The mining industry has come a long way when you look at where it was a few decades back. Thanks to the rapid surface and underground mining technology innovations and advancements which has done nothing but make work much easier for everybody in this field.
When you think about all the industries which rely mostly on equipment to get most of their work done like manufacturing, mining, and oil and gas companies, you will notice that all of them are currently shifting to the use of IoT. With the inception of IoT, minerals and other valuable materials can now be sensed and even extracted remotely across all existing network infrastructure and create better opportunities for a more direct consolidation process of the physical world for most computer-based systems.
The most remarkable part about all this is that it will ultimately result in improved precision, efficiency, and economic benefits and with reduced human intervention. This transformation is particularly important for the mining industry as it would ensure improved performance, a boost in productivity and profitability as well. All these amazing benefits all while eliminating any unnecessary costs or waste while mining.
Here are five of the many benefits the IoT will bring to the mining industry.
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Improves safety
Most of the operations that usually take place in mines, if not all, are always in far-flung areas and in extremely hazardous conditions. This fact alone makes the security and safety of all the workers stationed in the mines very important and can’t be taken lightly. The same goes for the equipment used in these mining fields as well. The industry can benefit a lot from the IoT in terms of safety in many different ways like:
- Provide real-time analysis of everything happening in the mines and even send an early warning of any danger.
- Gas detection sensors plus ventilation and air flow monitoring sensors.
- Access to new unexplored environments using automated machinery due to health risks.
- Predict which machinery needs maintenance and evade danger at the early stages.
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Time-saving technology
IoT technology helps to maintain and even develop the mining sites, collects data even before the initial mining process begins and ensures that the whole process is managed properly and without any hiccups which also help to reduce risk levels significantly.
- Cost and energy-saving
It’s true that the whole mining operations utilize large resources and a lot of funds need to be invested in the whole operations and energy as well. And if any fault occurs in any of the equipment, the industry can end up suffering great losses energy-wise as well as in maintenance. IoT will help ensure reduced asset downtime as the workers will be working more proactively which will ultimately see to it that the overall spending of the whole process reduces.
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Improved traceability and visibility
Any IoT data collected it automatically transferred over a network, then received and analyzed without requiring any human intervention. Almost everything runs remotely to ensure maximum efficiency, traceability and decreased variability as well.
- Move from the preventive to a more predictive maintenance
With the IoT approach, monitoring all aspects of the mining operations has become a lot easier and faster which eventually leads to increased productivity and safety. You can now tell where a problem is brewing and work to fix or prevent it before it becomes a big issue.
