De-risking a Digital Ecosystem
Suppliers and software experts offer advice on building a system
that provides maximum value
By Russell A. Carter, Contributing Editor
Or it could be a chaotic, tense situation where the staff has to wade through vast pools of questionably useful data, legacy programs refuse to interact with next-generation software platforms, and investors wait impatiently for a financial payoff from a company’s hasty IT/OT and automation investments. As the industry’s move towards digitalization gains momentum, producers face a bewildering menu of choices on platforms, services, equipment and desired outcomes from their digital initiatives. They’ll be challenged to directly link the merit of high-tech investments to shareholder value, find ways to simplify complex systems and relationships and consistently make the right tech decisions at the right time.
It’s easy to take a wrong turn along the way: Haphazard planning of goals, lack of change management strategies, or internal resistance to disruptive concepts can sidetrack any digitalization project. In this article, E&MJ samples the latest technology available for miners to keep their digital transformation on course. And, for a detailed look at how one major process-equipment OEM has structured their intelligent data platform to meet the industry’s demand for digitally- based solutions, read our sidebar interview with Weir Minerals’ director of digital business, Ole Knudsen.
Connect, Empower…
Connectivity is the foundation of digitalization
and a connected workforce
is one of the pillars of success that rest
on it. However, the origins of a digitally
adept workforce generally lie beyond the
boundaries of the mine, usually starting
with school programs. But while younger
workers have been looking at screens
and using apps for most of their lives,
that doesn’t mean they’re knowledgeable
or confident in a business-tech environment.
A recent study by Dell Technologies
involving more than 15,000 Gen Z’ers
(18 to 26 y/o) in 15 countries indicated
that 37% think schools didn’t give them
the digital skills needed to excel in their
career path, and 56% reported they had
very basic to no digital skills education.
Against that backdrop, a company that advances its technology without upgrading its workforce might be asking for problems, and some are already taking significant steps to avoid this pitfall. Last year, global miner Anglo American began rolling out a comprehensive information and communications technology (ICT) program in 109 schools around its mining operations in South Africa, to give thousands of students and community members skills they need enter the digital job market.
The program includes installing technology infrastructure and devices in all the schools, providing ICT courses and training to improve digital literacy and skills, a student engagement platform to support primary and secondary learners, and ongoing support to ensure the sustainability of the program. The $3.8-million initiative is part of Anglo American’s broader education program being piloted in South Africa in partnership with JET Education Services, and then implemented globally. Schools will receive computers and related equipment, and dedicated IT labs will be installed in eight of the schools.
The process of developing a workforce
capable of operating efficiently in a digital
ecosystem doesn’t end at the schoolyard,
however. Workers still need to know what
they’re supposed to be doing on the job,
and managers need to envision the eventual
changes in company operations and
structure that could either make or break
a digital initiative. Industrial technology
systems provider Honeywell points out
that possible problems could include:
• Integrating siloed operating systems.
Generally, mines have several industryspecific
solutions at each site. This
makes it difficult to achieve efficiencies
through an integrated view across the
mining company.
• Overcoming enterprise complexity. The
technology footprint at each mining company
has evolved over time, and custom
systems requiring constant upkeep
may have been implemented. The need
to continuously attend to custom projects
delays return on investment.
• Replacing manual control with increased
autonomy. Human decision-making can’t
keep up with the pace of business. Having
manual processes and controls also
results in lost opportunity to realize value.
Marc Poualion, senior industry marketing manager, Metals & Mining, at asset management software developer Aspen- Tech noted that training with new solutions themselves, as well as continual updating of the business processes that use the technology, must also be accounted for to support long-term success of the technology and maintain employee retention. “Ensuring that the skills within the business are kept up to date, practical and proficient is key to ongoing success and helping to mitigate employee turnover,” he explained. “Similarly, resources must be made available to enable mining companies to conduct their own in-house training and employee development programs. Mining companies will find that by training their workers and bringing them along on their journey to more digitally enabled mines that are safer, more efficient, and more sustainable, they’ll have an easier time retaining staff that not only have critical specialized knowledge but are excited to work at a company that shares their values.”
The Human Element Endures
Even as the industry slowly eases away
from worker presence on-site in favor of
increased automation or remote monitoring
and control, human interaction with
digital assets remains an integral component
in digital ecosystems. For example,
industrial software developer AVEVA now
claims that with the recent integration of
its Point Cloud Manager and Asset Information
Management in the cloud,
customers can develop a complete digital
twin within a few months’ time, even
in the absence of existing models, with
new user-wearable scanning technology
and improved records and document
management contributing to faster data
collection and better information transfer.
According to the company, the expanded engineering information management solution portfolio is well suited to digital twin creation and throughout the complete project lifecycle, for both capital projects and existing facilities in mining and other industrial sectors. AVEVA said companies can achieve a fully functional digital twin in less than sixty days by publishing and integrating laser scan data within their engineering and operational performance data on AVEVA’s cloud platform.
Recent industry announcements reinforce the perception that the historically tech-conservative mining industry is moving quickly to adopt speedier data-collection technologies, particularly those that offer the added benefits of improving worker safety and efficiency. For example, Mine Vision Systems recently announced a multi-year agreement with Hecla Mining Co. to implement FaceCapture mapping into two of Hecla’s mines in North America.
According to the developer, the FaceCapture system provides real-time insights at a level of precision not previously available and will enable Hecla to map and georeference a mine face in real-time, reduce production downtime, and deliver higher quality information to its geologists in a shorter timeframe. FaceCapture was launched at the 2021 MINExpo trade show by Mine Vision Systems, a spinoff of Carnegie Mellon’s National Robotics Engineering Center.
Matt Blattman, corporate director of technical services at Hecla, said, “Face- Capture will allow us to process high quality 3D mine face data in real-time, permitting our team to make critical production decisions and with reduced exposure at the mine face.”
The advantages of using FaceCapture
claimed by Mine Vision Systems include:
• Pick-and-click georeferencing aligns data
to mine coordinates in the field and on
the fly.
• Ability to generate georeferenced meshes
without need for survey at each face.
• Improved productivity and safety with
longer advancements and larger blasts
through more accurate face mapping.
• Improved ore body modeling inputs enable
more-efficient mining.
• Immediately viewable results – live or
export directly to general mine planning
and geology modeling software.
Australia-based mining tech company RPMGlobal launched its next-generation mobile asset management solution, AMT Mobile, designed to provide field technicians, managers and supervisors the ability to digitize forms and processes while operating remotely. The application is designed to automate and digitize inspection and checklist processes required for asset management. It replaces paper-based systems and manual post-activity data entry. Real time data capture and entry in a structured manner provides more accurate reporting while satisfying a company’s audit compliance and data storage requirements, according to RPMGlobal.
The app, said the company, seamlessly integrates with SAP and can be used both on and offline, making it useful at underground operations or sites without blanket Wi-Fi coverage. Workers simply go about their tasks and when they reach connectivity again AMT Mobile synchronizes the data entered throughout the shift. The solution provides notifications where a potential issue or observation about an asset has been identified. Notifications can include items such as breakdown, priority, what may have caused the issue or what damage has already occurred. Workers use a handheld mobile device to scan QR codes to reach equipment and employ the device’s camera to add photographs as supporting evidence or add voice to text, streamlining the corrective processes that follow.
AMT Mobile builds on the company’s AMT asset management software solution, the first generation of which used HTML technology to access a webpage where a field worker could enter data. However, the latest release of the application works natively for both Android and iOS systems.
Mining industry service providers are also restructuring to accommodate their customers’ digital preferences. Recently, drilling service and equipment supplier Boart Longyear announced that its Geological Data Services division will now operate as a separate entity called Veracio, which will combine science and digital technologies in a single, integrated platform intended to help mining companies get more value from their orebody data.
The company said Veracio is the result
of a decade of testing and development
in sensing and automation and is
based on Boart Longyear’s Geological
Data Services integrated technology
platform. It leverages key digital sensing
platforms and AI that “helps miners
move beyond the borehole and see the
entire orebody in fine detail.” Claimed
benefits include:
• AI solutions that improve and automate
improved understanding of the earth
and orebodies, and deliver improved
solutions for mining activities across
the value chain;
• Data capture and intelligence platforms
including TruScan, an in-field sample
sensing platform; TruSub, a rod string
system; and TruProbe, which allows
for driller deployable downhole sensing
without a logging truck; and
• A foundational, integrated cloud platform
that gives teams at any location
access to these technologies, enabling
them to access orebody data in nearreal
time, at a higher definition, and with
lower sampling error.
Maintaining Focus
Ambitious projects such as transitioning to
a digital ecosystem run the risk of increasing
the level of complexity incorporated
into the mine value chain to a point where
focus on important individual elements
is lost. This concern was addressed in a
recent blog post by Christopher Blignaut,
automation manager, Surface Mining at
Epiroc, which described the problem: “It
is known within the industry that there is a
mining value chain acting as an envelope
to all major decisions at a mine, yet it is
so often diluted by day-to-day operations
within individual components. To mitigate
this dilution, mines ask for a strong degree
of interoperability in the value chain,
spanning from equipment control through
to data. At the same time, each process
and piece of equipment is getting smarter,
more efficient, and thus producing
more data; all of which can effectively use
the context of the value chain to improve
productivity and safety.
He said Epiroc and ASI Mining, which Epiroc partially owns, have attempted to solve this problem in several ways, and it’s one of the major goals of the recently released Mobius for Drills product. It is designed to provide standalone, focused control and data layers of drills, yet exists as part of the overall Mobius automation platform where fully scalable interoperability is inherited.
The Mobius platform allows Epiroc and the customer to not only combine focused layers of the value chain but continue to scale automation into each layer in a clear and effective way, Blignaut explained.
Reducing Risk
Mining employment studies indicate that
the industry’s potential labor pool is getting
shallower as younger entrants prefer
employment elsewhere in safer, more
convenient workplaces. Older workers
are retiring, taking with them decades of
institutional knowledge. Producers want
to focus their existing workforce and plant
assets on optimizing their ‘core’ competencies
– finding, extracting and selling
mineral commodities. Will these trends
lead to a golden age of mining technology
advancements based on digitalization
and automation, or produce a prime environment
for confusion and wasted investment
from hasty attempts to implement
the “right” combination of technologies for
success? How can companies empower
workers and managers to thrive in an increasingly
digital ecosystem?
AspenTech’s Marc Poualion commented
on the issues: “At times there can
be risk associated with the implementation
of technology. However, it’s important
to consider where the risk comes
from and determine the right questions to
ask to help mitigate that risk.” He recommended
companies take a look at several
potential concerns:
• Problem solving abilities – can the technology
solve the problem in the way
you want the problem solved?
• Value chain – once you’ve solved the
problem, can you connect the results of
that solution to other parts of the value
chain that need that information in an
actionable timeframe?
• Vendor commitment – what level of
commitment and investment will the
vendor play in the implementation of
that technology? In addition, what level
of ownership is the vendor willing to
adopt to ensure their customers’ experience
will ensure the highest level
of success on an ongoing basis?
• Technology integration – how does that
solution connect with other solutions
from that same vendor? And, more commonly,
how does that solution connect
with solutions from other vendors?”
Mining companies will be tasked with reviewing and implementing new change management and internal processes at their organization that are conducive to technology adoption. Implementation cycles could be up to a few years, but the quicker mining companies are able to adopt change and gain buy-in all the way up to the executive level, the higher the chances are of the technology’s organization-wide success. In addition, accelerated adoption will help retain employees that are eager to champion technology that is improving the efficiency, safety, and sustainability of mining operations, he concluded.