How digital transformation can help miners overcome ongoing industry challenges?

Mining firms across the globe have been facing constant pressure for last few years to sustain their businesses amid volatile commodity prices, deeper availability of resources, rising environmental concerns, and a shortage of skilled labourers across the industry.

To address the issue, mining companies are trying their best to optimise the process by implementing advanced mining practices by incorporating high-end technologies, equipment and automation at sites. Digital transformation can help miners to make the entire value chain more efficient, thereby cutting significant cost runs.

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Facelifting the mining industry

Digital transformation is geared up to facelift the entire mining industry by changing the way companies interact with communities, employees and government and address environmental concerns. Digitisation has the ability to optimise each and every step of the industry ranging from exploration, valuation, mining, processing, production and sales too.

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The companies that embrace digitisation hold chances of having promising, profitable and nimble businesses with an agile decision-making capability. When applied correctly, it can also help miners to improve HSE impacts, lower emissions and reduce downtimes.

Good Read: How are miners achieving zero-emission mining?

Tremendous potential of digital technologies

Digital transformational technologies have an extraordinary potential to multiply the growth of an organisation to deliver exceptional returns to shareholders. Precisely, the integration of digital transformation can be undertaken in four main ways. Let us try to discuss them one by one:

• Digital Workforce: Augmented reality coupled with connected mobility can help miners to empower workers to connect on a real-time basis. The process helps to connect centralised workers with remote operating centres.
• Real-Time Decision-making: By processing data from sources that are present within or beyond the traditional value chain could help the miners to take decisions on a real-time basis.
• Integrated Ecosystem: The integration of mining operations, information technology and equipment can help miners to do a check on the entire value chain.
• Automation and Robotics: The deployment of digital tools and hardware could help to enhance the performance of activities that were earlier carried out manually.

Optimising operational excellency

Nowadays, advanced technology paves new ways to set new benchmarks in productivity. Leading miners across the globe are currently relying on advanced digitisation practices in drilling, automation, and energy saving to increase their intensity with reduced costs. 

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Bottom Line

Rising safety and environmental concerns on coupling with volatile commodity prices are exerting extra pressure on miners, who are trying to meet expectations of shareholders. In order to stay competitive, digitisation could help mining companies by offering new possibilities to enhance productivity and operational excellence.