Integrating digital innovations in mining operations is set to deliver more powerful and holistic solutions to optimise productivity.

Weir senior director: digital Ole Knudsen contends that mines are looking to digital solutions to reduce costs while improving productivity; safety; and environmental, social, and governance outcomes. He points out that a key challenge for digital solutions is overcoming the separate and siloed functions within a mining operation. The respective decisions of the maintenance and operations teams, for instance, will impact each other in ways that are traditionally difficult to track or control.

“Weir is supporting this strategic imperative by developing a holistic solution that addresses not just equipment optimisation but the optimisation of the whole flowsheet,” notes Knudsen. “A more holistic approach to digital solutions gives us better insights into both the impact of equipment wear on production performance, and into how changes in production affect the wear life of equipment,” he says.

The company explains that its new intelligent solution uses machine learning to generate specific recommendations in line with customer priorities. Weir director: digital product strategy King Becerra highlights that these recommendations are based on the customer’s operating data, as well as on data and modelling that the company has collected on each product. Becerra emphasises that each customer will have their own conditions to consider and priority areas to target. While the cost of energy may be the primary challenge on one site, another might need to reduce its tailings to give the storage facility longer life.

“Leveraging the power of AI and machine learning, Weir can provide customers with systems that generate specific recommendations to meet their goals,” he says.

The company’s digital offering includes new intelligent solutions with AI capabilities which enable  optimisation on a process-level and predictive maintenance, facilitating the improvement of uptime and making maintenance more cost-effective.

Strategic acquisitions have included Motion Metrics technology, in addition to SentianAI, which uses advanced AI algorithms that continuously learn and adapt to the dynamic mine processes – helping to facilitate continuous optimisation.