2023 Asset Management Working Group Focuses

Data for Asset Management

• Having common definitions across the industry can be helpful in terms of equipment naming standards, procedural documents when transferring information across the workforce, measuring KPIs, etc.
• Part of the challenge is due to the different maturity levels of mine sites – some terminology may not be equally familiar to everyone. The issue also occurs when OEMs and mining companies exchange information because there can be misinterpretation or loss of information due to the common definitions gap.
  • Solutions:
    • Common definitions project that includes benchmarking
    • Educating through other GMG working groups on what Asset Management is or isn’t.
    • How to create the definitions and agree on terminology when speaking of mobile assets and their related consumables (e.g., should we be defining a drill pipe from its dimensions and weight?)
    • Clear definitions of terms relating to asset management should be agreed upon industry-wide. This should include the entire value chain so all could understand the language and terminology used.

Asset Management for Electrification

• Insufficient maintenance on a machine can cause additional energy requirements impacting electrification from an asset management perspective.
• When it comes to electrification, the challenge is in being able to operate the same way while using less energy than traditional methods. This can include looking at required equipment and technologies in the mine to reduce energy consumption and help with Scope 3 challenges.
• Electrification infrastructure is a part of asset management because of the considerations around determining what infrastructure is needed when switching to an electric fleet. Charging stations, how batteries are removed from the BEVs, where the batteries are stored or disposed of, etc. are all crucial to electrification and asset management. This includes understanding the lifecycle of a BEV from an asset management perspective.
• There is uncertainty around the design of the shop, what the maintenance organization looks like, the skill requirements for the electric equipment, etc.
  • Solutions:
    • Asset management for electrification white paper: Build a solid justification by providing steps that need to be taken and the investments needed to achieve that (i.e., evaluate business cases before diving into electrification because there is no point in going fully electric for a mine that has a shorter lifecycle).
      • This is where the roadmap comes into play: the operations trying to put the road map based on their reality, life of mine, operating costs, CapEx, how much can be invested, cleaner production (consumers will demand it, so it needs to be considered in the business case, etc.).
      • Need to know the context and realities, geographical locations, political risks, etc.

Asset Management for Autonomous Mining

• There is a gap with autonomous mining and zero entry mining around maintenance and inspections. Currently the maintenance designs are all done through manual inspection requiring a body of work that needs to happen around designing for automated maintenance (i.e., automating component swap outs).
• There is also a need for more understanding on how to do a lot of things from a whole mine perspective and considering how to plan for asset management of an autonomous fleet when automating, integrating, and considering everyone as one system.
• With autonomous equipment, the workforce is also impacted because of the requirements to retain personnel while also considering the future skills required.
  • Solution:
    • Asset management for autonomous mining white paper.