Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Soon, most mines are going to have Wi-Fi mesh networks with very
good connectivity.
Daniel Palmer, COO Datacloud
Mines operate in almost every European country, extracting coal, iron ore, bauxite, kaolin clay,
gravel, and many other valuable commodities. The industry has adopted significant mechanization
over the last 50 years but, until recently, was slower moving in its adoption of IT. The rise of IoT in
other industries has spurred new thinking about the role of technology for enhancing efficiency,
safety, and compliance with environmental regulations.
Digging a Hole: IoT in Mining
Although it has the potential to be applied to mine safety to detect dangerous gas or indications of a
potential tunnel collapse, IoT is mainly being used to help mines plan and become more efficient.
“Basically, companies drill hundreds of thousands of holes in the ground, fill them with explosive,
blow it up, and then dig the fragmented rock pile. Globally, mining companies are responsible for
$400bn a year in operational spending [much of it on basic extraction],” says Daniel Palmer, chief
operating officer of Datacloud, an IoT services company focused on improving the characterization
of the geology of mines.
Drilling for Data: Sensors on drill strings gather data and combine it with existing measurement systems to improve blasting
plans. GPS tracking also makes for better machine health.
The company deploys sensors on drill strings to gather data and combine it with preexisting
measurements to inform blasting plans. Datacloud works closely with European mining companies,
chiefly those headquartered in London, that often have the most technologically sophisticated
operations in very large mines in Canada or Australia. In addition to sensors on drill strings, vehicle
and equipment manufacturers are at the head of the pack, with heavy-haul trucks and excavators
being increasingly equipped with GPS tracking and machine-health tracking.
Smart Bolt: Rock bolts stabilize mining tunnels by distributing stress evenly. For Ericsson, a team at Luleå University of
Technology developed a bolt containing sensors and electronics that senses stress changes and vibrations and can warn of
future failures.
Whether for fleet management or characterizing an area’s geology, IoT is also starting to make its
way deep below ground following its initial adoption in near-surface, open-pit mines. “Most mines are
going to have a Wi-Fi mesh network, with connectivity being pushed into every corner in the mine.
We assume most mines are already going to have pretty good connectivity in the pit [with GPS, Wi-
Fi, and LTE connectivity],” says Palmer.
Gaining experience
IoT in European mines isn’t restricted to Scandinavia. In 2014, Canadian company Dundee Precious
Metals managed to achieve a self-reported 400 percent production increase in its Chelopech gold
mine in Bulgaria by adding sensors to conveyor belts and lighting, and RFID tags to workers’
helmets for better asset tracking.
Dundee reportedly gained valuable experience during the implementation, such as resolving radio-
signal scatter caused by large deposits of quartz in the mine shafts, which it subsequently applied to
its mine in Armenia. Back in 2008, the European Commission created the Raw Materials Initiative
with 26 corporate and university participants focused on improving raw material efficiency and
achieved a 17 percent increase in some deep deposit mines.
Mining Magazine and Mining Journal (both published by Aspermont Print Publications) are slated
to co-host a Future of Mining EMEA conference in London, during June 2020, with planned sessions
on IoT, automation, and analytics.
Going Underground
IoT is gaining a seat at the table in European mining circles but still has significant room for growth.
“One issue that underground mines face when monitoring critical processes is that the specific asset
being monitored is located underground. This can make sensor installation difficult. For example,
attaching condition-monitoring sensors on a conveyor that is deep underground requires sending an
engineer underground, which can be expensive,” says Jeffrey den Outer, business development
manager at Semiotic Labs, a Dutch producer of motor-monitoring equipment.
Mining the Future: Future X architecture for mining by Nokia Bell Labs aims at creating an intelligent network to help mining
companies adapt to demand, control operational costs, and boost worker safety.
“The mining industry in general can be quite conservative when it comes to adopting new
technology. This means it is important to focus on results and ROI as quickly as possible after
installation, therefore helping to quickly build trust in the product,” he adds.
Meeting of Minds: Heads of mine operations, tech companies, and service start-ups meet up regularly at the About the
Future of Mining Conference, held last year in London.
“[IoT] is invaluable to us. Planners sitting many miles away can send plans to execute. Someone
sitting in an office with three rigsteering systems can operate three machines. This will only get more
necessary to have the deeper we go and the more environmental restrictions and norms we have to
abide by,” LKAB’s Peco says. “Probably the highest value place for IoT is nuclear reactors or space
exploration where you can’t send people – but mining is a close second. Commercial or retail work
can be done by a person cost-effectively but with a location in the middle of Siberia where you need
to fly people in and out, or potentially hazardous air and temperatures thousands of meters
underground, IoT is absolutely worth the investment,” says Palmer at Datacloud