Digital Transformation of Open-Pit Coal Mining in Russia

Abstract

The main goal of this paper is to throw the light upon new possibilities of the contemporary digitalization age for the coal mining industry, as well as to identify its advantages for the Russian coal industry. Taking into account the permanent trend of coal demand weakening and declining of carbon intensity of energy consumption over the last years, it is vitally for coal mines to embrace new digital technologies, as they provide with optimization of processes which not only leads to higher productivity and efficiency but more worker’s safety. Digital transformation is a process, an enterprise goes through, by embracing new ways of thinking, based on the clear idea, that it is necessary to improve industrial and environmental safety, using social media, mobile, and other digital applications. The most viable digital innovations that have been introduced widely by the mining sector across the world are automation and robotics, Big Data, Internet of Things, real-time data, 3D-printing, artificial intelligence, virtual reality mine training, etc. The development of such technologies in Russia’s coal mining industry means higher productivity and competitiveness in the world coal market. Automated haulage systems in open-pit mines are one of the critical prerequisites for the successful development of unmanned technologies in mining industry. There are different stages of digital transformation and robotics in mining industry that are shown in the article, and it is proved the feasibility of usage of such a technology in open-pit mines of Russia, which is demonstrated by the example of equipping hauls with robotic mobile management system.