Autonomy in mining: a technical, technological and business leap, but with challenges in capturing value.

Nowadays, the multidisciplinary competencies of the teams of each operation and suppliers mark the speed in the implementation route in mining. That is why it is key to have people with experience in projects of this type and new professionals to increase capabilities with training processes in technologies and methods of operation with autonomy.

The mining industry seeks to implement autonomy in its processes to capture value by increasing equipment productivity and improving efficiency in business planning.

This is a technological, economic and technical leap, but it also generates a significant cultural challenge due to the operational discipline and integration of specialties required. For the same reason, there are multiple operational variables that condition the value capture of an autonomous operation and the investments involved. However, efforts and studies should establish operational intervention strategies in the context of each particular business.

The deployment of autonomy in the mining industry is worldwide, the pioneers have been Chile and Australia (2010) and the technology has been developed in the United States, presenting today deployments in other countries such as Brazil and Peru. There are operations with the technology implemented, others in engineering and others in piloting, waiting to validate the results to scale it in their operations.

Nowadays, the multidisciplinary competencies of the teams of each operation and suppliers mark the speed in the implementation route in mining. That is why it is key to have people with experience in projects of this type and new professionals to increase capabilities with training processes in technologies and methods of operation with autonomy.

In order to implement autonomy in the different sites, different types of problems have been solved, among which we can find: communication coverage capabilities, continuity of monitoring and positioning of equipment, conditions and behavior of the assets and operational protocols in the face of the new dynamics of operations.

For example, the first projects (Chile 2010) faced the challenge of implementing the technology, in addition to greater difficulties in capturing the value of learning. However, currently the pilot and scale-up projects are in a position to have more complete knowledge and are more likely to address the key points that allow delivering value to the business with this technology.

Availability and reliability, which translates into operational continuity, affects equipment performance, which will also be determined by site/equipment conditions and team discipline in identifying and managing deviations to ultimately consolidate learning.

Vantaz Group's contribution

At Vantaz Group we have developed projects to support our mining clients in most of the implementation stages of their autonomy projects, from opportunity identification and project evaluation to implementation.

These projects have consolidated a multidisciplinary team with experience in the key issues for autonomy, including specialties in strategy, operations, organization and technology.

Through the development of technical bases, operating models, organizational and change management plans, technological architectures and engineering, processes and procedures, test protocols and integration studies of different technologies, we have been able to support our clients in their transformation processes towards autonomy in mining extraction and processing processes.

Finally, it is important to emphasize that this technology needs to integrate specialties, combine experiences and contextualize value capture variables at each site and/or operation at a speed that will make the market's windows of opportunity and capabilities viable for the implementation of this technological and cultural leap.

José Guerra Montecinos
Senior Manager - Productivity
Vantaz Group

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