Mining
Automation

Industry leaders know that embracing innovation is key to staying competitive. When it comes to emergent technologies, the mining industry is especially poised to start optimizing their operation. Codale’s stock of advanced automation solutions are exactly the type of advantage modern mines are looking for. With top-of-the-line technology, Codale sets you up for continued success.

Cutting-edge technology has always been disruptive. It’s the industry-changing force that raises the bar for safety, intelligence and efficiency. For any business, keeping pace with rapid changes in the market is a universal challenge – automation is the accelerant that makes this goal possible.

The mining industry is no exception. Rocked by market volatility, increasing demand, changing workforce demographics and always-moving compliance standards, miners are in dire need of smart solutions. To answer that call, mining automation technologies are emerging at lightning speed. Automated mining and other smart innovations help you mitigate those market challenges today and in the future.

With the support of Rockwell Automation’s innovative suite of transformative technologies, Codale empowers you to make smarter, better decisions. Backed by analytics, Rockwell solutions leave no stone unturned on the path to improving your business. Among the endless benefits of automation, Codale equips you with:

All this and more are made possible by data collection, visualization and analysis. When you aggregate and apply data across your entire mine, you identify inefficiencies, boost productivity and improve the decision-making process. All told, mining automation is key to accelerating your business in a rapidly evolving market.

Connecting your mine is all about optimizing every area of operation. From the extraction process to the market, every stage of the journey stands to benefit from automated mining. No matter your mineral – whether it’s copper, gold, silver, beryllium or lithium – a knowledge-driven mine is an efficient one.

Mine & extraction:
Earth movers – the heart of every mining company. They’re a vital tool that every miner depends on. That’s why it’s important to maximize uptime, reliability and efficiency for every critical piece of machinery. Yet, most mines don’t possess the necessary insight to ensure such assets are effectively maintained.

Rockwell Automation’s remote asset monitoring solution empowers miners to protect their critical assets from unplanned downtime. Their integrated mobile solution enables mines to remotely collect data and obtain actionable insights into the health of their vital mining equipment. FactoryTalk InnovationSuite features an open platform design that can be used throughout the whole operation. With real-time monitoring, you can avoid critical asset failure and stay productive.

Mineral processing & refining:
Given the sheer quantity of complex ores, mineral processing is as complicated as it is important. Even worse, when equipment failure occurs, production is thrown for a loop. To cope with these challenges, miners need solutions that emphasize reliability, flexibility, efficiency and safety.

With Rockwell Automation, there’s always a better way. Driven by data, Rockwell technologies are integrated and scalable for faster, simpler implementation. Best of all, solutions like PlantPAx® DCS can handle complex mining applications like smelting and refining, all while boosting efficiency, reducing costs, lowering energy consumption and improving safety. As a single platform, PlantPAx combines all of your production goals in one unified system.

Other process optimization solutions use model predictive control (MPC) strategies to achieve critical objectives.

Rockwell Automation can simplify the complexity of mineral processing and help you:

Material handling:
When it comes time to move material around your mine, you depend on machinery to do the heavy lifting. In turn, machines play one of the most important roles in any mining operation. When material handling equipment goes down, critical functions are thrown into disarray. Worst of all, productivity and profit are knocked off course – a major detriment to your mine’s bottom line.

No matter the machinery, Codale stocks the necessary tools to make sure those important tasks are performed as reliably and efficiently as possible. From end to end, Rockwell Automation protects the material handling chain with fully integrated, highly scalable technology solutions. Empowered by data-driven insights, you can avoid collision and other disruptions by optimizing conveyor, stacker reclaimer and loader performance.

Mine-to-market integration:
Businesses need actionable information to make the best possible decisions like never before – that’s especially true for the mining industry. Rockwell’s fleet of mining automation technology, like FactoryTalk InnovationSuite, is bridging the gap between mines and their untapped data.

With purpose-driven mining operations management (MOM) tools and mining executing systems (MES), Rockwell enables you to make better, repeatable and more effective decisions. Asset, production and inventory management come together in one single platform to give you the insights necessary to improve business performance altogether. Best of all, Rockwell’s advanced analytics empower you to simulate business decisions and their cascading effects before they’re officially set in motion.

Utilities & supporting processes:
Codale and Rockwell Automation know the importance of a mine’s supporting activities. From power distribution and compressor systems to ventilation and fuel management, these processes fulfill integral functions across your mining operation. Rockwell provides solutions that improve process visibility into these systems and truly connect your mine for optimal performance.

Connected mines are driven by data. But simply collecting data is no longer enough – the modern mining operation needs to know how to turn that knowledge into actionable insight. Without the ability to put it all into context, you’ll be flooded with more information than you can handle. The right mining automation technology will simplify that sea of data into an effective, comprehensible asset.

Rockwell Automation’s advanced mining solutions instill confidence, know-how and reliability into your mine’s decision-making process. These technologies include:

FactoryTalk InnovationSuite
As a comprehensive MES, FactoryTalk InnovationSuite uses both descriptive and prescriptive analytics to streamline productivity and root out inefficiencies in your mine. The result? Downtime reduction, quality improvement and process optimization. Put simply, InnovationSuite affords mining companies a chance to get a closer look at their most integral systems and processes.

Equipment automation
From conveyors to crushers, Codale stocks the Rockwell technologies that will make the most of your critical equipment. By integrating process and motor control, you can reduce mechanical wear and tear, avoid downtime and improve asset efficiency. The best part? You can save on maintenance and energy costs with enhanced asset visibility.

PlantPAx
Rockwell’s modern approach to distributed control systems can help your mine improve complex processing applications. Designed with flexibility and efficiency in mind, PlantPAx operates on an integrated architecture to fit seamlessly with scalable analytics packages. This system helps reduce the overhead cost of your plant-wide automation system while connecting current and historical data to put processing into context.

All told, there’s no doubt that the mining industry is undergoing a significant change. Demands are increasing, the workforce is shrinking and regulations keep shifting.

Codale supplies your mine with many essential Rockwell Automation solutions for a variety of mining applications and needs. To help you compare products and services, Rockwell designed a single platform tool that allows you to take a comprehensive look at what emergent technology has to offer.

The Rockwell Product Configurator provides all the important information you need to kick start the future of your connected mine – no need to cycle back and forth between items. Whether it be product lifecycle, pricing, certifications or technical data, this tool provides it all.

Modern mines need reliable, actionable information to mitigate these challenges. Empowered by automation, emergent technologies are providing the critical data every company needs to stay compliant, productive and competitive.

Ready to get digging? Contact us today to learn more about Codale’s mining automation solutions.