Rockwell Automation presented The Connected Mine concept designed for mining industry

Photo by Rockwell International Corporation

Like many cyclical industries, mining is reviving, driven by steady global economic growth and an increasing demand for materials to support new technologies like electric vehicles, renewable energy and mobile devices. Despite the optimism, the industry still faces major operational challenges including process efficiencies, cost control, worker health and safety, and skills gaps. To address these challenges, Rockwell Automation introduced The Connected Mine, leveraging the latest enabling and digital technologies.

Utilizing advanced analytics, The Connected Mine helps mining companies collect and aggregate data to gain end-to-end visibility into their operations and make informed business decisions to improve mining operations.

“One mining company improved production at a mine site by almost 15 percent by implementing a simulator that provides operators real-time recovery targets that are automatically updated based on ever-changing feed grades,” says Fabio Mielli, market development manager, Rockwell Automation. “The Connected Mine concept provides our global mining customers with the digital infrastructure needed to tap into exciting new technologies for optimized operations.”

The Connected Mine can improve all areas of mining operations:

Extraction: Connecting and automating your mobile assets and mine infrastructure – such as mine machinery and ventilation – helps to make the extraction process safer and more efficient.

Process Management and Optimization: The Connected Mine automates, controls and optimizes mineral processes and metal refining operations, helping achieve greater throughput, enhanced recovery and better quality – all while reducing energy, water and reagents.

Material Handling: Smart machines like hoists, conveyors and stacker reclaimers improve material handling by providing unprecedented access to data that can be collected, logged and analyzed to help workers make better decisions.

Mine Electrification: A digital electrical system helps to enable seamless integration of power distribution, motor management, and process control and captures the information needed for predictive maintenance and remote monitoring.

Asset Performance: Whether device-based or enterprise-wide, machine learning and scalable applications that monitor the performance of critical assets and predict failures can help reduce equipment downtime.

Worker Safety and Efficiency: Real-time mobility and augmented-reality tools deliver timely, enhanced visibility to field workers, helping to confirm the right personnel have the right information at their fingertips.

Mine-to-Market Integration: A powerful analytics platform provides full visibility of the business, removing information silos, connecting disparate systems and applications, and informing better business decisions.

Rockwell Automation has combined expertise in motor control, process, power and energy management, and information solutions to deliver specific and powerful solutions that address the most critical mining operational challenges.

The Connected Mine from Rockwell Automation is built on application expertise, alliances with best-in-class system integrators, equipment manufacturers and technology providers with strong execution capabilities.

For more information, please visit www.rockwellautomation.com.

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