OEMs offer solutions to mining challenges

Alongside the industries they complement, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have been tasked with staying ahead of the curve, assessing emerging market trends and technology, and developing best practices and solutions for the future. Their supportive services and specialized equipment have played an integral role in bringing mining operations into the future.

Tomorrow's mines and their backers bank on three pillars – efficiency, safety, and sustainability. This primarily revolves around reducing emissions and minimizing environmental impacts, while keeping profits rolling in.

In response, OEMs are doing much more than manufacturing physical products – they are filling the growing need for more sophisticated services by providing installation, maintenance, inventory, inspection, and employee training, as well as automation and a wealth of digital services.

Hot commodities

The mining sector, which currently produces just shy of 10% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, has seen rapid improvement in several areas on its path to net-zero.

Top priorities for power-consuming industries like mining include two seemingly contradictory imperatives – massive emissions reduction as well as extensive growth. This is especially true for a mining sector that has been tasked with producing enormous quantities of the minerals critical to the clean energy future such as rare earths, copper, nickel, cobalt, and lithium.

The adoption of renewable energy itself is slow going, with less implementation of on-site renewable power generation and more electrification of machinery and fleets. Artificial Intelligence, cloud computing, and blockchain technologies have so far been the more readily adopted tools enabling mining businesses to improve efficiency, productivity, safety, and accountability.

Another solution in bringing down emissions has been through sustainable processes with a lower environmental impact such as utilizing high-efficiency and bio-based materials, applying principles of a circular economy, and considering the entire lifecycle of equipment, products, and structures themselves.

Prioritizing sustainability

Top OEM Sandvik exemplifies a cutting-edge approach as both a mining equipment and service provider.

"The new regulatory requirements and the increased focus on sustainability among large companies will put significantly higher demands on all suppliers when it comes to reporting and improving their carbon footprint," said Jenny Hörnlund, head of sustainable manufacturing at Sandvik. "I believe that value chains will be transformed and there will be more circular models. I am convinced that we are only at the beginning of a major transition."

Investment in cutting-edge and sustainable mining technologies can be low, however, due to a perception of delayed or reduced financial returns. Embracing higher upfront costs and accepting extended timelines and the long-term benefits of the green transition can be counter-intuitive but crucial for business. This is also where government incentives come into play as a stopgap for investors leery of a short-term financial pinch.

Sandvik, Caterpillar, Komatsu, BHP, Newmont, and other big-name OEMs and mining companies have committed to a green transition of the industry with several big-name partnerships contributing everything from automation overhauls to massive fleet electrification orders.

Grow or stagnate

The mining industry's need for growth – from hiring and training the next generation of miners to exploration and expansion of current operations – is being spurred by the massive demands for sustainably mined materials by the energy, infrastructure, and EV battery sectors.

"We are exploring and evaluating which innovative features are needed in our software products in order to support our customers in sustainable production," said Hörnlund. "A concrete example is to develop tools that can optimize manufacturing processes and reduce energy consumption."

This atmosphere of growth and sustainability presents opportunities for OEMs to step in and supply groundbreaking solutions:

• Rising costs of fuel and energy put the pressure on finding ways to circumvent costs, encouraging adoption of new technologies ,and modern equipment to improve efficiency and productivity.

• A shortage of skilled labor in the industry (and ongoing retirement of the current workforce) creates opportunities to offer specialized services and expertise. Skilled technicians are not only made available for product and aftermarket support, but to train current employees in all aspects of proprietary equipment upgrades and software.

• Supply chain disruptions and difficulties in sourcing products and services have opened up the field to startups and larger companies' expansion into innovation as well as resource discovery and acquisition. Market fluctuations and price volatility over short periods also encourage expanded and more direct partnerships between OEMs and key players in the industry.

• Drones, automated and remotely operated vehicles, and collision avoidance systems are growing in popularity where demand is rising for safety-related technology especially in Canada and the U.S. Electrified mobile fleets and replacing diesel equipment with conveyor systems improves safety and scalability, reduces emissions, improves underground air quality, and reduces heat generation and cooling requirements.

• There is increasing demand for AI predictive maintenance and monitoring software, customized systems for communications, integration, scheduling and operations planning, analysis and optimization of production and processes, and even 3D mine design software, and preliminary geological mapping before a mine even breaks ground. These digital services and solutions–all increasing efficiency and lowering operations costs-have seen a significant increase.

Newmont President and CEO Tom Palmer says these groundbreaking solutions offer both opportunities and new challenges for the mining sector.

"Whilst technology has helped make our businesses safer, cleaner, more efficient and productive, the velocity of technological change today is altering social and economic dynamics in ways not seen since the industrial revolution," the top executive of the world's largest gold mining company said.

"We must prepare our businesses and our workforces to responsibly navigate these technological opportunities and threats by anchoring ourselves in our core values so that we can all make moral and people-centric decisions in fast-moving and complex situations either driven or exacerbated by technology," he continued.