Reducing our carbon footprint to mitigate the impact of climate change, as outlined in international treaties like the Paris Agreement and accelerating the journey to the all-electric mine is a business priority for many mining companies and their customers. This is an important focus in South Africa where mining continues to be a mainstay of the economy and a major employer.
There are three major trends fundamentally transforming the mining industry into what can be termed ‘climate-smart’ mining. Firstly, there is the shift from diesel to electrification as a main power source. Secondly, digitalisation not only increases productivity, but allows for ease of maintenance. Thirdly, customers can reduce their total cost of ownership by standardising on high-efficiency motors and drives. This means that assets are deployed optimally in a sustainable manner that reduces the overall environmental impact.
Of course, it is not exactly certain how all of these trends are likely to play out over the next five to 15 years. What we do know, however, is that the future is invariably shaped by the innovations of today, which are transformed into the advances of tomorrow. Every company that operates in or serves the mining sector can participate in shaping this future – and can begin to have an immediate impact. Let us all join forces as we co-develop and collaborate to set these new ‘smart’ standards for mining.
Automating operations for optimised productivity
The switch to remote services accelerated in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This also resulted in a more rapid uptake of Industry 4.0 solutions in the mining industry in terms of automating operations for optimised productivity, reducing equipment downtime and costs, carrying out predictive rather than preventative maintenance and enhancing safety for mine personnel so as to introduce a ‘zero harm’ culture.
Connected mines will result in a wealth of digitalised data from equipment, assets and applications. By the time this data reaches operators, it will already have been analysed and can be accessed easily and interacted with on any number of smart devices. Such a connected process results in rapid, smart and informed decision-making that will have a major impact on the bottom line.
Mining is one of the key industries where our drives, motors, generators, mechanical power transmission products and integrated digital powertrain solutions stand to play a major role in ushering in this new connected era. It is an example of the role we as a global innovator play in transforming both society and industry to achieve a more productive and sustainable future for all. Therefore, I am very excited to join ABB Southern Africa as Local Business Area Manager in its Motion business unit.
Assisting major South African industries such as mining to adopt the latest technology on the country’s path towards energy efficiency, reduced emissions and ultimately, carbon neutrality is my main goal in my new position. This has been an important focus for me throughout my career in Spain and Mexico. As we all know, South Africa faces power constraints, coupled with lagging economic growth and development. Here I also see electrification and automation and power and water as critical business development areas for us as a business.
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