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Written by Shannon Katary, Director of Marketing and Communications, Maestro Digital Mine

As mines continue to go deeper underground and embrace new digital technologies, the primary goal is to ensure the safety of the underground miners.

Maestro Digital Mine manufacturers Internet of Things (IoT) measurement and control instrumentation for the optimization of underground mine ventilation and underground digital networks for last mile of communication.

Maestro designs and manufactures products exclusively for the underground mine automation, IT and ventilation sector that delivers energy savings and productivity improvements while meeting the highest health and safety standards.

Read more of the Canadian Mining article here.

Advances in smart controls, sensors and IoT-enabled devices are providing new tools for miners tackling the ever-increasing challenge of ventilating their underground operations.

Ventilation systems are the largest consumers of power in underground mines, accounting for upward of 50% of energy use. Saving on energy costs and ensuring personnel receive clean air where and when they need it is now a business imperative for mine operators, who are employing a new generation of smart digital technologies to monitor and optimize ventilation systems and ensure a safe working environment.

While digital tools are relatively new to the mining industry, the key components of mine ventilation systems have not changed signifi cantly in the past 20-30 years, and their primary role remains unchanged: to remove build-up of harmful gases and contaminants from underground workings, and to provide and circulate a source of clean, breathable air to miners working deep underground.

Read more of the article in E&MJ here.

Ventilation systems have become a lot more elaborate in the last few decades, providing monitoring, cooling and automated functions to allow for optimal clean air distribution.

As battery-electric vehicles and machine automation start to impact the underground environment, Dan Gleeson spoke to several of the major solution providers to find out how they are reacting to this evolution.

The need to go deeper in search of ore is causing mining companies to reconsider the use of innovative and digitallyenhanced technologies to look for profitable ways to develop new mining horizons. With increasing depth comes increasing complexity, whether that is water ingress, heat, or exposure to harmful gases. This makes having a robust, efficient and cost effective ventilation system integral.

The ability to electrify underground mining equipment on a large scale has helped alleviate some of the cost and energy pressure put on miners plunging deeper underground. For instance, the use of electric vehicles at Glencore’s Onaping Depth project, in Sudbury, Canada, which is set to reach 2,600 m below surface, is expected to reduce its energy usage by 44% for ventilation systems and by 30% for cooling equipment, compared with an equivalent diesel-fuelled operation.

Read more of the article in International Mining Magazine here (PDF).

The concept of Enabling the Digital Mine is founded on the use of critical data to increase production, reduce costs and enhance worker safety.

Most often, underground mines choose fibre optic cable as the means to extend connectivity from each level out to the working areas. in addition, a separate cable run is required to power the wireless access points, cameras and other end-point devices.

Fibre presents several challenges to the underground mining industry; for instance, terminating fibre underground is difficult, time-consuming and requires expensive specialized training, which is frequently the biggest contributing factor limiting the advance of connectivity. These types of delays inhibit the agility and pace needed to enable the digital mine and bring communications to the mine face.

Identifying the mining industry’s rising demand for real time data, Maestro Digital Mine works with mining companies around the world, such as Newmont Goldcorp. to address the challenges associated with traditional communication backbone solutions (broadband and fibre).

Read more of the article in Global Mining Review here (PDF).

LTE private networks are booming in mining now both surface and underground, driven by the greater demands of multiple applications and the speed of automation implementation meaning WiFi cannot always deliver, reports Paul Moore.

On 66 page: Maestro Plexus at Borden

Identifying the mining industry’s rising demand for real-time data, Maestro Digital Mine works with mining companies around the world, such as Newmont Goldcorp, to address the challenges associated with traditional communication backbone solutions (broadband and fibre).Newmont Goldcorp’s Borden Mine became one of the first mines to integrate Maestro Digital Mine’s Plexus PowerNet™, which it says addresses the challenges associated with extending fibre optic-based communication backbone solutions for “last mile” data applications. Newmont Goldcorp’s Borden Mine is located in Northern Canada, 11 km northeast of Chapleau, Ontario.

Read more of the article in International Mining Magazine here (PDF).

Please follow this link to the latest issue https://im-mining.com/