E-Business
How Digital Solutions are Driving Cost Savings for the Mining Industry
By Kevin Shikoluk
Mining operations everywhere are experiencing constant profitability pressures from two directions: continued commodity pricing volatility and global demand variability. Africa-based miners are no exception.
These dynamics have caused mining companies to re-evaluate business models and seek smarter, more efficient modes of operation that focus on sustainable cost management practices and improved productivity.
The mining sector isn’t unique in this regard. Many of the world’s leading industries—manufacturing, oil and gas, healthcare, and others—have also recognised this need for change. While the exact improvements vary from industry to industry, the path to transformation is similar: an emphasis on improvements at both the asset and process levels through the application of leading-edge digital technologies across the Industrial Internet value chain.
By harnessing the combined power of machine sensors, edge-to-cloud connectivity, advanced data capture, and powerful analytics, the Industrial Internet can deliver deeper insight into mining operations than ever before.
These insights can then be used to drive intelligent recommendations for improvement—from asset lifecycle management to condition-based, prescriptive maintenance programs and strategies to optimize performance within the plant. This approach has already yielded breakthroughs in improved efficiency, increased asset availability, and optimised processes in many other industries and there’s a growing track record of success in mining.
Condition-based maintenance can help reduce total maintenance costs by guiding the timing of maintenance, avoiding over-maintenance when not needed, and triggering maintenance sooner than might have been scheduled, ultimately avoiding expensive repairs from a more serious failure.
Even switching to usage-based predictive maintenance can help lower maintenance costs by avoiding performing unneeded maintenance on idle or lightly-used assets.
The incremental cost to instrument a critical asset is dropping rapidly thanks to the introduction of digital solutions within the mining space. Asset Performance Management, for example, can make a significant impact by giving real time visibility and actionable insights around the data that is captured within the mining operation.
This data from smart connected devices allows for much more precise and focused service that not only increases asset availability, but also reduces overall maintenance costs.
The power of vertical integration
The real power of these connected technologies, however, is the leverage they provide when integrated vertically across the mine.
For example, Wabtec worked with a South African operator to deploy a collision awareness system on a contractor’s fleet at their above ground mining operation. This in itself is not unique as many companies across South Africa are doing the same in order to comply with safety legislation.
What’s unique in this case is that the customer is using other solutions within Wabtec’s Digital Mine portfolio to help solve another problem: ensuring consistent feed grade of ore into the concentrator.
In this particular case, downstream processing was impacted due to the varying ore grade quality. Leveraging solutions from our Collision Awareness portfolio as well as Operations Performance Management technologies help operators blend the ore to get a consistent feed grade into the concentrator downstream.
For miners, controlling these sources of variability is ultimately the key to improving throughput and metal recovery.
Vertically integrated digital solutions are only scratching the surface of what’s possible. As this example also shows, mining companies in South Africa are actively embracing these solutions, and in doing so, are at the forefront of transforming themselves into fully fledged digital mines.
Embracing transformation
To take full advantage of the promise of the Industrial Internet, mining companies must develop an overall strategy that includes a full assessment of the continuously evolving ecosystem of solutions that will help them reach their goals.
It can seem like a daunting prospect, but by working with knowledgeable and experienced partners, the digital transformation process can be manageable and affordable to deliver exponential cost saving and productivity benefits.
At Wabtec we’ve learned that in order to make the transition to a digital mine, operators require support in multiple capacities. One of the ways we’ve been successful in assisting mining operators is by leveraging robust monitoring capabilities around the globe to better understand their operations.
Working from high-tech hubs around the world, we can monitor customer operators’ assets and operations with sophisticated software. When the software flags anomalies that require action, we work with our mining customers to drive the required action.
We also monitor ongoing processes on behalf of customer operators. This means, for example, that Wabtec’s Digital Mine can make sure control loops are finely tuned to optimizing ore grade recovery as a collective mine site.
As a result, operators are able to advance from being completely reactive to being on the front foot of taking a proactive stance and defining how they want to work based on data-based decisions.
The change management aspects of this process should not be underestimated. But in our experience, it’s eminently achievable and ultimately rewarding.
Those in the mining industry who embrace this need for industrial transformation sooner will have a distinct advantage over competitors who choose to delay their journey to modernisation and digitisation.
Kevin Shikoluk is Global Strategic Product & Marketing Leader, Digital Mine at Wabtec Corporation
Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) has commenced a forensic investigation into the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Lotus Bank and Hackerbella Ltd over alleged violations of data protection laws involving students’ personal information.
The investigation follows public complaints alleging that students’ personal data were used to open bank accounts without a lawful basis.
Dr Vincent Olatunji, national commissioner and chief executive officer of the NDPC, directed the investigation team to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the circumstances surrounding the collection, processing, use and disclosure of the affected students’ personal data.
The investigation will also determine the respective roles and responsibilities of UNILAG, Lotus Bank and Hackerbella in the alleged processing of the data.
According to the Commission, the investigation will assess the data protection compliance obligations of the parties under the Nigeria Data Protection Act, 2023 (NDP Act), as well as potential risks posed to the rights and freedoms of the affected data subjects.
The NDPC said the probe would cover several areas, including Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs), the lawfulness and transparency of credit scoring or profiling activities, and the use of automated decision-making systems.
It will also examine the adequacy of privacy notices, data-sharing arrangements, lawful bases for processing, data minimisation and purpose limitation.
Other areas include data retention policies and the adequacy of technical and organisational measures put in place to safeguard the rights and personal data of affected students.
The Commission reiterated that institutions entrusted with the personal data of students, staff and other members of their communities have a heightened responsibility to ensure that such information is processed lawfully, fairly, transparently and securely.
The NDPC therefore warned educational institutions that are yet to comply with its existing data protection compliance directives to take immediate steps to achieve compliance.
The Commission said it would continue to exercise its regulatory mandate to protect the privacy rights of Nigerians and ensure that organisations processing personal data comply with the provisions of the Nigeria Data Protection Act, 2023.
Microsoft is planning to unveil its new Maia 300 AI chip this fall, potentially as soon as next month, The Information reported on Monday, citing people with direct knowledge of the plans.
The company introduced its Maia AI chip in November 2023 but has lagged rivals such as Alphabet and Amazon in scaling up its in-house chip efforts as it seeks to reduce its reliance on Nvidia’s costly processors.
Google began recognizing revenue from direct sales of its custom AI chips, called Tensor Processing Units, in the quarter ended June, while Amazon has also seen growing adoption of its processors, including its Trainium chips.
Microsoft has been in talks with chipmaker TSMC to secure manufacturing capacity for more than 300,000 units of the chip for delivery in 2027, according to the report. It is also looking to significantly ramp up production and persuade major cloud customers such as Anthropic to adopt the chip.
Microsoft ultimately aims to secure capacity for more than 1 million Maia 300 chips, though component supplies and ongoing capacity negotiations with TSMC could constrain its plans, according to the report.
It unveiled its second-generation Maia 200 in January, built by TSMC using 3-nanometer technology.
Microsoft packed the chip with a significant amount of SRAM, a type of memory that can provide speed advantages for AI systems handling large numbers of user requests.
X has announced plans to discontinue its Revenue Sharing programme and introduce a new Original Content Rewards programme to reward creators for producing original content on the platform.
The social media company announced the changes at the weekend in a post on its X Creators handle, saying the new programme would reward creators who contribute original content.
“Today, we’re introducing the Original Content Rewards Program, a new way to reward creators who bring original ideas, expertise, reporting, creativity, and commentary to X,” the company said.
X said it would stop accepting new enrolments into the Revenue Sharing programme from Friday, while existing participants would continue earning until September 7, 2026.
“Starting today, we’re no longer accepting new enrollments into Revenue Sharing,” it said.
According to the company, existing Revenue Sharing participants will receive three final payouts, with two scheduled for August 14 and August 28, while the final payment for earnings accrued through September 7 is expected around September 11.
X said existing Revenue Sharing participants would begin getting access to apply for the new programme from September 8, subject to meeting its eligibility requirements.
The first payout under the Original Content Rewards programme will be made on August 28, 2026, while existing Revenue Sharing creators who enrol in the new programme from September 8 will receive their first payment on September 25.
Under the new programme, eligible creators will earn from qualified impressions generated by their original content, with payments made every two weeks.
X defined qualified impressions as unique impressions from Premium users on the Home Timeline feed, where at least 50 per cent of a post is visible.
On the other hand, “The following are excluded from qualified impressions: impressions from the same account counted more than once per post; paid, promoted, or artificially generated impressions; and fraudulent impressions,” it said.
To qualify, creators must be at least 18 years old, live in a country where the programme is available, maintain an account in good standing and have either a personal or vusiness account.
They must also subscribe to X Premium, Premium+ or Premium Business, have at least 500 verified followers and record at least 500,000 Home Timeline impressions from verified users within the previous 90 days.
X said creators must also regularly post original content to remain eligible.
“We want to recognize creators who break news, share expertise, tell stories, create entertainment, and contribute meaningful perspectives to the conversation,” the company said.
The platform said original content could include threads, videos, memes, graphics, illustrations, reporting, analysis, commentary and reactions that add meaningful value to existing conversations.
It said creators who use content produced by others would need to add meaningful commentary, context, analysis, humour or creative transformation for such posts to qualify.
“Building on existing conversations is a core part of X, but simply reposting someone else’s content is not enough,” it said.
X said minor edits such as cropping, filters, borders, watermarks, speed adjustments or simple text overlays would generally not qualify as meaningful transformation on their own.
It also warned that content copied or substantially reproduced from another creator, content downloaded and re-uploaded from X or another platform without being the original author’s, automated content, disinformation and misleading content would be ineligible.
The company said accounts that violate the programme’s requirements could be temporarily or permanently removed from it, depending on the severity of the violation.
It added that creators would be responsible for ensuring they had the necessary rights, permissions or licences to use content created by others.
“Original content is content you personally create that reflects your own voice, perspective, expertise, or creativity,” X said.
The company said the new programme was intended to reward creators who make the platform more valuable by bringing original ideas and perspectives to its conversations.
“The Original Content Rewards Program is designed to reward the creators who start them, shape them, and move them forward,” it said.
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