Unlocking Mill Efficiency: Leveraging AI Insights for Enhanced Mining Benefits

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In today's mining landscape, addressing decarbonization, operational optimization, and sustainability requires a robust and innovative approach. How can these challenges be tackled?

Comprehensive digital transformation solutions integrating energy management, automation, and data intelligence across the value chain can help miners overcome challenges.

Mine-to-Mill Optimization for Multi-Pronged Benefits

A Mine-to-Mill optimization strategy is critical for improving mining operations in several key areas. By integrating cutting-edge technologies mining operations can unlock the following:

1. Higher productivity through real-time data integration and predictive analytics, ensuring more precise control over production processes.
2. Reduction in costs per tonne through improved efficiency, including energy savings and optimized ore processing.
3. Process water optimization and decarbonization by reducing energy waste and improving overall operational sustainability.

High-Energy Blasting and Real-Time Data Integration

Comminution remains one of the most energy-intensive processes in mineral extraction, accounting for up to 70% of total mine processing costs. Combining energy management technology with the digital twin and real-time monitoring capabilities, the potential to reduce these costs is significant. Through high-energy blasting, mines can break rocks more efficiently and with fewer downstream impacts, aligning with the right emphasis on energy efficiency but from the perspective of blast consumables.

The combination of integrated data platforms with automation enables mining operations to track material flow more accurately after the blast, improving mill productivity and enhancing decision-making based on ore properties. Blast efficiency leading to achieving grade and hardness at the best possible overall (energy and water) efficiency is a good example.

Enhancing Sustainability with AI-Powered Insights

A key to achieving decarbonization and long-term sustainability across these water and energy parameters lies in utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).

Schneider Electric brings AI into EcoStruxure for Mining platform, which can be seamlessly integrated with AVEVA's software to provide additional predictive analytics, enhancing operational efficiency, and driving optimization. These insights are instrumental in ore sorting, enabling early removal of sub-economic waste material, which leads to better energy use and higher feed grade. When looking into the near future, strategic partnerships to achieve hauling or comminution efficiency and optimized stockpile management, are key.

Today, technology enables the seamless connection of block models, fleet management systems, and photogrammetry, generating real-time insights across the mining process. This holistic approach helps mining companies and the METS ecosystem implement sustainable best practices throughout their operations using a platforming approach combined with best of breed services approach.

Reducing Environmental Impact through Digital Transformation

Digital transformation in mining is not just about optimization-it's about sustainability.

Renewable energy solutions coupled with edge-to-cloud connectivity work together to enable mines to leverage renewable energy, monitor emissions in real time, and continuously assess their environmental footprint. These technologies help mining operations meet decarbonization targets while improving energy efficiency typically by 10-15% and throughput by 4-6% overall.

The Perfect Fit for a Sustainable Future

Schneider Electric and its software brand AVEVA, and a handful of AI-driven solution partners, are bringing the most advanced capabilities to the mining industry. For instance, our clients can now collaborate with these hand-picked selective partners to introduce AI technologies that enable deeper insights into hauling efficiency, tire management, and maintenance practices whilst reducing energy consumption, improving waste management, and overall production efficiency. By leveraging these AI partner solutions, mining companies can achieve a step change in a very short time across their wider value chain as Schneider-Electric and this ecosystem are exchanging all their data in an open system. This contrasts with so many of the traditional mining software companies which today are still relying on their own data models and specifics. On top of this openness, Schneider-Electric is openly sharing not just power quality like power factor but also Scope 1,2 and 3 data. This in turn helps the applications and roadmaps of the AI companies.

Through AVEVA Connect any other missing data along the value chain can be added for site and/or commodity-specific gains.

Case in Point: Practical Applications

Schneider Electric and AVEVA have demonstrated similar success in projects like a gold mine in the south-western Pacific, where their combined solutions helped the mine achieve energy savings and improved operational performance. Similar strategies can be adopted across mining sites globally, integrating AI, automation, and real-time data to deliver decarbonization and sustainability outcomes.

Conclusion

The combined strengths of Schneider Electric, AVEVA, and Connect offer a unique proposition for the mining industry and the entire supporting ecosystem from Design to Engineering, Processing, Maintenance, and Closure based on good data and specific electrical or operational (digital twin) software applied where appropriate.

Through Mine-to-Mill optimization, additional partners driving AI insights, and real-time monitoring, mining companies can achieve multi-pronged benefits faster, including enhanced productivity, cost reductions, and a significant step towards achieving decarbonization and sustainability.

Together, these technologies are transforming the mining landscape and ecosystem of players, ensuring data is more open and used making your site just more resilient, efficient, and environmentally responsible.

By leveraging these capabilities, the mining industry can confront the ESG and cost challenges of the immediate and medium term whilst ensuring long-term operational sustainability is met for future generations.

Want to learn more?

Read this Industry Perspectives by Schneider: Pathways to Sustainability in Mineral Processing

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