Technology & equipment
Above: Haul trucks and an excavator at work in a quarry mine.
Below: An open surface coal mine in Garzweiler, Germany.
Nor is the Scottish group alone. According to research by Skybox Security, a leading cybersecurity company, 83% of critical infrastructure organisations suffered breaches in 2021 alone. And to a certain extent, further attacks are inevitable. With digitalisation an obsession for industry insiders everywhere, hackers are increasingly seeing mining as a target – whether for sport, a payout, or even reasons of national security. At their worst, meanwhile, breaches can cause far more than mere financial pain, potentially putting the very lives of miners at risk. Not that the situation is hopeless. Mining companies the world over are belatedly rising to the threat, working with external experts to keep their servers secure. Yet with criminals just as energetic in their turn, the fight to keep systems safe will be long and frustrating.
Data mining
Over the past decade, digitalisation has transformed mining – a fact dramatically reflected in the statistics. In the first half of 2021 alone, the number of company filings mentioning the term rose by 128%. Nor does this trend seem likely to slow down. According to findings by ABI Research, mining digitalisation will
enjoy a CAGR of 5.2% over the next decade, reaching $9.3bn by 2030. That’s echoed by work at specific companies. At Tata Steel, for instance, executives are investing millions in blockchain and machine learning, among other areas. Rio Tinto, for its part, has built a network server across 98% of its sites. As these case studies imply, there are good reasons for going digital. “Mining companies benefit significantly by shifting to cloud services,” emphasises Justin Berman, technical director at Skybox. “There is a massive benefit to the data analytics within operational technology (OT) environments, as well as utilising shared resource pools within decentralised environments.” A fair point: given Rio Tinto’s iron ore business generates a mind-boggling 2.4TB of data every minute, getting an automated secretary to understand it all is immensely helpful. Nor are the advantages of digitalisation limited to intangible fields like data analytics. On the contrary, computers are transforming mining across a bewildering array of real-world sectors. From self-driving haul trucks and augmented reality training schemes to automated ventilation systems that only kick in when someone’s nearby, technology has the potential to make mining both safer and more efficient. Yet if the digital revolution is leaving no corner of the industry untouched, the rush ahead has left operators exposed. Fundamentally, Alex Dow says this is down to their relative inexperience. “The mining sector is unique in that unlike most digital businesses who deal in data, mining for much of it still deals in the physical realm,” explains Dow, CTO at Mirai Security, a Canadian cybersecurity company. Berman, for his part, argues that’s reflected in how operators have traditionally thought about digital safety. Rather than preparing for breaches in advance, he claims mining operators have instead been “reactive” – only leaping into action once an attack has happened. It hardly helps, Berman adds, that integrating IT and OT can be devilishly hard, especially in old facilities, or when attempting to get different wings of rambling security teams to work together.
Whatever the reason for mining’s cyber immaturity,
it’s indisputable that attacks can have disastrous consequences. As Weir’s experience suggests, that’s especially true financially. Though lost business is obviously the main concern here, cyber breaches may also draw the attention of fine-hungry regulators. Nor are wounded balance sheets the only thing operators have to contend with. If, for instance, hackers successfully breached a mine’s GPS deployment system, different ore grades could be mixed inappropriately. If the resulting material was worthless and needed to be dumped, the environment could suffer too. Even more seriously, hacks can pose a risk to human life. Both Dow and Berman warn about the vulnerability of mine ventilation systems to cyber interlopers, a danger ominously highlighted already.
20 World Mining Frontiers /
www.nsenergybusiness.com
Evgeny_V; Fun Stocker/
Shutterstock.com
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