Mining and IIoT groups join forces

Canadian Mining Journal Staff | September 4, 2019 | 2:36 pm Careers Education 
A graphic from a GMG Group document on interoperability in mining. Credit: Global Mining Standards Group

The Global Mining Guidelines Group (GMG) and the Industrial Internet Consortium have agreed to work together to maximize interoperability, portability, security and privacy for the industrial Internet.

The two organizations will work together:

  • Identifying and sharing IIoT best practices
  • Collaborating on standardization
  • Collaborating on interoperability in mining through the two organizations respective committees, working groups and task groups
  • Collaborating in IIoT adoption by co-creating reference architectures, methodologies and guidelines
  • Participating in a joint workshop to exchange ideas and information

“Emerging technologies are changing the way centuries-old industries operate,” said Mark Dunn, IIC liaison officer and principal research engineer, coal mining research program, CSIRO Energy. “In the mining domain, adding sensors and internet connectivity to vehicles, machinery and people is increasing mine safety, enhancing productivity and improving our use of global natural resources.”

Heather Ednie, GMG managing director noted that by working together with other organizations, the pool of expertise is widened, redundancies can be eliminated, and the mining industry can speed up its rate of innovation.

“GMG members contribute to shaping robust standards and tools for the global mining industry,” she said. “A partnership with IIC will harness IIoT expertise that exists outside of mining and help drive the future of our industry.”

Wael William Diab, chair of the IIC Liaison Working Group and secretary of the IIC Steering Committee, said that through the liaison program, the IIC is building the IIoT ecosystem to enable digital transformation across different industry verticals.

“Working with the global mining community is an opportunity to create new IIoT solutions, generate operational efficiencies and develop business model innovations,” he said.

The IIC Liaison Working Group is the gateway for formal relationships with standards and open-source organizations, consortia, alliances, certification and testing bodies and government entities/agencies. The agreement with Global Mining Guidelines Group is one of a number of agreements made by the IIC’s Liaison Working Group.

GMG is also working on other initiatives to standardize mining technology, such as battery electric vehicles and implementation of automation.

(This article first appeared in the Canadian Mining Journal)