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GMG Brisbane Forum

Program

Day 1: August 29

Global Mining Guidelines Group provides a collaborative and innovative space for stakeholders across the mining industry to share knowledge, expertise and experience to develop operator-driven guidance, resources, and common practices in response to industry demand. Learn more about how you can make an impact through GMG.

Details to come

With automation more readily available and the industry advancing toward zero-entry mining, discover lessons learned during the execution and deployment of autonomous systems. What’s working, what isn’t working, and how to address varied levels of autonomous system maturity as we continue to implement autonomous mining.

The introduction of automation to mining has great potential to reduce safety and health risks by removing people from hazardous situations. However, automation does not remove people from the system – it just changes the tasks they undertake. For the system to function safely, these new tasks must be designed taking human abilities and limitations into account.  Automation can also introduce new types of errors and, potentially, new hazards. An overriding focus on safety has been identified as a critical aspect of the successful introduction of automation.

Human-systems integration refers to a set of systems engineering processes that ensure that human-related issues are adequately considered during system planning, design, development, and evaluation. Human-systems integration is a continuous process that should begin during the definition of requirements for any automation project, continue throughout system design, and throughout commissioning and operation to verify that safety goals have been achieved.

The mining industry is increasingly embracing automation as a safety and productivity enabler and as a critical factor in creating a sustainable future of mining. For these reasons, automation is a key part of many mining companies’ digital transformation roadmaps alongside advances in artificial intelligence, system integration, remote operations, and the Internet of Things. While autonomous mining is innovating the mining industry, it also introduces new challenges. This session will look at the challenges and opportunities autonomous mining presents, and share good practices to take back to your operation.

Cyber criminals share knowledge and tools freely. Their attacks not only pose a financial and production risk, they also put our shared progress in safety and sustainability at risk. Hear what you can do to improve the cyber resiliency of your operations and prevent incidents that impact safety, environmental sustainability, or operational productivity.

You can never plan the future by the past. We live in discontinuous times. Changing how much energy is used, and how much GHG are discharged by material movement demands looking at the system of mining, not only at improving how we currently operate. Autonomous mining has been with us since 2008 when Codelco first introduced autonomous vehicles at Gabriela Mistral mine near Calama in Chile. Since then, the number of autonomous trucks has exceeded 1000 on the way to 1800 by 2025. Safe operation, collision avoidance and continuous productivity continue to be major drivers. What has changed in the material movement process as a result? And what needs to change in the systemic operation and then, the design of the material movement process as a result? And what needs to change in the systemic operation and then, the design of the material movement system to achieve the energy, GHG and production goals? Are current levels of autonomy suited to this discontinuous change and are we able as an industry to address these issues? GMG provides a forum for these fulsome discussions about the future. As Niels Bohr intimated “Prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future”.

As new technologies and systems are adopted in the mining industry, they produce a wider range of data, which is being used for critical decision-making, reducing costs, optimizing processes, forecasting, trend analysis and more. However, the industry is also facing many challenges with integration, interoperability, and the overall management of data. Together we’ll look at the key needs and potential steps forward.

As digital capabilities continue to evolve and companies better understand what it takes to derive value, the converged IT/OT operating model is becoming more prevalent.

In this presentation, we will share our views of the challenges and key levers of achieving IT-OT convergence, including:

• Governance and responsibilities
• Disconnect between IT/ OT management
• Network security
• Data governance and quality

And the benefits, including:

• Efficient process automation
• Centralised asset tracking
• Improved compliance
• Improved services
• Improved visibility and transparency for decision-making

We will illustrate how a global mining company has progressed their IT-OT convergence journey and how HCLTech has and continued to partner with them to deliver business benefits, value and impact.

Day 2: August 30

The management of critical underground mining services has evolved in recent years, thanks to the integration of modern tools and processes. This presentation explores the intersection of modern technology and mining systems, focusing on the opportunities offered by real-time monitoring, modern alerting and incident management, integrated software and data platforms and a DevOps culture to streamline operations and maintenance of increasingly complex technology in the underground mining environment. 

We’ll discuss the challenges and opportunities emerging technologies present, and share good practices to take back to your operation.

Operational Technologies play a critical role in ensuring the safe and seamless operation of autonomous systems, thereby maintaining a predictable and efficient production process. Neglecting the monitoring and upkeep of these operational technologies and equipment can lead to a host of adverse consequences. Operating instability becomes more prevalent, necessitating reactive measures, and the vulnerability to cybersecurity threats increases significantly. These implications, though not always apparent to mining operators, can have severe repercussions on various aspects such as safety, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) commitments, cyber risks, productivity, and asset management costs.

To ensure the rapid and successful adoption of autonomous systems, it is imperative for mining operators to recognise the importance of maintaining and monitoring operational technology and equipment diligently. By doing so, they can not only ensure the smooth functioning of autonomous systems but also fortify their operations against unforeseen challenges, while simultaneously promoting sustainability, safety, and overall efficiency.

What are the key areas that the industry needs to work together on figuring out? Workforce and energy sources? Standardization and common language? Or maybe integration and interoperability? Let’s work together to identify and define those burning areas to map out a plan to tackle them together.

Update on the GMG Guideline on Data Exchange Mine Software – Open Mining Format (OMF) v2 which is about to be published and a discussion on what comes next.

Details to come

Proper energy management can help with not only meeting net-zero goals, but also help to optimize the mine and make the implementation of new technologies more operationally efficient and cost-effective. Common challenges include high energy consumption, limited access to reliable and affordable clean energy, regulatory requirements, and limited technical knowledge. We’ll work together to map out how to address key challenges, considering not just the technical and economic aspects of energy management, but the social and environmental implications, making a more equitable transition to a sustainable future for all stakeholders.

Looking at the different aspects of a mine, what can be done now to address key challenges related to energy management and decarbonization? How does the whole system connect? Let’s discuss areas where you can improve energy management practices and adopt new technologies and methods to achieve sustainability goals.