Behind the scenes of digitalisation in mining: How data innovation drives intelligent integration

Challenge

Across mining, the big question around digital transformation isn’t ‘if’ or even ‘when’; it’s ‘how’. Businesses understand that digital technology can help them overcome their biggest day-to-day challenges. But many don’t have a clear plan for how to integrate these solutions with each other – or with existing systems.

Solution

As Mark Hannan, General Manager, Mining Decarbonisation for Shell, explains: “Mining companies face a range of pressures. From meeting their operational targets to managing the safety of their employees – and keeping up with the energy transition – they know they need to adapt to digitalisation.” That’s why they should collaborate with the right partners to make the complex simple and bring their different solutions together to meet the needs of their business.

Mining businesses are looking to shake up their operations massively with digital technology. It’s why, in our recent research report, seven out of ten mining leaders said they view digitalisation as an urgent priority.¹ But, right now, many of them aren’t sure how to do this.

“They’re really enthusiastic about embracing digital, but there’s so much choice,” says Hannan. “Where do these businesses start? It’s not that the solutions aren’t out there. The real challenge for them is finding the right types of solutions – the ones that best meet their needs.”

In 2020, Shell and IBM came together to resolve this issue. Together, the two companies launched OREN, a global B2B marketplace that connects mining businesses with digital solutions and services designed to meet their needs.²

“The idea was to provide mining companies with a one-stop shop for digitalisation,” explains Hannan. “It was initially based on specific use cases across the mining value chain that we validated with customers. This could be reducing fuel consumption or making sure a workforce is safe at any given moment. Type in your use case and you’d see all the solutions mapped to it.”

The launch of OREN was a success, but businesses needed more than the ability to find solutions. So, Shell and IBM moved to a more collaborative role that helped to deliver support for digital strategy and implementation.

“What became apparent was that companies didn’t know how these solutions fit into their wider digital roadmap,” says Hannan. “So, we worked closely with customers to create their roadmaps for the next three years – offering practical solutions while taking into account their individual needs and budget constraints.”

“Another element was getting them to understand that, when you adopt one digital solution, that’s not the end of the conversation,” continues Hannan. “The new solutions need to be integrated with other systems on their mining site – or implemented as part of a wider package designed to help them reduce costs or improve efficiency.”

The challenge for many businesses is understanding how they can build those links between new digital solutions and existing IT systems. Especially when 94% of mining companies say legacy infrastructure is a barrier to digitalisation.¹ However, this is where intelligent integration can make a huge difference.

“Data is the key to how we’re helping mining companies resolve the complexity of integration,” says Hannan. “What we've said to companies is, rather than them having to integrate all the different solutions on their digital roadmap, we can integrate the data so we're not creating anything new.”

“In many cases, they already have some of the solutions they need,” he continues. “So, we’re simply adding another element to that and linking it. This could be integration with their inventory management or ERP systems. We’re bringing that together through the data, showing customers that they can adopt four or five new solutions to match their different use cases and solve an end-to-end problem.”

The timescale for this style of integration underlines how effective the approach can be. “When you integrate the data, you’re looking at around three months to get it done,” says Hannan. “We’ve surprised customers who thought they were looking at a four-year programme to bring it all together.”

The integration of digital solutions also plays an important role in helping mining companies to decarbonise their operations. Mining more sustainably requires the ability to understand and monitor site emissions. But it’s a capability that many are currently lacking.

“Most mining companies will track their emissions manually or with a range of different sensors,” says Hannan. “This means they can do it once – maybe twice – a year. But, with increasing regulation and pressure from stakeholders, they now need the ability to keep track of emissions in real-time.”

So, what is the practical route to businesses achieving this? Especially as nine out of ten mining leaders see a complex mix of available solutions as a barrier to their decarbonisation efforts.1 Intelligent integration offers an answer.

“Integrating the data from different solutions can help companies build that big picture in real-time,” explains Hannan. “So, you link the sensor data from your vehicle fleet with your industrial processing, your shipping, your rail operations and so on. This gives you the ability to see emissions across your business.”

This is yet another example of how digital technology sits at the heart of the mining industry’s efforts to reach a net-zero future.

¹_{Based on a survey of 300 global industrial business leaders carried out by Shell and Edelman Data Intelligence in June 2021}

²_{Shell. 2020. “OREN: Shell and IBM Create Innovation Software and Services Marketplace for Mining.” shell.com. (accessed 1 December 2021)}