MINING OPPORTUNITIES: A QUANTUM LEAP

Increasing industrialization and rising urban population globally are leading to a surge in the need for natural resources, including oil and minerals. As a result, the global mining industry is expanding, which in turn, is driving the demand prospects in the mining equipment market.

Players operating in the global mining equipment market are increasing their production capabilities in order to fulfill rising demand for different equipment such as crushers, mining drills & breakers, screening equipment, surface mining tools, and mineral processing equipment.

Equipment Times finds the market outlook, demand drivers, technological trends, key maintenance practices and challenges.

The adoption of robotics and autonomous technology is creating opportunities for the market players. The robotic technology is witnessing high acceptance in the industry with increasing complexities in mining operations. The growing demand for several resources, such as iron, gold, silver, and aluminum, is speeding up extraction activities. Robotics solutions help extraction activities to be performed in comparatively less time and effort. Mining companies are utilizing the driverless truck that allows operators to control mining processes from remote locations.

High emphasis of automobile manufacturers on electrification of vehicles is propelling the demand for mining equipment. Mining industry participants are focusing on acquiring mineral mines, such as nickel, lithium, and cobalt, to support the manufacturing of batteries.

The major factor challenging the mining equipment market growth is the high cost of mining equipment. The advancements in technology, higher fuel prices, modern parts, and new machinery have elevated the costs of these equipment. The rising costs of the modernized mining machines have posed a critical challenge in developing nations as they cannot afford such high initial investments, resulting in lower productivity and yield. The equipment manufacturers are offering flexible financing and loan facility to these companies to operate their businesses successfully.

Underground mining equipment…

Catalyzed by stable economic growth across both developed and developing regions, increasing levels of disposable incomes and a rise in the middle-class population, there has been a strong growth in the demand of various minerals such as iron, gold, copper, coal, lead, aluminum, silver, etc. This has catalyzed a rising demand for underground mining equipment. Moreover, the substantial rise in the consumption of energy in the form of coal and nuclear fuels as a result of increasing urbanization and industrialization is also creating a positive impact on the demand of underground mining equipment. Additionally, underground mining causes minimum harm to the environment as compared to surface mining. With explosions being made underground, no toxic gases are released in the surroundings. Other factors that are currently driving this market include – lack of manual labor and its rising costs, increasing focus on improving the yield and productivity, enhanced use of high-quality equipment in mining, etc.

Technological advancement…

Several mining equipment manufacturers are focusing on improving the safety of products in order to help in prevention and reduction of health hazards and accidents, owing to mining activities. The use of technological advancements in latest mining equipment is resulting into advanced safety of workforces at mining locations. The factor is boosting the growth in the global mining equipment.

Companies engaged in the mining activities are increasing the use of technological advancements such as machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) in mining processes. This factor is resulting into increased opportunities for players in the mining equipment market. Moreover, the market is being driven by increased penetration of the Internet of Things (IoT) and rise in the acceptance of digitalization and automation in the mining industry.

Smart and efficient mining equipment are being increasingly adopted by end users, owing to several advantages such as the ability of these equipment to offer safety to the workforce at distant locations. This factor is contributing to the growth of the global mining equipment market.

Industry bigwigs speak…

Due to rise in awareness pertaining to environmental issues, the demand for environmental-friendly mining tools has increased. Hence, manufacturers are focusing on catering to the current market demand.

M.V. Rajasekhar, Director (Mining& Construction) – BEML, said, “The current market requirement for mining equipment is encouraging; the demand for power is ever increasing due to various development activities in the country. Coal India Limited the major producer of Coal in India plans to achieve 1 Billion Tonnes of Coal target by 2023-24. In addition to above, the Government infrastructure development plans further driving the demand for Iron and Steel, Cement, Copper and Aluminum sectors; which in turn is driving the demand for mining equipment.”

Commenting on which equipment are the demand drivers in the mining sector and how geared up is the company to meet this demand surge, Ramesh Palagiri – Managing Director & CEO – Wirtgen India, said, “Wirtgen is global market leader in the manufacturing of machines for cutting rock in open cast mining operations. WIRTGEN Surface Miners cut primary resources such as coal, gypsum, iron ore, salt, phosphate, bauxite, limestone or granite, achieving high degrees of purity in the process. They are increasingly used as primary extraction equipment also in newly opened-up opencast mines or extensions of existing opencast mine operations. Wirtgen has varied range of Surface Miners based on the applications and cutting depth- 220 SM, 220 SM 3.8, 260 SX, 280 SM and 4200 SM.”

Explaining the latest technological trends in the range of mining equipment, Palagiri said, “Wirtgen is the market leader in surface mining, offering a technically mature product portfolio for opencast mining which has been tried and tested in operations around the globe. The Surface Miners from Wirtgen cover the full performance range in mining, earthworks and rock construction to up to 15 million tonnes of mining material per machine per year- this is truly unique! Wirtgen surface miners offer cutting widths ranging from 2.20 m to 4.20 m and cutting depths of between 20 cm and 83 cm. Wirtgen is the only manufacturer covering a scope of performance ranging up to 3,000 tonnes per hour with direct loading by conveyor belt. Wirtgen Surface Miners are innovative machines of the highest quality. Along with the machine technology, it also constantly endeavours to keep environmental pollution as low as possible as it cuts, crushes and loads rock in a single operation. A tremendous advantage of selective mining is that the vibration-less mining operation without drilling and blasting is accompanied by low levels of dust and noise. The low environmental impact also permits maximum exploitation of the deposit right up to the edge of residential areas. The selective mining of high-quality materials requires considerably less space than conventional mining methods. The fuel-efficient, intelligently controlled engines comply with the strictest exhaust emission standards.”

V Senthilkumar – Managing Director, Propel Industries, said, “Dumpers followed by Crushing equipment will be the demand drivers in the mining sector. The market for Mobile track plants is growing at a high pace. Propel is gearing up to meet the demand surge by constantly assessing customer needs and innovating and upgrading our equipment to meet the evolving needs of the market. Electrical track plants, world’s first four-deck track screen, Horizontal Shaft Impactor (HSI), 600TPH gyratory cone crusher, sand washing equipment are some of Propel’s recent launches. Propel M-sand plants are highly regarded in the industry for the excellent quality and outstanding production they guarantee.”

Partha Mookherjee, Head- Mining Equipment Business, L&T, said, “Generally, for opencast mines, Dump Trucks constitute around two-thirds of the total fleet of mining equipment. Within the Dump Truck space, 100 Ton and 60 Ton Dump Trucks are the most prominent sizes, preferred in Indian Mining Sector. Komatsu manufactures both these class of Dump Trucks at its state-of-the-art manufacturing facility near Chennai. This manufacturing facility primarily caters to Indian requirement and it demonstrates Komatsu’s commitment to India’s increasing demand for quality Mining Equipment.

Other prominent equipment used in opencast mines are the loading tools (Hydraulic Equipment, Wheel Loader etc) and support equipment (Dozer, Motor Grader etc). Such requirements are duly supplied from Komatsu’s overseas manufacturing units located at Japan, Germany etc. India is a focus country for Komatsu and it is fully committed to serve its increasing demand for Mining Equipment.”

Hemant Mathur – AVP Sales and Marketing, Tata Hitachi Construction Machinery Company, said, “We are primarily dealing in hydraulic excavators, the utilisation of which is one of the ways to determine the level of overall mining activity in India. Given the earlier mentioned drivers of mining activity in India, Tata Hitachi is well equipped to meet the growing demands of the mining sector for a range of equipment – across capacities and applications. For open cast mines we offer excavators, dumpers and wheel loaders. Here, for machines made in India for mining, the bucket sizes range from 3.1 CuM, up to the largest excavator we make with a 6.5 Cum bucket. We also manufacture 35-tonne dumpers, and wheel loaders of capacities up to 3 tonnes in India. Being a JV company of Hitachi Construction Machinery (HCM), Japan, we can also have access to products manufactured by HCM in Japan and elsewhere, which includes excavators of up to 45 CuM bucket capacity, and several models of wheel loaders and dumpers of higher sizes.”

Sharad Thussu, Head- Mining & Construction Equipment Division at Voltas, said, “At Voltas MCED Mining Machinery Solutions, we provide a global distribution platform for a diverse range of auxiliary items for Earth Moving Mining Machineries from our Indian and international partners. This allows us to address our customers’ maintenance demands in a cost-effective and timely manner. We have created a proven track record in providing a one-stop solution for any OE / OPM components suitable to Earth Moving Mining Machineries over time. We provide Voltas branded solutions as well as products and solutions from well-known global competitors in our auxiliary product industry. Under the ‘Make in India’ initiative, Voltas also supplies excellent products from MSMEs.”

Commenting on the Indian Tipper / HD Truck market, Jalaj Gupta, Business Head – Commercial Vehicles, Mahindra & Mahindra, said, “The India Tipper and HD truck market is thriving on the back of increasing opportunities generated by the rising coal and mineral mining in the country due to commodity demand cycle improvement and the bounce back of economy after the downfall due to Covid-19 pandemic. There was hangover on demand due to change in Bharat Stage (BS) Norms, from Apr’20 India became BS6 compliant country. In FY’21 total Heavy Commercial Vehicle industry volume stood around 87,000 Units and it de-grew by 21% wrt FY’20. However, tipper industry volume grew by 1% to touch around 40,000 units.”

Piero Guizzetti, CEO, MB Crusher India, said, “Medium term we believe that remote operations and automation will become increasingly important in the crushing space. The capability to remotely optimise production according to fluctuating demand can be a major profit driver for contractors. Mobility will become increasingly important, so we feel we are very well positioned to cater to this shift in contractor’s value map. Specific to mining, we see greater compatibility across products, brands and components within a process line. Contractors are more willing to evaluate new configurations that may help them meet their specific requirements.”

Prasanta Ganguly, Head – OTR Marketing (Domestic Sales), Balkrishna Industries, says, “BKT is an agile company dedicated to diversification and product development. We are constantly transforming the OTR industry and upping its benchmark. We use state-of-the-art technology to produce strong and trailblazing tires. We are augmenting our R&D facilities to ensure the most futuristic technology and support rapid expansion. BKT’s radial tires combine the best of modernization and automation, offering superior technology to transform the mining sectors, and we are committed to ground-breaking steel radial tires. BKT recently undertook an estimated capacity expansion of Rs 450 crore, which will focus on technological up-gradation of existing equipment and installation of automated material-handling systems. We combine the best of modernization, technology, automation, and use superior quality raw materials. Our brown field tire project, set to be complete in FY 2023 at Bhuj, will lead to an increase in our tire-production capacity by 50,000 MTPA to meet the growing market demand.”

According to Praveen Sharma, Chief Operating Officer (COO) Mines, Hindustan Zinc, “Safety and Sustainability has always been the focus of our organization. In recent times Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) have become the prime focus of all organizations irrespective of their core domain. This is in line with changing times and more importantly, investors are increasingly becoming climate conscious. Investors nowadays are inclined to invest in companies with sustainable ESG goals and a good track record in delivering the same.

At Hindustan Zinc, ESG is part of everything we do. We are always conscious and contribute to social value creation to make a positive difference. We understand that as the world’s 2nd largest zinc-lead miner, it becomes our responsibility to address climate change and reduce carbon footprint at our level by investing in the latest technologies, benchmarking global practices and bringing in experts to realize carbon neutrality.”

He further added, “When it comes to mining, both open pit, and underground, most of the companies deploy diesel operated HEMM with the best of Tier 2 and Tier 3 engines to reduce emissions and have now started looking at more sustainable options. In line with our emission reduction Sustainability Development Goals 2025, we are introducing Battery Electric Vehicles in underground mining. Hindustan Zinc has signed the MoU with Epiroc and Normet and has become pioneers in bringing this technology to India. Even though it is still a nascent technology, it comes with advantages of zero-emission in the operating environments, considerable noise and vibration reduction associated with equipment. Since it uses batteries, we have plans to eliminate the fossil element by ramping up our solar farm infrastructure and utilizing their output by sending them via cables to underground charging stations.”

In addition to that, BEVs entering the market nowadays comes with high-efficiency driveline and consumes less kWh/ km compared to diesel ones. Furthermore, we are in the process of improving the operational process with the MMI solution that features situational awareness, short interval control including machine data integrations and traffic awareness promises to keep our energy consumption further down, Sharma said.

“I believe it is the right time for all big and small industries in India to take baby steps if not huge, in this transition and do their bit to make India the Net Zero economy by 2070. Together, we can work towards the vision to create a better, greener, and more sustainable world by making positive contributions that can have multiplier effects.”

Mining is one of the key sectors which contributes immensely for infrastructure and helps develop economies. Speaking about the current market for mining equipment in India, Suman Nair, Vice President, Plant & Equipment – BGR Mining & Infra, states, “Current market for mining equipment is huge. It will get further increased by about 10% every year for next 10 years. Thereafter, it will start tapering down due to current Indian government as well of global policy of reducing / eliminating use of fossil fuel by next 30 years. Any reduction / elimination of use of fossil fuel will adversely affect coal mining industries which currently contribute to almost half the mining industries. Other mining industries like Iron Ore, Aluminum, Copper, Zinc, Cement (limestone) etc. will get increased as, for making alternate energy – mainly solar powered, windmills etc. demand for metals like steel, copper, aluminum etc. will get increased. This will increase mining activities in those sector and requirements of mining equipments in those sectors will get increased. However, total mining activities will get reduced by almost 25 % and thereby demand of mining equipments will get reduced proportionately. Opencast Mining Equipments like 200T +Dumpers, Excavators of Plus 14 Cu.Mtrs, huge Dozers, wide bladed Motor Graders etc. will continue to be the demand drivers. In addition, demand for underground mining equipments also will get increased as environmental awareness in the mining industries has increased and hence, they may go for more of underground mining work. Almost all concerned in mining industries are aware of this and are well prepared to meet this future trend.”

Nair says that Electric Driven, Electronic Controlled Mining equipments will be the future. AI-assisted driverless equipments also will dominate the near future in mining industries.

Commenting on the key maintenance practices to be followed for the upkeep of mining equipment, Nair further said, “Timely maintenance, use of quality parts, use of lubes of recommended quality, keeping vigil for any likelihood of sudden breakdown will make the equipment healthy.”

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Govt plans new tech, digital infrastructure to support domestic coal mines operations

It can have a number of impacts on mining operations, including safety and productivity, environmental protection, and opportunities for women.

The government plans to implement new technologies and build digital infrastructure to support current and future coal mines operations, a move that would reduce the country’s dependency on imports.

“The objective is to implement new technologies and build digital infrastructure to support current and future ramp-up for the mines,” according to the government’s draft technology road map for the coal sector.

This involves a strong, multi-speed backbone information technology and infrastructure system that allows rapid deployment of new technologies. “Creation of such system would require access to new-age ecosystems ( such as start-ups, established vendors and research institutes). The technological transformation will also entail the creation of a new culture in the organisation,” it said.

“To reduce the dependency on imports, it is critical for Coal India Ltd (CIL) to reach the one billion tonnes (BT) target, thereby embarking on a technological transformation journey,” it said.

New technologies can have a number of impacts on mining operations, including safety and productivity, environmental protection, and opportunities for women.

A robust tracking and change management mechanism will be deployed to ensure timely resolution and delivery.

India had a total coal reserve of 344.02 billion tonnes. Commercial primary energy consumption in India has seen a rise of 700 per cent in the past four decades. Major factors for the increase in demand for energy are expanding economy, rising population and the improvement of quality of life.

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Coal India has enough stock for non-power sector, ministry says

Coal India Ltd. has sufficient stock to boost supply to the country’s non-power sector, the government said in a statement Saturday, assuaging fears of any shortage given rising demand for electricity from domestic producers.

As the economy recovers from the pandemic, the company’s despatch to the non-power sector during the April to January period was at 101.7 million tonnes (MTs) — down 3% from a year earlier. It was, however, up 8.2% compared to the corresponding period of a Covid-free financial year to March 2020.

“CIL has sufficient buffer stock to further increase supply to the non-power sector,” the government said, adding that unusually high international coal prices had proved to be a hindrance for importing the requisite quantity leading to scarcity of coal.

Some Indian power producers had sought to secure coal imports after supply disruptions and rising demand for coal left India grappling with shortages last year.

The current financial year to March 2022 has witnessed an unprecedented surge in power generation, with the growth rate being the highest in a decade, the government said. That necessitated the need to meet the power sector’s coal demand on a national priority.

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