MINING INDUSTRY CHALLENGES & SOLUTIONS

With the rapid development of technology aiding in the extraction of vital resources, the face of the mining industry has been changing substantially for many years.

However, novel challenges to the mining industry left unchecked or ignored may have ramifications on the bottom line of your company.

Ensuring the proper upkeep with technological innovations, changing public sentiment, and a further globalized world will allow you to establish your company as an industry leader in the years ahead.

You can accomplish this by first identifying the key challenges your company may face and meeting those challenges with carefully integrated technical solutions.

Common Problems Within the Mining Industry

As the mining industry moves forward, ensuring your company is properly situated to successfully navigate through novel challenges will allow for continued longevity.

The common problems visible within the mining industry are:

DOWNLOAD INDUSTRIAL SOLUTIONS

Can’t find what you are looking for?

ASK AN EXPERT

Aging Workforce

By 2022, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that 25% of the labor force will be 55 or older. Many workers have been holding over jobs that have long been lucrative within the industry for many years. As that population of workers ages out of the industry, many companies have struggled to find adequate replacement … workers to fill in the gaps.

As workforces age out and insufficient numbers of new workers are recruited to fill in, it can lead your company to experience lasting problems.

These problems include the following:

Considerably higher labor costs to attract workers
Significant drops in productivity
Increased instances of ill or injured aging workers

These issues all lead to either higher overall costs for your company or lower production outputs leading to reduced profits.

Health and Safety Hazards

Working for mining operations can be a dangerous occupation in general. Some examples of health and safety hazards within the mining industry that your company should be informed about are the following:

…

Inhalation of dust
Exposure to potentially dangerous chemicals
Risk of injury from operating equipment
Increased risks due to the changing climate

Because of these risks, it can be harder to recruit new workers and keep production at a steady pace. Finding ways to reduce these risks to workers is fundamentally essential to ensuring the continuation of negative trends resulting does not continue.

Volatile Production Capacity

Problems with the phasing out of the existing workforce pose the greatest challenge to keeping production high. Volatile production for your company can also stem from the need to implement new technologies to aid in the process of resource identification, extraction, and refining.

Rising Environmentalism

Finding ways to innovate and reduce the environmental impact of mining operations can prove difficult. But with the proper technical guidance and technology, reducing mining carbon footprint is possible to implement within your company without compromising productive capacity.

Meeting Challenges With Innovative Solutions

With the proper solutions in place, all of the identified common problems of the broader mining industry can be either avoided or resolved for your company. These problems can be addressed by implementing novel technological solutions that can:

Reduce health and safety hazards
Increase productive capacities
Create new attractive jobs
Decrease environmental impact

This can be orchestrated through the following innovations:

Implementing Automation & Reliable Measurement Systems

With greater technological capabilities, your company can be more confident in the data being collected and the reliability of information systems in place. Creating a more robust operational environment can also help your company to reduce the volatility of production and even attract new workers with backgrounds in technology.

Implementation of new technologies to facilitate upgrades to the mining process can:

Increase overall production
Reduce health and safety hazards
Boost efficiency of mining operations

Applying Novel Data Acquisition Systems

The more data available and the easier it is to collect that data, the more information your company has on mining operations, production efficiency, and resource extraction. While these systems do require different training than most present mining workforces have, it provides a pathway to introducing novel innovations into the mining industry. Advanced data acquisition capabilities provide the following benefits for your company:

Reduced costs
Increased efficiency
Easier data logging
New, attractive jobs

Attracting Digitally Capable Talent and Training Your Workforce

By modernizing mining operations, your company can maximize the use of technological innovations to help your company operate more cost-effectively and efficiently. This can also help open the mining industry up to an attractive new talent pool.

Data acquisition and advanced measurement capabilities can attract talent to the industry that is:

Technologically capable
Younger
Highly skilled

Along with the proper technical expertise, a younger, highly skilled workforce coming into the industry and to your company will provide you with the workers necessary to avoid common industry problems.

These solutions would help to phase out an aging workforce without compromising productive capacity or profitability.

Investing in Innovation Today Reduces the Challenges of Tomorrow

Moving your company to the forefront of innovations penetrating the mining industry will ensure longevity into the future.

Meet new and existing challenges with the right instrumentation and application solutions.

INSTRUMENTATION AND ANALYTICAL SOLUTIONS, SERVICE AND TRAINING

Discover our full scope of offerings–from cutting-edge instruments to custom training and dedicated service, TechStar is your Total Solutions Provider.

ACCESS OUR LINE SHEET

MINING INDUSTRY CHALLENGES & SOLUTIONS