OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
forewarned, but few on the inside had responded to. Now, with the cliché of ‘health and safety’ ramped up to a literal matter of life and death, the global mining sector is fi nally taking necessary steps. As an industry renowned for slow
I
movement when it comes to progression or overhaul, this particular transition has called for operators to ditch another stereotype: the (now dangerous) reluctance to embrace new technologies. One particular tech facilitator based in
the UK, Inmarsat, has long discussed the role that digitisation can play in making mining operations safer, more accurate and high performing. T e satellite communications provider launched its own tailings monitoring solution in March 2019 and has been actively engaging with mining companies, auditors and industry bodies since then. “We’ve seen a huge amount of eff ort put into improving health and safety for staff in the mining sector, as part of an industry commitment to ‘Zero Harm’, and the next step has to be improving our tailings dam monitoring,” introduces Inmarsat Enterprise’s director of Mining Innovation, Joe Carr. “With new technologies emerging that promise to revolutionise the industry’s approach to tailings management, mining companies are now able to have a centralised, real- time and reliable view of the status of their tailings facilities.” Carr looks back at Brumadinho itself with caution, acknowledging that the cause of the failure still hasn’t been offi cially communicated. However, he does refl ect that the dam in question was constructed using an upstream method that has since been banned in Brazil and Chile. “T e United Nations Environmental
Programme estimates there to be up to 35,000 dams globally at present, so it is reasonable to assume a decent portion of these dams may have been made using the upstream method too,” he continues, as evidence of the task at hand. “To this end, and in response, we expect to see more and more mining companies moving away from labour-intensive, manual monitoring processes that are at risk of human error, in favour of an automated, data-rich, and safety-fi rst methodology that delivers
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n January 2019, the Brumadinho tailings dam disaster in Brazil shone fresh light on an industry challenge that many on the outside had
a global, unifi ed view of tailings dam integrity to all stakeholders.”
A CONSTANT, REAL-TIME VIEW OF CONDITIONS T e reverberations that Brumadinho sent across the global industry reached the very top; even BHP’s CEO, Ken MacKenzie, was highlighting the agenda soon after the incident. “We have to acknowledge the
defi ciencies in the scientifi c and technical understanding,” he said back in February. ““You need to think about [tailings dams] with the best possible science and engineering in the world. It has to have a nuclear level of safety now.” It seems Carr’s call for an approach that
is regulated at global level is fi nally being echoed by decision-makers. “We are seeing a signifi cant response
from the industry,” he affi rms. “From the conversations we are having with mining companies, we know that the topic is being prioritised in the boardroom. Historically, most companies have not had a centralised tailings monitoring standard. Most sites within companies will diff er in terms of what they are doing and the way they do it. “However, we are now seeing companies looking for technical solutions to underpin a consistent global approach to tailings management.”
Joe Carr from Inmarsat In Brazil and Chile, real-time
instrument monitoring standards are already being discussed, while many regulators, NGOs and industry bodies are also focused on improving their guidance for tailings monitoring. As such, 2020 looks to be a year of tangible – digital – transformation. “Many mining companies have relied on manual processes to collect data from their tailings dams in the past, using either handheld instruments or simple sensors connected to data loggers on site,” Carr explains. “T ese processes are expensive, time-consuming and susceptible to human error, and result in a fragmented and siloed approach to tailings management
The Brumadinho disaster brought tailings dams to the top of the agenda
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