TECHNOLOGY
“ There are a wide range of benefits to investing in autonomous equipment , which is an example of how AI is being employed . Figures from OEMs and mining companies include 15-30 % improvements in productivity , 80 % reduction in accidents , 15-25 % reduction in operating costs and 15 % increase in machine life ”
DAVID KURTZ RESEARCH & ANALYSIS DIRECTOR , GLOBALDATA
as , say , financial services or retail , and mines with only a few years left to run may not see the benefit of new investment . However , as the cost of technologies has fallen and new mines begin operating where use of these technologies can be embedded from the start , so take up has increased .
What are the key regional variations that you see in terms of who are the adopters and who are the laggards ? Over the years we have generally seen mines in Australia lead the way in terms of investment and they have tended to have invested to a greater extent in drones , predictive maintenance and autonomous equipment compared with other regions . As far as other regions are concerned , it has varied depending on the technology – for example , mines in Asia lag behind in areas such as autonomous equipment and remote control . areas , such as autonomous equipment , will see much more selective investment in the short to medium term as they are more suited to particular operations .
What do you think is the biggest opportunity in the next two years ? We would expect an increasing share of miners investing in predictive maintenance ,
How would you rate the overall adoption of technology in mining ? It is progressing well , particularly where it can have an impact on key areas such as productivity and safety . We have seen an increasing share of mines extend the degree to which they have invested in areas such as predictive maintenance , collision avoidance and fatigue detection , for example . Some miningdigital . com 47