This presentation was prepared for the SME 2018 Annual Conference & Expo held in Minneapolis, MN, February 25-28, 2018.

See presentation: 2018_02_28 SME Presentation.

Abstract

Four decades ago, the deployment of the first computerised fleet management systems in open pit mines led to a transformation in the management of mining operations. The enabling technologies underlying such systems have advanced radically, and dropped dramatically in terms of cost, however the capabilities of the resulting systems have only increased marginally, and they still tend to be limited to larger mines.
This paper outlines a novel technological paradigm for mine operations management based on adoption of nonproprietary Open Systems Architectures, and use of Commercial Off The Shelf elements, for both hardware and software. This paradigm lowers unit costs for deployed hardware and software by up to two orders of magnitude, minimises the need for technical expertise at mine sites, and transfers data analytics to the cloud. It makes the adoption of mine operations management systems feasible for a much wider range of mine sites, including small and medium sized operations, enabling the development of a highly competitive global marketplace in customised data analytics with the potential for significant enhancements in reporting and analysis capabilities, at reduced cost.