Accelerating the Transition to Remote Mining Operations Utilizing Modern Industrial Controls

Companies worldwide are contending with providing safe access for workers, while overcoming talent scarcities. Traditional industries like mining operate massive and distributed assets requiring significant on-site staffing. Facing escalating operating costs, the mining industry has more widely accepted that higher levels of automation, remote operations centers (ROCs), and fully autonomous operations can address these challenges.

Modern automation and edge-enabled architectures can help make this transition to ROCs relatively seamless and help manage the overall operational risk because they can be paired with existing control infrastructure, deployed rapidly, and scaled progressively to provide improved safety and performance gains through remote accessibility and autonomy. The type and scale of ROC types vary with options such as:

• A completely cloud-based data lake, where data is converged for visualisation and analysis.
• A more traditional central location to manage and actively control automated process systems and assets.
• A complete ‘pit-to-port’ system capable of integrating the previously listed aspects with enterprise platforms like asset management systems (AMS), manufacturing execution systems (MES), and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to provide end-to-end visibility of the value chain.

This white paper considers various ROC models and challenges, and describes how edge computing solutions, digital transformation, and IIoT connectivity are fundamental for providing the necessary functionality and scalability.