FLEET MANAGEMENT
and more, cannot make proactive decisions to improve safety and operational performance.”
“ When it comes to digital transformation, there’ s a sliding scale of maturity amongst mining companies today,” explained Lior Herman – Head of Mine Data Platform, Business Unit Automation, Digital Mining Technologies, Sandvik.“ Some organisations have very advanced data management systems and practices and are seeing huge value from their data, while others are just getting started.”
For most mines, the ability to harness data-driven insights depends heavily upon the site’ s communications network. This is especially true for underground mines where connectivity challenges are often greater than at surface operations.
“ There are lots of efficiency improvements that can be made – for instance, in machine maintenance and utilisation – by analysing data and making process changes retrospectively,” said Herman.“ However, to see a step-change in their operations, mines need to be proactive with the insights that their data generates, rather than reactive. Without reliable, secure and sufficient network coverage, that’ s difficult to achieve.”
For many mines, the systems and processes that handle their data have been deployed gradually in response to the technologies that the operation has adopted over time. While this approach can support basic digitalisation, as mines look to leverage advanced digital technologies, like machine learning and AI, and deploy semi- or highly autonomous systems, a more sophisticated and structured approach to data management may be needed.
“ Change management is critical in digital transformation,” said Herman.“ Data insights must be made available to workers as part of their daily tasks and routines so that they can monitor processes and benchmark performance.”
He explained that today, the majority of mines aggregate and analyse their operational data in a cloud-hosted platform. The insights generated are then relayed back to site for implementation. However, this information tends to be delivered to a select number of people – such as shift supervisors or the mine manager – who look at the report when they have time; it’ s not
The Newtrax Mining Data Platform( MDP) is a comprehensive data management solution which makes the advantages of cloud-hosted technologies available to mines via a locally hosted platform
made available to teams in the mine in real time.
Herman added:“ This is where most mines are struggling with digital transformation. Not enough people have access to the data they need to make informed decisions in their daily work, or maybe they receive it, but it’ s too late to
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8 International Mining | MAY 2025