Here Is How Robots Are Revolutionizing Mining

EQUIPMENT

Here Is How Robots Are Revolutionizing Mining

Mining robots will revolutionize the mining industry by automating the diverse activities involved in mining, from the discovery of minerals and other resources to excavation. As a consequence, the usage of mining robotics is helping to improve efficiency and profitability for mining firms.

The mica used in glittery eyeshadow colors and coal used to produce power to deliver electricity to a house was both excavated from mines. Mining is a work that is risky and complex. Life is placed at stake every day in order to harvest valuable raw materials from the earth. In 2018, 27 miners died, which was the second-lowest death count in an academic year, according to a survey from the Mine Protection and Health Administration (MSHA).

With the usage of mining robots that are replacing humans in the hazardous extraction process, the death counts are further declining. AI-enabled mining robots will identify dangerous gases in the mines through the help of machine learning algorithms and warn miners to take precautions. Mining robots are revolutionizing the mining sector, from assisting in the drilling, extraction, and transport of minerals to managing and tracking mines.

WHY MINE ROBOTICS TRANSFORM THE MINING INDUSTRY

It hasn't been long before robotics landed at mine sites to run above and below the soil alongside humans. Mining machines can take over risky roles and people can run these robots without the need to endanger their life by traveling to the site to perform assignments. The mining business is promoting digital automation.

AUTOMATED CONVEYANCE

The extracted material is transferred from where it is mined to the land above in all forms of underground mining. The commodity is usually transported with 32 | SKILLINGS MINING REVIEW January 2021 the support of either human-operated conveyors, transport equipment, or hoisted containers.

Tedious and difficult activities may be manually operating the trucks and moving the collected products to the surface or the underground loading points. Like AI-enabled self-driving automobiles, the media or vehicles used for transporting minerals may be automated. Improved performance and protection are two clear reasons for the modernization of transport vehicles. The laborers are at risk of rockfall when carrying mined rocks, and the risk can be removed with automated transport vehicles. Automated cars can minimize labour costs and run around the clock, thereby growing performance and competitiveness.

Automated vehicles can navigate underwater quickly and use GPS navigation systems. For eg, one of Australia's largest mining companies uses over 80 automated three-story trucks to transport minerals. The organization is now trying to build autonomous trains on tracks. mining robots with both hands to trans-

port the excavated rocks to hundreds of miles due to the effect their usage cases may have.

EXPLOSIVE POSITIONING AND DRILLING

The first job to be completed in the mining phase is drilling. Only after digging into mines is the mining of minerals feasible. To dig into the mine, to construct a tunnel to move material from the mined field to the surface, drilling is necessary for any mining job. The drilling method is now automated.

There are semi-automated drilling machines available that will drill hole rings over time with a little supervision. To smash up rocks, drilling means planting explosives. Automated drill machines will bore to a depth of many meters into the earth. For obstacle detection and automatic drilling into the earth, the automated devices use GPS technologies.

Mining robots may assist with the positioning of the explosive necessary to dig a site. To trigger the blast, explosives, detonators, and primers are currently manually positioned and linked by wires. For rock smashing and digging deep into the earth, automatic boring devices are capable of packing the explosive ingredients into the field holes.

ROCK SPLITTING SECONDARY

For the second time, another field where AI-robots can be used in the mining industry is to crack rocks. Some enormous boulders are produced that are hard to tackle after placing explosives for drilling and for cracking the rock for the first time. The mining field might be jammed with huge boulders. The volume of explosives used and the region to deploy them was prepared for specific rock breaking in order to maximize the use of the blast. With the aid of algorithms, AI-enabled mining robots can easily prepare the ideal quantity of explosives required for precise rock fragmentation. The enormous boulders can be smashed into tiny rocks by rock crusher mining robots that can be operated by transport vehicles. To clear the path in the pits, the haulage vehicles will then take the crushed rocks to the ground level.

CREATION OF METALLIFER-

OUS ROADWAYS

Metalliferous underground mines utilize roadways to reach the minerals within and other services such as transportation. There are numerous kinds of roadways, such as drops, hills, drifts, drives, and crosscuts.

The roadway construction phases involve mapping the geology and identifying the explosion space, digging blasting holes, scraping exploded rocks, and then freeing up space for running vehicles and

other machines. To find the right spot to dig, mining robots will survey the mining area. In order to build roadways in mines, the robots will then place the explosives and extract the undesirable and fragile rocks.

Mining robots may also sense the conditions in the mines and the existence of dangerous gases, if any, when creating roadways for transportation. Mining robots will allow miners and leaders to take the required measures to deter unnecessary accidents by sending a warning about the air and state of the mine.

FLOODED AND FAILED MINES DISCOVER

After collecting minerals, those mines are abandoned and flooded with water. For some purposes, AI systems may find mines that are either flooded or abandoned. Excavation of minerals that were not valuable in the past yet may be useful in the present day may be the explanation for reopening abandoned mines. For example, in the past few years, demand for rare earth elements, which are a set of 15 to 17 elements, has skyrocketed. The usage of rare earth elements in modern-day technology is the explanation for increased production. In laptops, hard disks, and LED TVs, among others, rare earth elements are used for example. The abandoned mines can be revived at a fast speed by mining robots. Flexibility for building IoT equipment in abandoned mines is supported by mining robots.

For continuous surveillance of the mine, robots will enter narrow surface areas that could not be reached by humans and location IoT devices. Miners will estimate the energy and other resources needed for extracting the mineral from the mine by applying AI algorithms on the data obtained by IoT devices.

A difficult job is manually deciding which abandoned and flooded mine will produce rare earth and other useful minerals. For human divers, traveling across the mine and assessing the identity of some valuable mineral may be dangerous. Visibility is still very poor in the submerged mines, which makes it much harder for human divers to maneuver. Without placing human life at risk, mining robots will crash into mines to detect valuable minerals.

Through the introduction of mining robotics, the idea of how AI would revolutionise the mining sector is becoming a fact. In the mining sector, mining robots have recently been introduced and a great deal of progress in mining robots has been done to render the mining process easy and effective.

Much still needs to be accomplished, though. Robots are now unable to function on a completely autonomous basis, operating hand in hand with humans. Eventually, mining firms may someday see fully automatic mining machines with improvements in technology that can reduce the danger and strain on human miners.

GLOBAL

As more countries pledge zero emissions, coal finance evaporates

Funding for coal ventures is drying up at ever rising rates as more countries are seeking zero carbon emissions in the middle of the world's energy transformation, participants said on Tuesday at Asia's largest coal industry meeting.

As the dirtiest fossil fuel is gradually shunned, the withdrawal from coal by major multinational banks and government-backed entities, which has intensified this year is likely to force coal firms to use offsets to get financing and listed ones to go private to escape shareholder pressure.

"We are seeing a real tide of all these forces moving in the capital markets with insurance companies, banks and other financiers pulling out of coal," Lachlan Shaw, head of commodity analysis at ANZ, told the virtual Coaltrans Asia meeting.

"What has changed lately is that China, Japan and South Korea have all committed themselves to net zero carbon emission targets," he added. Carbon pricing and credits would become critical instruments for businesses to raise financing for new ventures, so they "can go to the financial markets and say we have a package here that is fully offset from the point of view of carbon emissions," he added. Shaw said he plans to go private with more publicly traded firms while shareholders concentrate more on the dangers of coal investments.

Ben Lawson, vice-chairman of the Djakarta Mining Club and chief operating officer of PT Sandman Coal Indonesia, said that even cleaner ventures such as a coal gasification plant in Indonesia under consideration by coal miner PT Bukit Asam would fail to secure financing. Although gasification is the cleanest way for coal to produce energy or downstream commodity, it is still coal," he told the conference." "I think it's going to be a hard sell to get financing." www.skillings.net | 35

GLOBAL

Minerals and metals demand recovery in 2021

A more favorable market climate can be seen by miners and metal producers in 2021, as almost all mineral and metal prices (except iron ore) are predicted to average higher year-on-year (y-o-y) in 2021, Fitch Solutions forecasts in its latest study.

While metal prices have recovered impressively over Q2-Q420, following the decline reported at the beginning of the year due to covid-19, Fitch states that prices will continue to fall on average year-on-year basis in 2020. In 2021, Fitch says that the wider and stronger global economic growth would boost rates when covid-19 vaccinations are made available. In some primary mining nations, such as Peru and South Africa, access to vaccinations would also help reduce the threats to operations seen in 2020. According to Fitch, mining and metal activities would therefore increase in 2021, after the industry encountered massive disturbances in 2020 due to government-imposed lockdown steps and

tighter procedures for health and safety.

This was especially the case for the copper sector, as the pandemic had a major effect on Peru and Chile, which account for a large share of the mine's output. The resulting pickup in production is likely to retain something of a price 36 | SKILLINGS MINING REVIEW January 2021 limit. Fitch, however, expects a sharp recovery in global mineral and metal demand in 2021. As infrastructure projects continue to make progress, China's metal consumption will remain high, backed by the Covid-19 stimulus program.

Other nations, such as the US, the EU, Japan and India, in the case of steel and aluminum, which have seen their mining and metal activities interrupted and impacted by lower end demand, would see a sharper production turnaround.

Fitch states that the continuing acceleration of decarbonisation policies and corporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) programs, while a slow-burning and longer-term development in nature, suggests that demand for some metals used in renewable energy

infrastructure and for electric vehicle batteries (including copper, nickel and aluminium) will be funded in 2021 and beyond.

Elevated rates will help to benefit gold miners. Compared with 2020, Fitch sees mines and metals capital spending improving in 2021. Although 2020 forecasts began to decline marginally as the pandemic advanced from April to November, the budget forecast for 2021 changed as a result. This move is possibly attributed to businesses postponing expansion initiatives from 2020 to 2021 and in the wake of the pandemic, focused on saving cash in the interim.

The outlook for mines and metal producers is favorable for next year, Fitch maintains, as overall costs, output and demand of minerals and metals may increase in 2021.

The fall in input prices expected by Fitch for steel in 2021, due to increased supply (iron ore prices and coking coal), would allow the sector to achieve profitability.

Rare earth mining can be done safely, says researcher

A writer on rare earth elements has advised science and not politics to be the foundation for debates on rare earth mining. Azizan Abu Samah, chairman of the Sustainable Mining Task Force of Akademi Sains Malaysia, said rare earth mining could be carried out with minimal effect on the ecosystem and while maintaining protection.

He said that the mining process most likely to be used in Malaysia will mimic the methods of some Chinese companies that mine rare earth elements with comparable ion absorption. He said there was also overblown concern of radioactivity and harmful by-products. He said, "I think people are politicising it and making it a big issue, but the radioactivity level is lower than what you get from tin mining."

"Sunway Lagoon is an ancient mine lake, after all. The Horas water pumping facility for Sungai Selangor in Bestari Jaya is a set of old tin mining ponds. Science is tossed away anytime you try to spin it into a political problem. Azizan said that only in selected areas could rare earth mining be undertaken. "If mining is carried out in the watersheds of the Pedu and Muda dams, you will build up sediments that will reduce the dams' storage capacity and longevity."

He said the Ulu Muda region provides 70 percent of Perlis's raw water needs, and 96 percent of Kedah's, while the Sungai Muda, which is directly linked to the catchment area, meets 80 percent of Penang's raw water needs. "Any disturbance could be extremely damaging to the supply of water to these areas," he added.

When we have cowboy-ish mining as we had in Selinsing with gold, that's when we're going to have a lot of issues. There should be no free-for-all. Rare earth mining hit the headlines recently after Kedah Menteri Besar Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor reported an arrangement to mine rare earth resources in the state with a Kuala Lumpur-based firm. He said such deposits had a capacity of RM62 billion. However, Minister Shamsul Anuar Nasarah of Energy and Natural Resources said rare earth mining will not be allowed in forest reserves or without technological permission. There are many commercial applications of rare earth metals, from having applied to magnets used in electric generators to interactive screens for smartphones and TVs.

China currently has around 90% of the industry, but if Malaysia is able to mine our own, we might one day rule up to 50% of the world market," said Azizan." China does not want us to crack their monopoly, however he said. He said that only established companies should be granted rare earth mine licenses, with greater regulation to ensure minimum environmental damage and human impact."