Rockwell Automation Introduces the Connected Mine

Rockwell Automation introduced The Connected Mine, a portfolio of enabling and digital technologies designed for mining applications.  The mining industry is being revived based on steady global economic growth and an increasing demand for materials to support new technologies, such as electric vehicles, renewable energy and mobile devices. The Connected Mine is designed to address major operational challenges in the mining industry, including process efficiencies, cost control, worker health and safety, and skills gaps. 

Utilizing advanced analytics, The Connected Mine helps mining companies collect and aggregate data to gain greater visibility into their operations and make more informed business decisions to help improve mining operations.

The Connected Mine can help to improve the following mining operations:

• Extraction: Connecting and automating mobile assets and mine infrastructure, such as mine machinery and ventilation, which helps to make the extraction process safer and more efficient.
• Process Management and Optimization: The Connected Mine is designed to automate, control and optimize mineral processes and metal refining operations, which helps to achieve greater throughput, enhanced recovery and better quality, which should help to reduce energy, water and reagent use.
• Material Handling: Smart machines, such as hoists, conveyors and stacker reclaimers, help to improve material handling by providing additional access to data that can be collected, logged and analyzed to help workers make better decisions.
• Mine Electrification: A digital electrical system helps to enable more seamless integration of power distribution, motor management, and process control, and captures information required for predictive maintenance and remote monitoring.
• Asset Performance: Machine learning and scalable applications that monitor the performance of critical assets and predict failures can help to reduce equipment downtime for applications ranging from individual devices to enterprise-wide processes.
• Worker Safety and Efficiency: Real-time mobility and augmented-reality tools deliver more timely and enhanced visibility to field workers, helping to ensure that the correct personnel have the required information when and where it is needed..
• Mine-to-Market Integration: An industry specific analytics platform provides greater visibility of the business, helping to remove information silos, connect disparate systems and applications, and provide information that helps users to make better business decisions.

Rockwell Automation has the combined experience in motor control, process, power and energy management, and information solutions to deliver industry specific solutions that addresses critical mining operational challenges.