The latest research study conducted by Inmarsat found that the global mining sector is undergoing an Internet of Things (IoT) revolution with respondents reporting significant increases in adoption of connected technologies.
Mining organisations reported successes in implementing projects to safeguard workers via remote tracking, monitor drilling, and observe acid mine drainage remotely. However, despite this progress, a range of challenges are hindering the sector’s ability to reap the rewards that IoT has to offer.
According to the research, most organisations (65%) have fully deployed at least one IoT project, while 33% are trialling or have trialled a project, with only 2% of respondents not having begun an IoT project.
Noticeably, there is considerable geographical variance in IoT adoption and maturity across different regions, with 98% of North American respondents having successfully deployed IoT-enabled projects, compared with only 50% in Africa and 38% in South America.
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While this increase in full deployments represents progress, the use cases and data management are on the simple side and there are many challenges to overcome if the mining industry is to fully realise the potential of IoT, particularly in regard to using it as a driver for organisational change.
A lack of skills, investment and cultural challenges, as well as unreliable connectivity, patchy cybersecurity processes and underdeveloped data management processes were also highlighted in the report and will all need to be remedied in the coming years.
Commenting on the study, Joe Carr, Global Mining Director at Inmarsat says “Two years on from our last research, Inmarsat wanted to get a measure of what had changed in the mining industry. IoT has begun to take a foothold in the sector with increased rates of adoption across the board. What we discovered was an industry that, historically slow to adopt radical ideas, is now beginning to embrace the use of IoT, but still working out how to make the most of it.”
The mining industry faces significant challenges around skills, security, connectivity, investment and data management and these will need to be addressed for the industry to progress past a point of using IoT in a simple, siloed capacity.
Despite the challenges being faced, mining organisations are looking to increase their investment in IoT and are overwhelmingly positive about the value that IoT can bring to their operations and the benefits it is either already delivering or will deliver in the future.
Edited by Luis Monzon
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