As there is a new wave of junior miners being established in Africa, this brings with it a significant demand for information and communications technology (ICT) services.

Information technology, consulting and business processes services supplier Wipro has been engaging continually with clients in this regard.

There has been “a monumental rise” in demand from junior miners that are either startups or have divested from larger mining companies. These juniors all require ICT solutions to run their businesses properly, says Wipro Africa business development head Marleze van Loggerenberg.

She has noticed a trend that, in the beginning stages of operations, junior miners focus only on exploration – realising only later that using ICT would have resulted in operations being managed more effectively.

This is because these junior miners are running lean and agile mines where they do not focus on building an ICT competency but rather focus on mining as their core business. This creates the need to outsource their ICT and digitalisation requirements to the correct ICT provider that understands their business and is able to provide techno-mining solutions.

It is imperative that junior miners – with all of the technologies readily available – assess their current basic needs and build a roadmap for their future accordingly. These solutions have to be deployed quickly and cost effectively, as juniors do not have all the resources that the huge mining companies have, Van Loggerenberg explains.

The available ICT technologies range from mine automation, predictive maintenance, digitalisation and analytics to artificial intelligence. These technologies are becoming more key for junior miners and for the mining sector overall.

“Wipro’s Agile Mining Solution for ERP systems is prebuilt and can be efficiently rolled out for junior mining companies. In this manner, the junior miner and Wipro can have a mutually beneficial partnership,” Van Loggerenberg enthuses.

She emphasises that it is equally imperative that the ICT providers deployed by junior miners have sufficient experience in the mining sector. Wipro has a mining industry division with extensive knowledge in this regard and, as previous work in the sector is essential, the company can advise junior mines on best business practice processes.