News

Enabling the mine of the future

Maestro Digital Mines cofounder and vice-president of marketing and sales Michael Gribbons isn’t above playing barista at the espresso station at the company’s Lively, Ont., office during a visit by CMJ.

In fact, Gribbons not only makes a mean latte, but he also grabs a mop and bucket to clean up a spill made by a colleague in the kitchen.

His attitude seems to sum up nicely the way things work at Maestro, a fast-growing, roll-up-your-sleeves type of company.

With products now in over 125 mines around the world since the company’s inception in 2011, Maestro runs lean, with fewer than 25 employees.

Maestro’s initial offering in the underground mining space was its Vigilante AQS air monitoring solution. Now, its product range includes real-time air quality monitoring, fan and dust monitoring equipment, and also extends into communications solutions that are essential to the digitalization of underground mining.

Read more of the article in Canadian Mining Journal Magzine here.

The Fortin Discovery Lab, which opened November 5, 2014, is the brainchild of Tom Fortin, founder of Ontrak Control Systems.

Located in the NORCAT Innovation Mill in Sudbury, the goal of the centre is to develop entrepreneurial talent. Thanks to a FedNor contribution of $400,000, the lab features 3-D printers, as well as equipment for computer numerical controlled mold making, laser micromachining and electromagnetic compatibility certification. With its state-of-the-art tools, the Discovery Lab helps engineers and technologists transform concepts into certified products ready for export anywhere in the world.

Frustrated that so many products are being manufactured overseas, Fortin created the lab to help people acquire the skills needed to create a strong, innovative manufacturing sector here in Northern Ontario. In addition, by helping people design and produce their own products, it supports regional job and wealth creation.

Read more of the article in the Fednor section of the Government of Canada website here.

Sudbury mining panelists discuss how to recruit, retain employees in the digital age.

It is going to take imagination, better communications and some good listening skills for the mining industry to attract and retain enough workers skilled in data-driven and digital technology.

Those were some of the comments during a recent panel discussion held in Sudbury at the annual general meeting of SAMSSA (Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Service Association).

SAMSSA Panel Overview

“Were as”… Collaboration is vital to advancing the Mining Industry,  is often one of the most challenging to accomplish and can be riddled with barriers to success. “Be it resolved” to better understand, what does it take to overcome these challenges and what actions, processes and people can break through the complexities of collaborating with others? We are going to dive into tangible technology solutions use cases, lessons learned, and takeaways from the very people and groups working to bridge the collaboration gap, thus putting mining on the leading edge of technology and innovation.

Photo taken by Len Gillis.

From Left to right: Roy Slack, President of the CIM Association; Shayne Wisniewski, General Manager of Mining Projects, Glencore’s Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations; Michael Gribbons, Co-Founder and VP of Sales and Marketing, Maestro Digital Mine; Lynn Iturregui, Project Management – Mining, Hatch; and moderated by Shannon Katary, Maestro Digital Mine.

Read more of the article in the Northern Ontario Business website here.

The Vigilante AQS™ and the Zephyr AQS™ are both used to monitor the environmental conditions underground.

The Vigilante AQS™ Air Quality Station provides the ultimate system with up to eight different real-time sensors, advanced diagnostics and control functions. The Zephyr AQS™ Air Quality Station is a lower cost system that uses the same reliable sensors and advanced diagnostics but with only three different real-time sensors on-board.  It was determined that the Zephyr AQS™ will handle approximately 75% of our current applications at a lower cost. Both systems plug directly into a network switch thereby eliminating the requirement of expensive and complex PLCs (programmable logic controllers).  By doing so, this eliminates upwards to 50-80% of the CAPEX requirements.

Maestro continues to develop products that are fully open and agnostic using industry standard communication protocols like Modbus TCP/IP and EtherNet/IP.

Read More on this Maestro article on page 128-129 of the PotashWorks 2020 Publication. 

Click here for PDF version of article.

Maestro Digital Mine is hosting an Industry-led Panel Discussion on:

Communication Infrastructure: Building the Digital Highway to Connectivity Underground

Monday, March 2 | 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm

PDAC Conference, Northern Ontario Mining Showcase Pavilion #6501N, North Building, MTCC, Toronto, ON

Join Panelists from mining companies – Newmont, Trevali, Yamana Gold and Vale – leading the Digital Transformation to discuss and debate underground communications infrastructure (LTE, Wi-Fi, leaky feeder and fiber-optic networks). (Stay tuned for more information on our panelists.)

This panel will be moderated by the host of TVO’s The Agenda, Steve Paikin.

The panelists are:

• Matthew Curtis, Senior Technology Manager, Newmont
• Derek du Preez, Chief Technology Officer, Trevali
• Chris Burgess, Director Innovation & Transformation, Yamana Gold
• Anthony Downs, Digital Leader, Vale

Discuss the applications that are driving the need for connectivity to improve production, reduce costs and enable worker safety. Determine what technology solutions are best suited for what specific challenge underground. Bridging the gap between OT and IT to better integrate technology in operating mines. Break through the unknowns about connectivity underground.

Arrive early, seating is limited. All are welcome.

Visit the Maestro booth in the NOMS pavilion Booth 75 to learn about our Plexus PowerNet - last mile communications network solution that helps to enable the digital mine.