The mining industry in India contributes to a large share of revenue in GDP every year. It mainly relies on the assets and heavy equipment for its operation. A substantial number of workers are involved in mining through which they earn their daily livelihood. The operative work of mining companies calls for maintenance, repair, and installation of machinery on a daily basis. This is one of the major reasons behind the paradigm shift of the mining industry towards digitization.
Since digitalization is the need of the hour, mining companies shall not be left behind. These companies suffer losses due to the involvement of huge capital. Such losses take place due to manual errors and unanticipated events. To save the money of investors and other stakeholders of the company, digitalization of the operations of the industry becomes necessary. The technology can help the industry to make good the losses suffered by way of eradication of negligence.
Why is the mining industry in urgent need of digitization?
There are various economic and political reasons why mining companies are not able to attain profits that they deserve. These reasons accumulate and result in the great fall of such companies. Digitalization is the only tool that can better the performance of mining companies in the industry. With the help of digitalization, all the below mentioned reasons can be skillfully tackled.
● Incapacity to reach markets
The materials extracted through mining are used to build the infrastructure of the country. Such material requires heavy equipment and machinery.
However, once the material has been extracted, it is unable to reach the markets and fetch a good bargain for the operators at the right time. Sometimes, this occurs due to fluctuating demand in the market.
● Failure to search for new locations
Mining companies look for newer locations for excavation from time to time. Since an area of land gets exhausted with significant components required in the material, the search for a new location starts.
The major reason behind the downfall of a number of mining companies after getting the contract is the failure of coping with the dynamic environment. Maintaining the quality of material provided by companies for asset management is crucial for the survival of the industry.
● Dynamic global demands
The market forces of demand and supply change every second with the change in prices. The policy changes made by foreign governments play a vital role in the determination of revenue of the mining industry.
Weak legislation in the country also affects the business accordingly. However, the anticipation of global demands can be made through digitalization.
● Want of longer asset lifecycle
Mining companies efficiently concentrate on the longer life cycle in asset management. However, looking at the conditions of the environment and happening of climate change, it is nearly impossible to use assets for a lifetime.
The companies need to focus more on those assets which can easily survive the adverse weather conditions. Expecting a longer asset lifecycle is a waste of time as well as resources for the company.
What measures can be taken for the benefit of the industry through digitalization?
Several effective measures need to be taken by the mining industry to eradicate the problems faced by the companies. The lag between the mines and the market can only be eliminated by constructing a bright of digitalization between both. Digitalization can help the industry to solve a number of problems that involve manual errors and failure in forecasting. Some of these measures of leverage are discussed below.
● Proactive management of license
No mining company can operate without a license. LTO (License to Operate) can make or break the business. More often than not, mining companies tend to mismanage the database of licenses.
License management is the most important part of the entire process, error in which can lead to severe damage to the company. To avoid this business risk, digitization brings a single platform wherein one can manage all the permits and authorization of different mining locations.
This saves time, money as well as resources. It also helps the operator to compile information in one place to avoid its displacement.
● Optimum connectivity of mines
Different mining companies have several locations for mining all over the world. It is not a cakewalk for the companies to manage all the sites efficiently in one go. Display key indicators and fleet management can be used as effective measures to solve the problem of connectivity of mines.
This helps in removing the misrepresentation of information through operators. The comparison of planned information and actual data becomes manageable and painless. Resources saved in this procedure can be used for leveraging analytics.
● Operation centers
A lot of mining business depends upon the real-time information, which is not achievable without digitalization. Several technologies and software that are enabled to function in real-time provide real-time mining data.
Real-time asset management helps in making better forecasting decisions and cope with contingencies. Original trends have to be collated with trends obtained in real-time.
Operation centers at remote mining locations send this information to the main center, which further translates it. Converging the entire information has become a crucial practice of all mining companies to attain effectiveness.
● Asset automation
Asset management is a key indicator of the success of the mining industry. It single-handedly determines the future of the mining industry. However, manual management of assets is a difficult task. Digitalization solves this problem through asset automation.
Asset automation means constant monitoring of equipment and machinery for maintenance. Through a digital interface, assets can be scrutinized continuously from time to time. It saves time and resources for the company.
Plant personnel is responsible for collecting information and then comparing the condition of assets in different mining sites accurately in real-time.
● Offsite and onsite collaboration
Work order mobility is an integral procedure of every business, not only the mining industry. The occurrence of omissions and errors is very much possible while comparing the information by onsite and offsite experts.
The difference of opinion and conflict between such information is highly common in the mining industry. This results in an unnecessary delay of work and a waste of resources.
Safety checklists and digital records are consolidated using a digital interface to avoid such conflicts. It also ensures the efficiency and productivity of the workforce. Additionally, digital records have a lesser chance of going missing. They are free from manual errors since the experts may make mistakes while forming opinions.
● Consolidation of data
Several digital interface and software solutions ensure the consolidation of data from various sites of mining. The accuracy and precision in the data also help the stakeholders to make better future decisions and choose new mining sites in a better way.
Not only the investors but local stakeholders as well can be connected with the operations of the company. This leads to a state of transparency in the industry with its stakeholders. It helps in building the image and goodwill of the company.
The digital medium is the best way of communication of data within the industry as well as outside. Hence, it does only consolidate data but updates it regularly while communicating with other parties.
How are these measures effective as well as efficient?
There are a lot of safety concerns in mining, not only of assets and workers but also the capital invested in mining projects. By way of digitalization, one can be ensured about the safety of company workers as well as equipment. The measures stated above are not only effective but efficient as well in the following ways:
- Determination of faults before physical inspection of mining sites by the experts, by using drone-based inspections.
- Identification of prospective failures in the asset management system in the future through smart sensors fitted in the drone and in the machinery.
- Accurate and precise measurement of performance of miners as well as assets using tablet-like interfaces.
- Early detection in cutting operation costs at different locations of mining in several states due to policy reforms.
How does digitization make the mining industry sustainable?
There is no doubt that the mining industry poses a massive adverse impact on the environment every day. However, it is only permissible on the mining areas licensed by the government of the concerned states. Digitization is one step forward to making mining industries sustainable. One can’t reverse the damage but prevent future devastation.
Increase in global demand for iron, metal and aluminum results in excessive mining. Mining companies can not always be held responsible for harming the environment. However, digitalization provides industry techniques and technologies with which it lessens the demerits of excavation on the environment.
Digital technology has time and again provided solutions like ore sorting and blasting mines. These solutions have masqueraded a drastic change in the environmental conditions of mining sites.
However, a fair change does not occur in days, it takes decades and centuries to discern a positive impact. Migration to the digital world for the mining industry shall not occur today itself but it shall and it must eventually.
