“ We are looking to digitally integrate 1500 people , over 200 pieces of equipment and several different outsourced business partners at each of our flagship mines . It allows us to do real-time asset tracking , people tracking , peak management , internal controls , automated schedule link up management , you name it ”
— Barun Gorain , Chief Technology & Innovation Officer , Vedanta Resources
mining , automation , digitisation , less man-machine interaction , remote monitoring and real-time visualisation of people will be a tremendous leap forward which will also lower the cost of production .”
Underground wireless communications are vital to be able to integrate new solutions . “ It is the foundation , along with the sensor technology , on which everything else is built ,” confirms Gorain . “ To achieve this , we ’ ve partnered with Cisco at the SK mine and with Israeli company Eurotech at the Agucha mine . The whole idea is that networking is something that doesn ’ t really finish anytime soon , we have to lay out the cables and the network on a daily basis . As we go deeper underground , the challenges keep evolving , so these partners make sure we have the best of the best with mobile networking and LTE to access all of our data in real time .”
Sandvik has been instrumental at the SK mine , where it provides Hindustan Zinc with around 90 % of its equipment . “ The first phase of this digitisation through our collaboration with Sandvik has now been completed focusing on driving efficiency ,” confirms Gorain . Meanwhile , at the Agucha mine , the company is also partnering with Mobilaris who are
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