AI in mining boosts utilisation, checks mishaps: Report

Autonomous dump trucks, tele-operated equipment and other artificial intelligence (AI) solutions for mining will help countries like India avoid fatal open-cast mine accidents, Finnish-Russian digital solutions provider Zyfra said on Friday.

Citing a report by its subsidiary VIST Group, which is developing robotised mining technology for open pits, Zyfra said that the use of digital technologies in open pit mining also helps increase the utilisation of drilling rigs, haul trucks and excavators by 35 per cent a year.

Zyfra said last month that it has cumulatively earned more than $26 million from India-related deals and will offer technology and expertise to state-run Modern Coach Factory (MCF) to help execute a Rs 150-crore contract to build international standard coaches for metro trains.

"The current advancement of intelligent solutions into mining is on average less than 50 per cent worldwide, and in developing countries, where this industry is most developed, only 25 per cent," Zyfra CEO Igor Bogachev said in a statement.

"The current task for India is to digitise all the value chain of mining with the use of artificial intelligence in drilling and blasting, and intelligent mine with unmanned vehicles, crushing and enriching minerals," he said.

According to the CEO, AI-based intelligent mine solutions allow integration of unmanned vehicles -- dump trucks, excavators, bulldozers -- into a single digital control system for the mining and transport complex and ensure that there are no people left behind in dangerous areas and situations.

"We are currently looking for reliable partners in India to jointly promote the Intelligent Mine complex that allows increasing of the utilisation of haul trucks and excavators up to 20-25 per cent and of drilling rigs by up to 35 per cent, as well as reduce costs for maintenance by 10-15 per cent a year," he said.

Zyfra achieved $3 million in contracts with its Indian counterparts in 2018, facilitating industrial manufacturers with AI and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)-based solutions as well as autonomous vehicles.

--IANS

bc/nir