Drivers of change in the development of technology and management of mining machinery

Abstract

The undulating fortunes of minerals business as well as decreasing margin or profit have been forcing the development of mining machinery over nearly the last two decades. In an effort to maximize revenue, the production rate has been increasing and the equipment are becoming larger and multi-functional with improved features of safety, sophistication and reliability. Keeping pace with the performance requirement of the machinery, their maintainability parameters are also improving such as fast and easy repair, monitoring of machine health and early transmission of information by sensors and GIS application from and within the equipment itself. Various factors that drive the transformation of mining machinery towards more productive use are discussed.