MINING SOFTWARE
number of other digital transformation projects you might do down the track .”
There are several examples of where the company ’ s implementations have significantly improved operations within weeks . For instance , the
former Rio Tinto-owned Kestrel underground coal operation achieved a 51 % increase in operational hours within 12 weeks of ‘ go live ’, while the team at a
Canadian gold mine saw a 35 % increase in gold output within 14 weeks of implementation .
“ The industry is under pressure as resources become more scarce , harder to mine and less
productive ,” Moynagh said . “ Mines are doing everything they can to improve productivity ; once our software has been implemented , operational teams are delivering 20 % -plus improvements in production within weeks .
“ That is not because they have purchased new capital equipment or tried new mining methods , it is simply that teams are able to coordinate their current people and equipment resources more effectively . A
lot of the waste in the process starts to disappear . More of the plan gets done more often , increasing production , decreasing cost , improving compliance to plan and making operations safer .
“ We see operations struggling with the inherent variability that comes with the reality of mining . In our view , sites should work on removing the causes of this variability through better coordination of frontline work before they spend significant capital on
automation .”
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With its IIoT devices and solutions – such as the Vigilante AQS™ and Zephyr AQS™ air quality stations to measure environmental conditions in real time – now installed in 34 different countries and over 145 underground mines in less than 10 years , Maestro Digital Mine ’ s success is known the world over .
All of Maestro ’ s products , including its last mile network Plexus Powernet™ , are fully digital and ‘ connected ’ to determine the health of the sensors and the complete system .
To leverage this information , the company has developed MaestroLink™ Server to monitor the equipment and allow easy and quick decisions from a centralised location . The software goes as far as indicating what the action response must be .
As Maestro Director of Marketing and Communications , Shannon Katary , says , “ data is only useful if it helps determine a decision or action ”. Maestro has the capability to provide instruction items around its device maintenance , she added .
“ MaestroLink fits perfectly into our core purpose of enhancing lives by the pursuit of productivity and safety excellence ,” she added .
All of Maestro ’ s industrial IoT devices use embedded web servers along with digital technology right to each individual sensor , enabling remote diagnostics for solving maintenance problems as well as assuring sensor calibration compliance .
MaestroLink Server is a network-based software platform that features a multi-instance webbased interface to monitor and record the health of Vigilante AQS and Zephyr AQS stations along with the Plexus PowerNet underground communication networks . Maestro ’ s research , industry client engagement and experience discovered that once new digital hardware is installed underground , it often does not deliver on its full promise of consistent and accurate data to ultimately drive better business decisions . Part of the longstanding problem is assuring the original data is valid , which , in turn , drives end user confidence .
“ The requirement to properly diagnose the equipment in real time becomes essential to keep up with operational production demands ,” the company says .
“ With the addition of new digital solutions , the automation and electrical maintenance department is tasked with solving ever more complex problems with resources that have not increased in proportion to the number of sensors and systems that they are expected to support ,” Katary said .
MaestroLink Server was developed to fill the gap between the requirement of maximising reliable and accurate operational data while reducing the impact and workload of the maintenance and support team , according to Katary .
Once installed , MaestroLink Server reaches out on the network to find and self populate the IIoT devices and network nodes , and begins to monitor both the data and advanced diagnostics of the devices .
The benefits have been seen at a Nevada-based gold mine , which was experiencing ventilation constraints . The mine ’ s ventilation teams meet weekly to analyse MaestroLink Server data and diagnostics . By looking at the data and diagnostics , they can action the maintenance team . They can also determine which ventilation doors have been left open and send a technician to rectify the issue in real time to increase the overall ventilation supply to the working areas .
Such a process effectively makes MaestroLink Server an in-house , factory-trained Maestro technologist and engineer for the mine , working 24-7 and assuring maximum uptime of each digital device , Katary said .
MaestroLink Server is a network-based software platform that features a multi-instance web-based interface to monitor and record the health of Vigilante AQS and Zephyr AQS stations along with the Plexus PowerNet underground communication networks
She concluded : “ MaestroLink Server saves time and cost by giving miners the ability to poll the
diagnostics , and then turn the data into tangible actions from surface before having to go underground . The support team will go underground the first time with the proper tools , spare parts and equipment to do the maintenance once instead of multiple trips .”
30 International Mining | FEBRUARY 2021