Growing emphasis on sustainability presents opportunities for companies to lead in developing green technologies and practices.

Tarique Salman
Segment Manager – Specialty Excavation, Vermeer India

How do you see the mining industry evolving in the next 5 years?

The mining industry is expected to evolve in the next five years through the integration of new technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), digital twinning, and automation. These technologies are expected to improve safety, efficiency, and sustainability. This has created a demand for technologies such as industrial automation and control systems, simulator-training, equipment control and guidance, advanced mine-surveying technologies, underground mining and surface drilling technologies, and machine guidance and control systems, which are compatible with enterprise resource planning software solutions.

A trend in mining technology has also been towards addressing the concerns of climate change and hence, reducing carbon footprints. The usage of more energy efficient equipment and reduction in fuel consumption are attempts in the right direction towards achieving reduced carbon footprints. The industry is increasingly seeking to develop solutions capable of electrifying mining equipment to eliminate diesel from its power source mix, therefore reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Internet of Things (IoT), an emerging network technology, can potentially transform the mining industry by creating new ways of maintaining mine safety and productivity. The convergence of IoT and advanced data analytics help in corroborating predictive maintenance, operational optimization, high equipment efficiency. People are looking for solutions which enables them to get Real time data for Decision-making and improving the efficiency of work.

What are the primary challenges facing the mining equipment industry today?

As the mining industry continues to emerge out of a downturn, procurement and supply remains a critical part of mining business’ ability to succeed and remain profitable.

Lack of visibility of supply chains is one of the major procurement challenges. Visibility across the supply chain is an important tool for meeting regulatory requirements and mitigating risk.

Use of software to trace solutions provide visibility over the entire supply chain. Supply chain management can be easily updated in real-time. Workflows are added automatically of urgent reorders and contingencies for critical shortages. Successful supplier contracts are created with legally-reviewed boilerplate clauses, reviewed and approved easily.

Maximizing savings through procurement has always been important in the mining industry. As the sector continues to come out of a down-turn, many companies are now looking for new and more effective ways to cut costs even further to improve operational efficiency in an unstable market. The automation of procurement processes, which is deemed as a big cost saver due to its ability to overhaul traditional way of managing supplier contracts and processes, is a more efficient way to improve governance, visibility and control over contracts in real time.

What advancements in mining equipment technology are you currently focusing on? How are digitalization and automation transforming mining operations?

Growing emphasis on sustainability presents opportunities for companies to lead in developing green technologies and practices. The future will likely see more advanced AI applications in predictive maintenance, operational efficiency, and safety. Companies are preparing by investing in these technologies and integrating them into their equipment.

Vermeer machine comes with intelligent technology, SmartTEC© electronic control system, which helps maximize machine performance, allowing operators to adjust machine controls where needed, as well as monitoring and recording machine performance.

As the push for sustainability grows, further advancements in electrification of mining equipment are expected. Vermeer already has an electric engine option for one of its products and is likely to develop the same for most of its product range.

How is your company addressing sustainability and environmental compliance in equipment design and operations?

The latest evolution of Vermeer’s Terrain Leveler range, T1255SSDD (Single-Side Direct Drive) continuous surface miner, has been developed to meet the unique needs civil, quarry and mining industries. The machine is ideal for hard rock excavation, road building and tunnelling applications to increase productivity and reduce overhead costs. The equipment offers reduced fuel consumption, emissions and labor costs when compared to conventional methods.

In addition to being safe and efficient, Vermeer surface miners are helping miners create better sustainability practices. Major environmental concerns are the noise levels, air quality, traffic congestion and the impact a major construction or mining project would have on the neighborhood. Traditional excavation methods like rock breakers, excavators, as well as drilling and blasting methods, could create too much disturbance to surrounding ecosystem, hence one must utilize innovative equipment for excavation.

The Vermeer Terrain Leveler SEM can be the right machine for these jobs as it is a precision rock excavating machine that is much quieter and produces less vibration than other methods.

On many mine sites, dust is a challenge due to urban encroachment and air quality concerns. The dust suppression system on the Vermeer Terrain Leveler SEM features an enclosed cutting head with two large vacuums pulling dust from the enclosed cutting head into baghouses. The collected dust is dropped beneath the machine, helping to reduce the amount of dust entering the air. This also diminishes the need to source water to control dust during the mining process.

A trend in mining technology has also been towards addressing the concerns of climate change and hence, reducing carbon footprints. The usage of more energy efficient equipment and reduction in fuel consumption are attempts in the right direction towards achieving reduced carbon footprints. Vermeer Terrain Leveler® Surface Excavation Machines are designed to deliver more power availability per kW and thus being fuel efficient.

These attributes, along with the reduction of the dust and vibration created by explosives makes surface excavation equipment more sustainable and environmentally friendly than drilling and blasting.