Underground mines are going deeper to meet increased demands and are innovating to improve communication, safety, and productivity. This working group is an opportunity for the underground mining community to address the challenges and opportunities and drive ongoing innovation underground by sharing best practices, facilitating innovation, and driving the global conversation.
WHY DOES COLLABORATION ON UNDERGROUND MINING MATTER?
Underground mining has seen incredible advancements in recent years, which have allowed for deeper mines, better communication networks, and safety and productivity improvements. These advancements are in response to the growing needs and expectations of the world’s population and an increased economic pressure to produce. To address these demands, underground mining operations are redefining their current ways of working by adopting advanced solutions and improving processes to enable improved efficiency, cost reduction, and safety.
Underground mining faces unique challenges around:
- Communications and network infrastructure
- Operational efficiency and process improvement
- Asset visibility and management
- Health and safety
- Digitalization and adapting to new technologies
ABOUT THE WORKING GROUP
This working group aims to identify and address common underground mining sector challenges and opportunities while considering the adaptability of the mine infrastructure and new and legacy technologies. The group is a community of operators, suppliers, subject-matter experts, leaders from inside and outside the industry, and others with experience and interests related to underground mining.
OBJECTIVES
- Facilitate innovation and industry advancement by identifying and developing guidance on key topics and challenges related to underground mining
- Promote global collaboration among underground mining stakeholders to share lessons learned and case studies and engage in valuable conversations
NEWS
June 23, 2022 | Publication of Recommended Practices for Battery Electric Vehicles in Underground Mining – Version 3
Recommended Practices for Battery Electric Vehicles in Underground Mining – Version 3 is now published. This guideline provides guidance and an overall discussion about the benefits, drawbacks, and planning requirements for designing and implementing a BEV fleet within an existing or new mine. Key features of version 3 include new and expanded content on safety, risk, and emergency response, more on maintenance, and new sections on automated connection interfaces. Thank you to all volunteers who contributed to this guideline. Visit the guideline page.
ACTIVE PROJECTS
Underground Mine Communications Infrastructure Guidelines Suite Revision
All three parts of the Underground Mine Communications Infrastructure Guideline Suite, published between 2017 and 2019, are now up for review. Contact us for more information on participating in the review.
Rethinking Mine Design in Underground Mining
The objective of this project is to publish a collaborative white paper that can help the industry understand common considerations and new approaches to mine designs.
This white paper would focus specifically on key topics and considerations related to mine design in underground mining. It is also a chance to map out what is already being done in terms of innovation.
WORKSHOP OUTCOMES
PUBLICATIONS
2019 Jun | Guideline for Implementing Short Interval Control in Underground Mining Operations
This guideline provides much-needed independent direction on the available options for SIC, allowing for greater and faster adoption of control technologies and processes. This will facilitate better planning, quicker decisions, increased production, lower costs, and safer working. Click here to read.
2019 Mar | Underground Mine Communications Infrastructure Guidelines Part III: General Guidelines
The guideline compiles information to help the reader better understand the general concepts, techniques, and methods used in the industry to create and maintain a communications infrastructure. The content is designed to help non-information–technology (IT) personnel identify high-level requirements, and to provide resources to learn more the technologies. Click here to read.
The guideline provides scenarios of practical applications in underground mining today and in the near future. The scenarios relate how different communications infrastructure designs can be used and combined to achieve key technology goals. Click here to read.
2017 Feb | Underground Mine Communications Infrastructure Guidelines Part I: Positioning and Needs AnalysisThe guideline provides a general overview of the guideline objectives, audience, and mine communications maturity lifecycle diagram. This diagram provides a high-level overview of the services and supporting technology that is generally used in each phase of the mine lifecycle. Click here to read.
KNOWLEDGE SHARING PRESENTATIONS
Value and Opportunities of IoT and Location Interoperability (Video)
Data and AI are better when they are together. Unfortunately most of today’s Internet of Things (IoT), including location tracking, sensing, and industrial control systems, are disparate systems designed and deployed for one-off applications. That means it is very challenging to aggregate and correlate the heterogeneous data from silo-ed IoT systems for real-time situational awareness and early warnings. This webinar will present the geospatial and IoT standards from the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). Click here to watch.
Data Exchange – OPC UA A Common Language for Mining (Video)
Digitalization in mining requires a common language for data exchange between mining machines and the higher-level systems. The webinar will walk through “Open Platform Communication Unified Architecture” (OPC UA), its key benefits and the approach to jointly develop an application-oriented Companion Specification Mining. Click here to watch.