Miners Say Coronavirus Has Led to More Industry Automation
2020-12-07
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1International mining officials say the coronavirus crisis has led to increased automation in the industry.
2The changes are likely to lead to lower costs and smaller, cleaner mines where more can be done with fewer people, the officials said.
3Industry leaders spoke about the issue at the Imarc mining conference in the southeastern Australian city of Melbourne.
4Conference attendee Suresh Vadnagra is the chief technology officer for Newcrest, one of the world's largest gold-mining companies.
5"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.
6An increasing number of companies are looking at ways to better use machines and "big data" to improve their business operations, Vadnagra added.
7Big data is a term for very large amounts of information produced by people using the internet.
8Big data can only be stored, understood and used with the help of special computers and methods.
9Australia's three largest ore mining companies already have control centers in cities that supervise parts of their operations from hundreds of kilometers away.
10Such centers are becoming more common.
11Experts say one example of big data's use in the industry is in ore collection operations.
12When sensor equipment is placed inside drill holes, it can provide positioning data and identify ground materials.
13Such data permits mining companies to use machine learning to produce models to help improve explosive mining methods, said Dirk van Soelen.
14He is the vice president of explosives manufacturer Dyno Nobel.
15Improvements 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.
16"Using automation and industrial processes, we have changed mining methods," he told Reuters news agency.
17Cutifani said his company had started using imaging technology to automatically scan and divide pieces of ore.
18The method is expected to be used throughout the company "in the next few years," he added.
19The technology has led to drops in Anglo American's "energy intensity," Cutifani said.
20Big data is also permitting companies to better track energy use and carbon emissions, said Bas Mutsaers, a marketing expert at European energy company Schneider Electric.
21"We can use this data to confirm our understanding of the processes at the site, to see correlations," Mutsaers said.
22This could help miners predict when to use, produce, store or sell energy on solar farms, he added.
23Machine learning methods can permit companies "to do this at ever higher levels of complexity and speed," Mutsaers said.
24I'm Bryan Lynn.
1International mining officials say the coronavirus crisis has led to increased automation in the industry. 2The 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 spoke about the issue at the Imarc mining conference in the southeastern Australian city of Melbourne. 3Conference 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. 4An 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. 5Australia'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. 6Experts say one example of big data's use in the industry is in ore collection operations. When sensor equipment is placed inside drill holes, it can provide positioning data and identify ground materials. 7Such data permits mining companies to use machine learning to produce models to help improve explosive mining methods, said Dirk van Soelen. He is the vice president of explosives manufacturer Dyno Nobel. 8Improvements 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. 9"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. 10The 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. 11Big data is also permitting companies to better track energy use and carbon emissions, said Bas Mutsaers, a marketing expert at European energy company Schneider Electric. 12"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. 13Machine learning methods can permit companies "to do this at ever higher levels of complexity and speed," Mutsaers said. 14I'm Bryan Lynn. 15Reuters reported on this story. Bryan Lynn adapted the report for VOA Learning English. Mario Ritter, Jr. was the editor. 16We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section, and visit our Facebook page. 17_______________________________________________________________ 18Words in This Story 19automation - n. to run or operate something using machines and computers instead of many workers 20remote - adj. far away, from a distance 21task - n. a piece of work, a particular job 22drill - v. to make a hole in a material or the ground using a machine for the purpose 23scan - v. to make an image or picture of something for use by a computer 24track - v. to follow in order to find out more about something 25correlation - n. the relationship between thing that happen or change together