Data and analysis vital for mining
Techenomics committed to data provision
Gathering of data and interpretation of that data will be major drivers for the future growth of the mining industry, according to Techenomics, which uses data from oil analysis in predictive maintenance programs.
Techenomics’ CEO Chris Adsett says the trending of data gathered by the company over time from oil and fluid analysis allows equipment operators to predict and prevent downtime, thus increasing equipment use and improving productivity.
“This forms part of the optimisation process being pursued by mining companies in the post-boom period and was an important subject during the recent ‘Austmine 2017: Mining’s Innovation Imperative’ conference in Perth.”
Chris Adsett says improved data mining makes sense for the mining industry and is being pursued by Rio Tinto and BHP along with other larger miners, as outlined at Austmine 2017.
“However, it needs to be adopted on a wider scale by miners of all sizes with a number of speakers saying it is in this area that mining is weakest.
“Techenomics is moving along this path and in the future aims to integrate real time data with its oil analysis to create better predictive models and better understand the operating characteristics of the various compartments within engines and equipment,” he says.
During Austmine 2017 PETRA Data Science managing director Dr Penny Stewart said data driven technologies, including engineered data science, would continue radically transforming how mines operate for decades to come.
“What happens is our algorithms are put into the system, the algorithm analyses the ‘Internet of things’ data coming out of the machinery and uses it to predict down time in real-time.
“In the case of digital transformation, diversity is most powerful when we develop transdisciplinary teams who think and act beyond traditional silos of domain expertise,” she said, adding that it would be a vital skill for miners across the entire resource extraction process.
Dr Stewart said machine learning and big data could bring many improvements to the industry and it would be increasingly necessary for miners to upskill into data science. “Those with deep industry experience will be best positioned to capitalise on these opportunities.”
Other speakers on the subject included Schneider Electric VP, Software – Industry Solutions Doug Warren who said that the digitisation of procedures and maintenance activities enabled operators to look for inflection points and predict maintenance.
GE Mining’s Principal Account Manager Ian Larsen said better use of data would enable miners to make fast, informed decisions and provide the opportunity to optimise entire operations. “The future of mining is digital. With data and analytics, we can achieve greater levels of productivity, operational efficiencies and improve safety.
Chris Adsett says data analysis plays a major part in the services provided by Techenomics and the company is always seeking ways to gather more data and improve the interpretation of data to provide customers with better performance from their oil and other lubricants.
“As an independent provider, the analysis and interpretation of data is always done for the customer’s benefit.” This is in line with a statement at Austmine 2017 by Snowden CEO John Hearne, who said, “It is the customer’s data and does not belong to the OEM or the supplier.”
For more information about Techenomics contact: Chris Adsett, c.adsett@techenomics.com; in Indonesia Teguh, teguh@techenomics.com; in Singapore Siti, siti@techenomics.com; in Mongolia Sugraa, sugraa@techenomics.com; or in Australia Leo Valenz, leo.valenz@techenomics.com