Technology & equipment
Hard problems, software solutions Whatever the figures, though, industry decision makers aren’t buying a product, according to Satish Penmesta, founder and CEO of GroundHog – they’re buying solutions. “I don’t think anybody buys technology. What people buy is problem solving,” he tells me. “‘Can your software solve my problem?’ they ask. ‘If yes, then let’s talk’.” The “bells and whistles” don’t really interest them, he adds – a notable view, given the seemingly insatiable appetite the industry appears to be demonstrating when it comes to the cloud and what it offers. It’s clear that mining is navigating a transitionary period, with software, artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain technology and automation shaping it, increasingly facilitated by cloud-based technologies. The first and perhaps most obvious advantage – for mines’ IT operations, at least – is the shift in skills and growing attraction the sector has for IT talent, largely thanks to the tangible advances the not-so-tangible cloud presents.
“In the past,” says Penmesta, “if you had a fleet management system, you had to install them on servers at the mine site. They would run through the mine’s WiFi.” That required significant infrastructure, with an equal measure of technical management – a real challenge as the skills needed to manage these systems weren’t always available, to put it lightly. “To be brutally honest, no IT person worth their salt wanted to work with the mining industry; they had more lucrative jobs elsewhere.” Today, through cloud technologies, that has changed. Where there’s connectivity, software can run and be managed remotely – in the cloud – via the likes of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft’s Azure. Both offer hosting services to some of the world’s leading enterprises and newest start-ups – servicing hundreds of millions of customers via their global and growing networks of data centres.
Penmesta says this evolution – even revolution – has meant mining is becoming an eye-catching proposition for the world’s younger, talented IT professionals. “Now, since all of these things can run in the cloud, you can consolidate your IT team to competent people, either in a corporate office or outsource it, all at a fraction of the cost,” he says. With that increased profile, however, comes some drawback – something mining executives are increasingly aware of. Warning that the industry is facing a talent squeeze, in early 2023 management consultants McKinsey said that of 86% of mining executives it had spoken with believed it’s harder to recruit and retain specialist talent – such as digital – now than it was just two years ago; something exacerbated by the growing influx of new mining technology organisations in recent years.
World Mining Frontiers /
www.nsenergybusiness.com
Aside from the slow but increasing conversion around essential skills, the cloud is delivering other profound transformations for mining operations large and small, helping them become more efficient and cost-effective, as well as improving their employee safety and environmental protections.
Mining in the cloud
In essence, a virtual data centre managed by the likes of AWS, the cloud and its associated technologies is quickly replacing on-site infrastructure and thus the need for significant spend on hardware and maintenance. Providing easy access to scalable services such as computing power, storage and databases, it consolidates an enterprise’s operations through web-based solutions. It’s a structure that mining is, arguably, best suited to harness thanks to its often remote and frequently hard to access operations. Likening an underground mine, for example, to a black box – where site managers have to wait to the end of a shift for reports to be filed before they know what has happened – Penmesta says cloud-enabled applications provide an almost real-time view, helping managers make decisions on the spot. This doesn’t only benefit operational effectiveness in the “then and now”, where resources can be redirected as required, issues can also be mitigated in advance.
“Since all of these things can run in the cloud, you can consolidate your IT team to competent people, either in a corporate offi ce or outsource it, all at a fraction of the cost.”
“In the past,” says Penmesta, “shift changeover times could take as long as an hour and a half because you had to wait for data.” Working with its customers, he says GroundHog has managed to get that down to as little as 20 minutes thanks to cloud- enabled digitalisation. Using algorithms can even help pre-create a set of objectives to be carried out by the new shift before it has even clocks on, meaning when it does come online it already knows its responsibilities. “You just line people out faster. So, productivity has obviously improved by leaps and bounds,” he continues. Efficiencies don’t end at the mine site either; they stretch right through the supply chain. A bedrock of digitalisation has been sensors – advanced sensor- based technologies are helping enhance operational safety and efficiency while optimising a facility’s productivity. Connected to infrastructure, the environment and equipment, they provide the type of real-time data only dreamed of in the not too distant past. With data now able to be uploaded to
35 $10.1bn
Value of the global mining software market in 2023. MarketsandMarkets
David Field/
Shutterstock.com
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