Innovative Solutions
Cutting edge technology permeates all aspects of mining
Part of the excellence of Ontario is that its mining ecosystem spans the entire province. Not only do you have a major global city in Toronto with elite universities, startup accelerators, financial institutions and major mining companies, you also have places like Sudbury that have nurtured an ecosystem of technology businesses that bring Canadian-born innovation across the globe. This chapter illustrates the wide range of technologies Ontario-based companies are developing and delivering to the world.
Organizations Incentivize Innovation and Adoption
Mining is a long-term game, where every dollar invested takes its own sweet time to yield returns, making companies less willing to take risks on untested technologies. Nevertheless, the mining industry is constantly exploring new ways to improve efficiency, safety and sustainability, and the future looks bright for those who can find a way to innovate.
Organizations like the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI) and NORCAT exist to lower the barriers to entry for mining startups and technology providers while also demonstrating to potential buyers the efficacy of new technologies. Over the past year, CEMI initiated a new Mining Innovation Commercialization Accelerator (MICA), which creates a network of SMEs, and helps accelerate them and their products into the marketplace. CEMI’s president and CEO Doug Morrison’s view is that, although Sudbury is a dynamic environment, it is difficult for any small company to build itself up into a much larger company solely relying on the Canadian market. “Mining companies in Canada are very slow adopters of new technology and many other jurisdictions are more dynamic, adopting new solutions much more quickly - especially in Chile and Peru,” Morrison said.
One option Ontario-based technology developers have to demonstrate their technology is the NORCAT Underground Centre in Sudbury. The organization recently hosted its Mining Transformed event which brought together over 50 tech companies of different sizes from all over the world, with installations at the NORCAT Underground Centre. According to NORCAT CEO Don Duval, this event confirmed their hypothesis that being able to have demonstrable technology in an operating environment does indeed expedite potential procurement, adoption and deployment of these technologies. When asked why so many startups find it difficult to gain traction in mining, Duval commented: “If they cannot solve the first customer problem, especially for tech selling into legacy industries, many of these start-ups will run out of cash before they can get to market.”
In this context, NORCAT plays an essential role in acting as a first reference customer to provide a platform on which a company can build a track record and narrative to expedite the process of winning over a production-scale customer.
One technology company that leveraged its NORCAT experience to validate and iterate its technology was Sofvie, whose mission is to develop a software solution that ensures all workers on a mine site go home safely. The company’s CIO, Gus Minor, conveyed that Sofvie sensed a need in the market, because mining conversations were often undocumented or unmanaged, resulting in slow and inefficient transfer of information. By the time information got to the decisionmaker it was often no longer relevant or factual, thereby creating safety and productivity risks. “Sofvie resolved this problem by developing a web and mobile application dedicated to maximizing insights and communication between managers, fieldworkers and their supervisors,” Minor said.
“Although teleoperation has been around for at least a decade, there are systems out there that are underperforming due to the inability to adapt to the changes over the years.”
Walter Siggelkow, President, HARD-LINE
This past year, Sofvie partnered with the R&D department at Cambrian College and a local provider to integrate Sofvie's software with an Internet of Things device to act as an "off switch" to prevent unqualified workers from using specific equipment. With all of the traction, partnerships and growth Sofvie has experienced since its inception, Minor is not shy about crediting Sudbury’s role in creating a propitious environment for success. “In deciding where to locate Sofvie, part of our decision was influenced by the fact that we needed direct feedback from customers using our software. In Sudbury, there are many companies and mines located just down the street. We also have a lot of the Sudbury workforce that travel and work around the world after getting their start here. It is a great way to network and get feedback from what others have witnessed in other parts of the world in their mining journey,” Minor added.
One of the founder-led technology companies that has paved the way in developing Sudbury’s technology ecosystem is HARD-LINE Solutions, which has been delivering teleoperation systems for mines around the world since 1997. While these technologies have evolved significantly, HARD-LINE prides itself on being a supplier that has never deemed a system obsolete. HARD-LINE president, Walter Siggelkow, highlighted that teleoperation takes the operator out of the machine, which in an underground mine allows the machine to get to work immediately after a blast, instead of having to wait for gases to clear for the ground support team to get to work. This increases the time a machine can be in production, and ultimately boosts productivity levels.
Although the value proposition for teleoperation is clear, there remains a lot of hype around autonomous systems gaining momentum. Siggelkow’s opinion on the matter is that in mining there are certain things that can be automated and certain things that cannot. Consequently, the industry is reluctant to fully commit to these systems, which explains why teleoperation continues to play an essential role in mining operations.
Article header image courtesy of NORCAT