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Mining Industry: Building a Safer and Greener Future

By Mikko Salonen - Business Finland
Senior Advisor for Mexico and the Caribbean

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By Mikko Salonen | Senior Advisor for Mexico and the Caribbean - Tue, 12/13/2022 - 11:00

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Most of you have probably heard of canaries in coal mines. The birds were taken to mines to assure safety before letting crowds of employees enter. If toxic gases, such as carbon monoxide, were present at dangerous levels, the canaries quickly stopped singing and showed other symptoms, indicating that the mine was not safe to work in. Thanks to technological advancements, this hasn’t been necessary in modern mines for a few decades. Instead, toxic gases are measured with top-quality sensors, ensuring a safe working environment. The sensors used in mining today are extremely accurate and continuously improving. Finnish company Vaisala has made assessment of indoor air one of its greatest priorities, ensuring that air chemistry is known and controlled with utmost precision. Within a mine, toxic gases are not only generated when digging the ground, but also by diesel-powered machinery. 

Electrification of vehicles is a hot topic but the discussion mostly focuses on personal and public transport, and people generally don’t think too much about electrification in heavy industries like  mining. In underground mines, diesel-powered equipment increases the need for reliable ventilation systems, leading to significantly higher costs, energy consumption, and design complexity. Electrified machinery can reduce the levels of toxic gases, such as CO and CO2, in the tunnels, making them much safer places to work and reducing ventilation costs, in addition to reducing the environmental impact of the mine.

Talking about machinery, the development of autonomous and remotely controlled machinery is also increasing rapidly. For example, the underground mining equipment provider Normet is investing significantly in the development of electrified machinery and automation. Automation and the use of robots in mines can significantly improve operational efficiency, while leading to safer jobs for employees. In underground operations, autonomous vehicles can enable employees to stay out of the mine in operation centers, without risks of toxic gases, high temperature exposure, or tunnel collapses. In open pit mines, people don’t need to expose themselves to landslides or accidents caused by heavy machinery. These are extremely unfortunate accidents that are still relatively frequently witnessed in the industry but that new technologies can help to avoid.

We cannot talk of using sensors to detect toxic gases or other dangers, or of process automation and autonomous machinery, without talking about connectivity. Every sensor, vehicle, equipment, tool, and preferably employees too, must be interconnected, and as more and more devices are connected, the quality and flawlessness of the connectivity must be assured. Nokia, which many of you still remember as the producer of mobile phones, is nowadays a leading provider of industrial networks globally. In fact, probably the world’s first 5G standalone private wireless network in an underground mine was installed this year by Nokia, together with Finnish mobile operator Telia and its partner Digital, in the Kittilä gold mine (owned and operated by Agnico Eagle), located north of the Arctic Circle in Finland. The mine’s first underground 5G video call was carried out in April. And imagine, the operations in Kittilä reach a depth of 1km and the network must, of course, reach every corner of the tunnels with impeccable internet quality. 

Be it an underground or open pit operation, connectivity is also an important factor when ensuring the continuity of the operation, as it enables the implementation of artificial intelligence and data processing, among other modern technologies. Data analytics enables us to understand the current situation and predict the future efficiently, leading to shorter decision-making times, shrinking from months of analysis to weeks or days for a decision-making process. Predictive maintenance, for example, supports miners to carefully plan their maintenance and avoid maintenance shutdowns, thus reducing operational downtimes to a minimum.

Despite technological advancements and environmental improvements, people still tend to see mines as environmentally harmful and dangerous workplaces, while simultaneously advocating for renewable energies and new technological development. This thinking is understandable; however, the reality is that the green transition cannot exist and will not advance without mining. According to a report released by the IEA, The Role of Critical Minerals in Clean Energy Transitions, a typical electric vehicle requires six times more minerals than a conventional car, while an offshore wind farm requires up to nine times more mineral inputs than a traditional gas-fired power plant. The growing share of renewables has led to an increase of 50 percent of minerals needed per a power generation unit since 2010, and as you know, the adoption of renewable energy production is still at an early stage, meaning this figure is likely to grow significantly in the upcoming years. Thus, the supply of critical minerals must be secured if we want to achieve the ambitious climate-related goals that many countries have agreed on; for example, in the Paris Agreement and at the Sharm el-Sheikh Climate Change Conference in November 2022.

Copper is needed in almost all industries and technologies, be it electricity grids, EV batteries, telecom networks, you name it. Traditional industrial metals, such as steel and aluminium, are heavily used in different renewable energy configurations and their demand will keep growing, but the production of minerals like cobalt, lithium, neodymium, and samarium, is what must be increased significantly to materialize decarbonization objectives. Therefore, I encourage readers to consider the following – every time you think or talk about renewable energy, don’t forget to think about mining.

Together with mining, there will obviously be an increased demand for mineral processing, which is also often considered an environmentally harmful industry. However, just as in mineral extraction, metallurgy has also evolved significantly in the recent past, and new technologies have increased efficiency and safety while reducing environmental impacts. Finland has been an important developer of technologies for metallurgy, and, for example, Metso Outotec, which, by the way, ranked as the world’s eighth-most sustainable company in the 2021 Corporate Knights’ Global 100 ranking*, can today provide complete, environmentally friendly solutions for the metallurgy of almost any metal.

Nevertheless, further R&D efforts and constant innovation are still crucial to continue improving production efficiency, as well as efficient use and recycling of these raw materials. Development of solutions for recycling the raw materials used in renewable energy plants, for example, lags  far behind in terms of technology compared to the production of these plants, and if the world does not find a way to recycle the minerals used in solar panels, wind turbine blades, and EV batteries, among others, the energy transition will potentially lead the world to serious problems that we do not face today.

The Finnish government is betting highly on R&D to develop solutions for the future and aims to grow Finnish R&D investments to 4 percent of GDP by 2030, from 2.8 percent of GDP in 2019. To achieve this, the government is offering an additional tax deduction of 150 percent for companies’ subcontracted R&D efforts, from 2022 to 2027. As company R&D investments were already deductible in Finland prior to the new law, now they can get a deduction of 250 percent of their R&D investments, up to €500,000. And the best thing: this applies both to Finnish and foreign companies, as long as they are established in Finland and the R&D activities are carried out in Finland with a research organization. This is a good example of Finland’s belief that to revolutionize industries and achieve sustainable development, including the green transition, we need extensive cooperation of the industry, government, and academia.

Investments in R&D have helped Finland become a leading technology provider and, especially, an innovator in the mining industry. The previously mentioned companies are just a few examples of suppliers with innovative and environmentally friendly solutions for this industry, which plays a key role when building a sustainable and prosperous future for planet Earth. However, they are great examples of companies that thrive to improve the world through innovations and future-oriented thinking, often through collaboration with industry partners and research organizations.

* On the same ranking, the Finnish oil refining company Neste, nowadays focusing mostly on biofuels, ranked fourth

Photo by:   Mikko Salonen

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