New South African Zinc Mine Going Digital

New South African Zinc Mine Going Digital

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Zinc miner Vedanta Zinc International (VZI) is collaborating with digital industrial company GE South Africa to implement a Smart Ore Movement system at its flagship Gamsberg project, in the Northern Cape, to ensure that best practices are in place when the mine goes into production next year.

“VZI places great emphasis on the concept of ‘adapt and thrive’ across all areas of our business. A core philosophy at Vedanta is to embrace new technologies and practices, and we welcome the opportunity to become part of the disruption revolution. As mining companies, we need to offer our employees, our communities and our investors a different future, and people-centric technology has the potential to be part of that process,” says VZI CEO Deshnee Naidoo.

She adds that working smarter by using the latest technology is a core focus of VZI’s strategy and points out that, as Gamsberg is a greenfield project, the Smart Ore Movement system will be implemented in the development phase of the project, as opposed to waiting for the mine to come online and then attempting to retrofit the systems.

“[As well as] acquiring best-in class technology for our assets, [we are] focusing on creating our own. Last year, the wider [VZI] group initiated a $30-million investment fund for in-house research and development, supporting our wealth of knowledge and spirit of innovation with meaningful resources.”

Digitalising Mining