• MINING INDABA
MINING DATA: WHY IT / OT CONVERGENCE IS THE COALFACE OF FUTURE-READY MINE OPERATIONS
By Marco Capazario, business unit lead and manager at Britehouse
One of the biggest challenges facing mining executives today is the critical visibility gap that stems from siloed operational technology( OT) and information technology( IT) systems, with implications that directly impact operations, production output and, ultimately, the bottom line.
Without seamless integration, mining operations teams struggle with fragmented data, while executives lack real-time insights. The resultant blind spots in production performance, asset health, and health and safety can impact critical decisions around capital expenditure, mining outputs, input costs and operational risks.
The cost of this visibility deficit is substantial: compliance risks, unplanned downtime due to reactive maintenance, suboptimal resource allocation, and missed opportunities to optimise production throughput.
In an industry where margins are increasingly pressured by commodity price volatility, regulatory complexity, and rising operational costs, this lack of integrated data-driven intelligence is unsustainable.
The converged data solution The solution to these challenges is IT / OT convergence via a cloud-native agentic integration platform, like SnapLogic, that can connect a mining company’ s enterprise resource planning( ERP) system with an operational intelligence solution, like Aveva Mining Intelligence, to establish a unified data layer that breaks down information silos and delivers enterprise-wide visibility.
When implemented correctly, this integration architecture enables the seamless, real-time flow of data, delivering production data, equipment performance metrics, and inventory levels through centralised dashboards, creating a single source of truth that spans from the pit to the boardroom.
Enhanced operational visibility and efficiency A unified data layer that converges IT systems, such as ERP, customer relationship management( CRM), asset management, and Business Intelligence( BI), with OT systems – supervisory control and data acquisition( SCADA), Programmable Logic Controllers( PLCs), and Electronic Control Unit( ECU) downloads – gives mine operators unprecedented visibility across the operation.
In the plant environment, an ERP system tracks raw materials into the plant, where a SCADA system picks up the material and tracks it through the processing stage, before the ERP system tracks the output to delivery. The challenge is seamlessly tracking all inputs through to outputs, which only becomes possible by integrating these two ecosystems together.
Real-time equipment monitoring through IoT sensors empowers operations teams to work with real-time data that supports proactive decision-making.
These data-driven insights help optimise production by identifying bottlenecks instantly, optimising haulage routes dynamically, and adjusting production plans based on actual equipment availability and performance trends rather than backward-looking, outdated reports.
This visibility translates directly to operational efficiency gains that deliver measurable improvements in overall equipment effectiveness and production throughput without proportional increases in operating costs.
Predictive maintenance and asset optimisation Data integration also creates a foundation for transforming maintenance from a cost centre into a strategic advantage.
48 • African Mining • January 2026 www. africanmining. co. za