The drive to improve productivity and reduce downtime will lead to further investment by mining companies, large and small, in predictive maintenance for both plant and mobile equipment in the next two years, according to a report by GlobalData.
GlobalData’s Global Mine-Site Technology Adoption Survey 2020 analyses the results of interviews with key personnel at over 150 operating mines across the globe.
The survey examines trends in uptake of 13 technologies at the mine site, spanning mine management software, predictive maintenance, drones, autonomous vehicles, collision avoidance, wearables, remote control vehicles and more. The report also identifies intentions to invest in the next two years, and compares results by region, mine type and company type.
It revealed that, while over three-quarters of mines had already made at least minor investments into predictive maintenance, 48 per cent of miners surveyed expected to either invest in the technology for the first time or invest further in the coming two years. Further, 43 per cent expected to invest in predictive maintenance for mobile machinery over the same period.
Across the regions studied, predictive maintenance adoption was highest overall in Australasia, and GlobalData forecasts this region to see the highest levels of investment over the next two years, followed by the Americas.
The most widely adopted technologies were mine planning software, management software and communication systems, with a respective 89 per cent, 86 per cent and 83 per cent of mines having already made at least minor investments in each of these areas.
Director of Analysis, Mining and Construction at GlobalData, David Kurtz, commented that further investment in predictive maintenance is critical for mines looking to improve productivity and reduce expensive downtime.
“The ability of predictive maintenance to collect real-time data from sensors on equipment and use data analytics to detect potential problems before they lead to machine failure not only ensures continued productivity of critical operations, but saves money in parts and labour and can even extend the life of equipment, so the benefits of this technology are considerable,” Mr Kurtz said.
The technology that has seen the highest increase in adoption over the last two years is drones. While 44 per cent of mines had invested to some extent in drones in 2018, this share had risen to 64 per cent by the end of 2020.