is strong, the digital mine with integrated data flow is fundamental if mining companies are to meet the numerous short and medium-term challenges now facing the industry, he comments. It is about a connected workforce, but more importantly, information that can be used to drive safety, learnings and operational effectiveness, he adds.

Trends and Developments
Du Preez believes that the next big trend in mining technology will be mines transitioning from digital to autonomous. He adds that there have been several significant automation initiatives in mining in recent years, including autonomous drilling, loading, and fleets for opencast mining and longwalls, continuous miners and flexible conveyor trains for underground mining.

Du Preez states that there are also developments in the information space, such as how mining companies can automatically extract and process data. “The ‘holy grail’ is to be able to model an unwanted event, predict it before it happens and take action to prevent the unwanted event from occurring – whether it’s a safety event, or a production event.”

He advances that this course should not be mistaken as Artificial Intelligence (AI). Further, he states that it is important to note that AI is only as good as the people who have programmed it and that it requires significant industry knowledge and expertise to build a model that is able to learn based on the specific and unique processes that are involved in the different parts of the mine value chain.

Mining companies should therefore focus more on digital transformation and automation, and once they have identified operational areas that will benefit from automation, consider and plan to integrate any AI employment on top of the automation opportunity, Du Preez concludes.

Edited by Mia Breytenbach
Creamer Media Deputy Editor: Features

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