IoT solutions for the mining industry
The mining industry is one of the most profitable yet most complex industries in the world. There are four types of mining depending on the type of metals and mineral resources that are intentionally extracted: surface mining, placer mining, in-situ mining and underground mining.
Problem
The mining industry is facing new challenges – government regulation, environmental challenges, and other issues – that add to the cost of mining and complicate new operations.
– Health and Safety: the risk of fatality and the exposure of occupational diseases are really high as workers are exposed to extreme working environment
– Capital intensive: as mines are located in remote locations, it is difficult to build permanent power infrastructure and to collect its data for maintenance.
– Environmental footprint: since mining is a carbon-intensive industry, the damages can be erosion, the loss of biodiversity and the contamination of soil, groundwater and surface water by chemicals.
Solution
IoT Solutions
The benefit of collecting data in real time can help to transform the mining industry tremendously.
– Ensure the safety of people: IoT helps monitoring the ventilation and toxicity levels underground for workers’ environment by collecting data in real-time to help analyzing safety conditions (for example: monitoring the level of dust inhalation or chemical hazard minimization).
– Productivity and cost optimization: evacuation drills can take time to complete which will be costly but not productively without proper monitoring. Via the implementation of sensors on mining devices and equipment, managers can properly extract the data and monitor the performance, which leads to cost-effective and increases productivity.
– Effect on environment: the “Future of IoT in Enterprise – 2017” reported that IoT can potentially help mining industry to minimize environmental damages significantly. 47% of organizations in the report identified monitoring environmental changes as their number one priority for their IoT deployments. 57% of respondents from the mining industry say that the most exciting innovation to come from IoT is environmental monitoring.
Extracting data in remote areas could be a challenge as terrestrial or cellular networks are not available. However, IoT with the satellites communication will provide better coverage on surface, in-situ, or even deep underground minings. This solution helps companies to overcome shortcomings of traditional monitoring.
Our LoRa Base Station is a low cost, easy to use connectivity solution that integrates a LoRaWAN™ gateway and a satellite modem with an antenna. Covering a wide area (40km radius), it allows deployment of up to ten thousand LoRaWAN™-based sensors (depending on the frequency with which the objects send their data) which can monitor mining assets.
Benefits
1. Cost-effective – thanks to the lower cost of satellite IoT connectivity and of the device itself
2. Global coverage – satellite connectivity is available almost anywhere on the globe
3. Convenient end-to-end solution – our teams create and implement A to Z solutions even in cases where clients lack know-how and / or capabilities
4. Secure private LoRa network – ensuring your data is protected and kept confidential
5. Reliable connectivity – thanks to our selected satellite communication partner
6. Easy to use – once the solution implemented, the data can be easily visualised via your web or mobile application and / or alerting system
7. Effective coverage, adapted to your use – one LoRaWAN™ gateway covers an area of 40km radius, with the possibility of connecting up to 10,000 sensors (depending on the frequency of sending the messages)