digital workforce and workers in the more traditional role
that labour has played in mining and metals. This will be
especially true in emerging economies.
digital offers an opportunity to better model and plan the
extraction of ore bodies.
Figure 7: Digital Impacts and Responses to Industry Challenges
Mining in focus
INDUSTRY CHALLENGE
INTENSIFIED / ACCELERATED BY DIGITAL
POTENTIAL INDUSTRY DIGITAL RESPONSES
Forum/Accenture
WEAK GLOBAL DEMAND
• Slower demand growth due to digitally
• Improved products and value-chain
enabled consumer sharing models (e.g.
efficiencies to win share from other materials
Uber), ‘products as services’, improved
or value chains.
supply-chain efficiencies, and the circular • New business models based on value-chain
economy.
disruption.
PERSISTENT EXCESS
CAPACITY
• Digital may improve the viability of weak
assets and operations, thereby
prolonging excess capacity.
• Fast adoption by industry leaders can
increase the slope of the industry cost
curve, further marginalizing weak players.
INCREASING
CUSTOMER
REQUIREMENTS
• Huge disruptions emanating from end-
user markets will flow back through the
value chain, creating new requirements.
• Faster product innovation, new forms of
customer service, and closer customer
collaboration.
• Not apparent.
• Digital tools to increase agility and mitigate
impacts of volatility on operations.
TRADE FLOW
DISRUPTIONS
DECLINING RESOURCE • Not apparent.
ACCESS AND QUALITY
• Digital technologies for locating and
optimally extracting and processing ores.
INCREASING RESOURCE • Digital enables greater visibility and
NATIONALISM AND
monitoring of operations and societal
REGULATION
impacts.
WORKFORCE SKILLS
• Gap between existing workforce skills
and increasing technical requirements,
especially in emerging economies.
• Tools to improve stakeholder engagement
and reporting.
• Digitally enabled workforce.
• Automation, robotics, and hardware.
Digital impacts and responses to industry challenges.
Source: World Economic Forum/Accenture analysis
26
Digital Transformation Initiative: Mining and Metals
Incorporating smart workflow technologies that
highlight process deviations, will trigger the desired
response mechanisms, as well as supporting the
required behavioural change.
and valuation, through mining, ore processing
and metals production, to downstream sales
and distribution, digitalisation is blurring
traditional industry lines and challenging the
business models of the past,” the paper states.
It’s almost impossible not to mention
automation when talking about digital
infrastructure. In addition to efficiency,
the move towards digital infrastructure
and the use of automation have provided
many opportunities for efficiency and
safety improvements. This equates to using
technology to take people out of unsafe
environments.
According to The Future of Mining
in Africa, a report by Deloitte, digital
infrastructure in a mine will address
challenges associated with structural
variability in the orebody, lack of visibility
of what should be done, and management
induced variability. The report highlighted
that although mining companies cannot do
anything about structural variability in the
orebody, faster and better-informed response
mechanisms enabled by digital technologies
can be created.
www.miningmirror.co.za
Digital infrastructure will also play an
important role when it comes to decision-
making in mining operations, as it enables
real-time monitoring. Gibson mentioned
that rather than waiting for daily or weekly
production results to make decisions,
digitalisation makes it possible to analyse
data and make adjustments in real-time using
sophisticated computer algorithms. These
data analytics will lead to better decision-
making overall.
According to the report, complete, timely,
insightful information and leading indicators
enable the leadership and frontline teams to
intervene more proactively. In addition, the
report mentions that incorporating smart
workflow technologies that highlight process
deviations, will trigger the desired response
mechanisms, as well as supporting the
required behavioural change.
Implementing digital infrastructure
and challenges
Gibson says there are various factors to
consider before a mine can implement digital
transformation. Each mine is unique and
therefore has different requirements for
adopting digital infrastructure. These include
a clear view of the benefits of digital, the right
team at site and support requirements, mine
location, existing technologies, and remaining
mine life. Most importantly there must
always be a clear digital strategy and business
case for moving towards implementing
digital infrastructure. “These days mining
companies are looking very carefully at how
they invest their limited resources of time,
money and people,” Gibson says.
He explains that there is a super boom in
the industry between 2000 and 2008, until
the global financial crisis when things slowed
down. Prior to 2013, most mining operations
were investing in expansion projects. “After
that there was a significant focus on how they
[mines] could reduce capital costs.” Today,
mining companies are emphasising capital
rationalisation and operational efficiency.
Once a business case has been presented
and approved, an onsite audit would take
place at the mine to identify the digital
infrastructure requirements. The audit entails
working with operations management and
the team on the ground who understand the
mine’s current systems, to identify the current
risks and identify exposure, as well as any
potential risks by not implementing changes.
Gibson believes that building a solid business
case would be critical to implementing digital
infrastructure, and that an audit will help to
identify areas of opportunity and risk.
The report also mentions that the work,
JUNE 2019 MINING MIRROR [21]