Satellite communication services multinational Inmarsat's research shows that 65% of mining organisations have fully deployed at least one Internet of Things- (IoT-) enabled project across their mine sites.
It adds that the mining sector is in the midst of an IoT revolution.
"The global mining sector is undergoing an IoT revolution, with respondents reporting significant increases in the adoption of connected technologies. Mining organisations reported successes in implementing projects to safeguard workers via remote tracking, to monitor drilling and to observe acid mine drainage remotely," Inmarsat Global MD Joe Carr says.
According to the research, most organisations (65%) have fully deployed at least one IoT project, while 33% are trialling or have trialled a project, with only 2% of respondents not having begun an IoT project.
Noticeably, there is a considerable geographical variance in IoT adoption and maturity across different regions, with 98% of North American respondents having successfully deployed IoT-enabled projects, compared with only 50% in Africa and 38% in South America, Carr points out.
"A range of challenges are [also] hindering the sector’s ability to reap the rewards that IoT has to offer.
"While the increase in full deployments represents progress, the use cases and data management are on the simple side and there are many challenges to overcome if the mining industry is to fully realise the potential of IoT, particularly with regard to using it as driver for organisational change. A lack of skills, investment and cultural challenges, as well as unreliable connectivity, patchy cybersecurity processes and underdeveloped data management processes were also highlighted in the report and will all need to be remedied in the coming years," Carr states.
Nevertheless, he says mining companies plan to increase their investment in IoT and are overwhelmingly positive about the value that IoT can bring to their operations.