Abstract
The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has the potential to improve the production and business processes by enabling the extraction of valuable information from industrial processes. The mining industry, however, is rather traditional and somewhat slow to change due to infrastructural limitations in communication, data management, storage, and exchange of information. Most research efforts so far on applying IIoT in the mining industry focus on specific concerns such as ventilation monitoring, accident analysis, fleet and personnel management, tailing dam monitoring, and pre-alarm system while an overall IIoT architecture suitable for the general conditions in the mining industry is still missing. This article analyzes the current state of Information Technology in the mining sector and identifies a major challenge of vertical fragmentation due to the technological variety of various systems and devices offered by different vendors, preventing interoperability, data distribution, and the exchange of information securely between devices and systems. Based on guidelines and practices from the major IIoT standards, a high-level IIoT architecture suitable for the mining industry is then synthesized and presented, addressing the identified challenges and enabling smart mines by automation, interoperable systems, data distribution, and real-time visibility of the mining status. Remote controlling, data processing, and interoperability techniques of the architecture evolve all stages of mining from prospecting to reclamation. The adoption of such IIoT architecture in the mining industry offers safer mine site for workers, predictable mining operations, interoperable environment for both traditional and modern systems and devices, automation to reduce human intervention, and enables underground surveillance by converging operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT). Significant open research challenges and directions are also studied and identified in this paper, such as mobility management, scalability, virtualization at the IIoT edge, and digital twins.
Highlights
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a technological paradigm imagined as a global network where devices or machines can interact [1]
The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), which is an application of IoT in industry, is part of the Industry 4.0 concept, which emphasizes the idea of consistent digitization and the connectivity of all productive units [8], combining the strengths of the traditional industry with internet technologies [9,10]
Together with Boliden we explore the mining life-cycle and analyze the current information technology (IT) practices in the mining industry to identify various challenges which can address by applying a suitable IIoT architecture in the mining industry
Summary
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a technological paradigm imagined as a global network where devices or machines can interact [1]. The complexity and specific challenges in this industry include: heterogeneity where each mine has a different layout depending on the natural conditions, heavy transportation in combination with very confined spaces, wireless communication across shafts and stopes not possible, repeated blasting where devices would be destroyed unless moved every time, face drilling that changes the layout continuously, the need for fail-over and autonomous operations to ensure production and safety through catastrophic failures, etc. We study the current practices of information technology (IT) in the mining industry and find a major challenge of interoperability between various systems and devices. We analyze and identify some futuristic IIoT challenges and some possible future work directions (Section 9), and conclude the manuscript (Section 10)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
