The mining industry is seemingly stronger than ever, as there is greater international demand for cobalt and nickel, which are essential for conducting heat in lithium-ion batteries. Without it, it would be a challenge to power modern technologies, such as smartphones, laptops, watches, pacemakers and electric vehicles.
Yet, there are various mining industries who have yet to transform their operations for the contemporary world. Find out how to modernise your mining business.
Improve Efficiency
Every mining company must strive to improve their productivity and efficiency each day, which could lead to greater shareholder support and a lower cost of production.
For example, you could improve your company’s efficiency by:
- Hiring and retaining experienced mine planners to improve operational performance
- Creating a culture that deters frivolous spending
- Maintaining employee engagement through training and career development
- Easily accepting payments with a point of sale service to track payments and collect data
- Using production visibility tools to display operations from the pit through to the port
Invest in New Technologies
There are new technologies available that can potentially transform a mining company’s operations for the better. For example, self-driving ore carriers could allow your business to operate around the clock. The automated earth and underground ore carriers are capable of working 24 hours per day and can prevent the need to send employees into inherently dangerous areas.
Another option is robotic drills, which can speed up the production time for hard rock excavation. There are also various automated drill rigs in development, including the battery-operated drill rig, which can drill fast and accurate blast patterns.
Recruit for New Roles
As automated technologies are tackling challenging jobs in the mining industry, it is reducing the need for front-end manual labour. For this reason, mining businesses would be wise to recruit employees in technology and human resources.
For example, rather than hiring workers to perform excavation and extraction tasks, you should recruit more data analysts, operators and programmers, who can help to control and analyse the technologies and its data.
Retrain Your Team
As you develop a more forward-thinking mining business, you will need to update your existing employees’ skills and training. For example, your hard workers will need to develop a new range of skills to operate a technology and provide knowledgeable support to the automated systems.
This could be a shock to those who have worked in the mining industry for years, which is why you must discuss with your employees about the importance of adapting with the industry and capitalising on the lithium boom. Of course, with less reliance on manual workers due to the integration of automated technologies, you may have no other option but to downsize your workforce.
Conclusion
Almost every industry across the world is changing, as new processes, technologies and workforces are being introduced to improve operational efficiency, productivity, safety and profitability.
As technology has the power to streamline tasks, it could be the difference between chasing or exceeding your competitors. While the mining industry has been much slower than others to adopt automated technologies, many businesses are starting to realise the many benefits it can bring to their operations.
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