Mining – Challenges mean opportunities

Mining has always been viewed as beneficial to society and a necessity for mankind’s advancement and innovation. Mining activities have provided the raw materials used by nearly all industries globally and is currently a vital part of the economies of around 50 countries with millions of the world’s poorest people economically dependent on mining. In addition, mining companies have implemented infrastructure in remote areas, that have benefitted local communities with shared roads, rail, digital connectivity, water management and other uplifting investments. Local communities have also benefitted from education and skills development training provided by the mines mining activities. Mining investments have also driven economic growth and reduced poverty, in many countries, nationally and locally.

Okay, so all good then? Well not really. Since the early 1990’s, the mining industry has been facing mounting criticism relating to the impact the industry has on affected communities and the world’s natural resources, aka, the environment. This burgeoning criticism can be broadly grouped under the term, sustainability. A commonly shared sentiment of this is that there needs to be a long-term availability of resources and healthy, productive mining communities living in an environment that is the same or better than, prior to the commencement of mining operations. Environmental sustainability includes management of acid-mine-drainage, water treatment, air purity, waste disposal and the treatment of natural resources. For the mining industry to be completely sustainable, it has to be environmentally, socially and economically sustainable. When all the mines stakeholders are better off than they were before and the environment is least affected, one can call it Sustainable Mining.

Another challenge, albeit an obvious one, is the mines financial viability and economic sustainability. Original mine plans and budgets often experience financial variance due to exchange rate and commodity price fluctuations, unfavorable government policies, estranged labour and unplanned downtime.

So what is the solution then? Imagine a situation where your information system could exchange information gleaned from the various applications used by the mine and provide analysis of this information as required by mining personnel. Having the correct information at the right time is critical for effective decision-making and with a connected set of systems, a mine can work with precision. When Economic Sustainability is the cornerstone of the very existence of a mine, mining needs to be efficient and profitable. Mining operations can reduce their carbon footprint and impact on the environment by adopting appropriate processes and implementing systems to effectively manage the sustainability of the affected natural resources.

Such systems would need to be reactive with real-time data flow providing the system-generated feedback on the Mines environment sustainability efforts. There would need to be configurable triggers providing alerts to mine personnel to avert avoidable environmental damage from the mining activities, reduce costs and improve production output. The system would need to be flexible to cater a mine’s specific business process and provide the means to review, plan and reschedule a mine’s resources so that mine planners can optimise their resource utilisation, reduce holding and operational costs, promote better HR relations and ultimately, to maintain the mines financial stability and fulfill the budgeted Mine Plan.

Are there such systems out there? Not really and is an area a number of companies have attempted and failed to deliver. On the horizon, however, is Reactore, an integrated, or standalone, modular solution designed to cover all activities occurring at a mine.

Reactore will provide modules to fill the operational gaps where systems are not currently available as well as to integrate with current mainstream applications to ensure a real-time data flow between various applications. This means that management will have a real time, 360 degree, view of the Mines operations with proactive workflow in place to trigger alerts, as required, notifying management of issues, as they occur, promoting remedial activity that prevents further negative occurrences whilst ensuring optimum output.