Miners Say Coronavirus Has Led to More Industry Automation

International mining officials say the coronavirus crisis has led to increased automation in the industry.

The changes are likely to lead to lower costs and smaller, cleaner mines where more can be done with fewer people, the officials said. Industry leaders spoke¹ about the issue at the Imarc mining conference in the southeastern Australian city of Melbourne.

Conference attendee Suresh Vadnagra is the chief technology officer for Newcrest, one of the world's largest gold-mining companies. "The pandemic has forced us to think about how we can do more of the work that had to happen on site, remotely. And how we do those tasks with less people," he said.

An increasing number of companies are looking at ways to better use machines and "big data" to improve their business operations, Vadnagra added. Big data is a term for very large amounts of information produced by people using the internet. Big data can only be stored, understood and used with the help of special computers and methods.

Australia's three largest ore mining companies already have control centers in cities that supervise parts of their operations from hundreds of kilometers away. Such centers are becoming more common.

Experts say one example of big data's use in the industry is in ore collection operations. When sensor² equipment is placed inside drill holes, it can provide positioning data and identify ground materials.

Such data permits mining companies to use machine learning to produce models to help improve explosive mining methods, said Dirk van Soelen. He is the vice³ president of explosives manufacturer Dyno Nobel.

Improvements like this, along with new technologies, will help British mining company Anglo American reduce costs by 10 to 20 percent in coming years, Chief Executive Mark Cutifani said.

"Using automation and industrial processes, we have changed mining methods," he told Reuters news agency. Cutifani said his company had started using imaging technology to automatically scan and divide pieces of ore.

The method is expected to be used throughout the company "in the next few years," he added. The technology has led to drops in Anglo American's "energy intensity," Cutifani said.

Big data is also permitting companies to better track energy use and carbon emissions⁴, said Bas Mutsaers, a marketing⁵ expert at European energy company Schneider Electric.

"We can use this data to confirm our understanding of the processes at the site, to see correlations," Mutsaers said. This could help miners predict when to use, produce, store or sell energy on solar farms, he added.

Machine learning methods can permit companies "to do this at ever higher levels of complexity⁷ and speed," Mutsaers said.

Words in This Story

automation – n. to run or operate something using machines and computers instead of many workers

remote – adj. far away, from a distance

task – n. a piece of work, a particular job

drill – v. to make a hole in a material or the ground using a machine for the purpose

scan – v. to make an image or picture of something for use by a computer

track – v. to follow in order to find out more about something

correlation⁶ – n. the relationship between thing that happen or change together

1 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

2 sensor   

n.传感器，探测设备，感觉器（官）

参考例句：

• The temperature sensor is enclosed in a protective well.温度传感器密封在保护套管中。
• He plugged the sensor into a outlet.他把传感器插进电源插座。

3 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

4 emissions   

排放物( emission的名词复数 )； 散发物（尤指气体）

参考例句：

• Most scientists accept that climate change is linked to carbon emissions. 大多数科学家都相信气候变化与排放的含碳气体有关。
• Dangerous emissions radiate from plutonium. 危险的辐射物从钚放散出来。

5 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

6 correlation   

n.相互关系，相关，关连

参考例句：

• The second group of measurements had a high correlation with the first.第二组测量数据与第一组高度相关。
• A high correlation exists in America between education and economic position.教育和经济地位在美国有极密切的关系。

7 complexity   

n.复杂(性)，复杂的事物

参考例句：

• Only now did he understand the full complexity of the problem.直到现在他才明白这一问题的全部复杂性。
• The complexity of the road map puzzled me.错综复杂的公路图把我搞糊涂了。