Fachartikel

The term Industrie 4.0 originates from the German government initiative to integrate manufacturing with state-of-the-art information and communication technology. It is synonymous with the digitalization of industrial processes. While some industries are far along in the digitalization of their processes others, like the mining sector, still have a lot of ground to cover. However technologies are already available today to ...

Like all industries, the mining industry must face the challenges of digitalization. Today, automation and software already play an important role in controlling the variability of deposits and commodity price fluctuations. This trend will rapidly further accelerate with the digital transformation since the mining industry still has a lower level of automation compared to other industries and thus has correspondingly ...

Mine operators have been facing enormous cost pressure caused by low prices for raw materials and challenging political para-meters for some time now. A growing demand for cost reduction, increased efficiency, and minimization of maintenance efforts are some of the logical consequences. In order to meet these requirements, extensive optimization in the world’s mining operations is essential. However, it should ...

The general fall in prices and high degree of volatility in the commodities market are now having a major impact on the viability and strategic focus of raw materials companies and machine manufacturers. Irrespective of whether the situation is set to continue long term or undergo a complete change of direction, it has already had a transformative effect on the ...

For the automation of underground mobile equipment in the scope of the Mining 4.0 initiative, it is necessary to have precise and continuous position information of that very mobile equipment. Different indoor positioning systems are available these days. However, not every system is suitable for use in underground mining operations. At the Institute for Mineral Resources Machine Technology (IMR) of ...

This paper provides an overview of methods to secure long-term supply of raw materials, potentially applicable on corporate level. The feasibility of the methods was investigated with regard to strategic metals. In addition to the general applicability of the instruments, the limits of the implementation on corporate level have been assessed. The paper is based on the evaluation of literature ...

Implementing VISION ZERO means exchanging ideas beyond national boundaries. This was the guiding principle for the first VISION ZERO Europe Conference (VIZE) that was held in Bochum/Germany from 7th to 9th September 2016. The debut event proved to be such a success that it has laid the foundations for a series of VISION ZERO conferences going forward. The first presentation ...

Renewable power options are fairly new to the mining sector and are now just at the beginning of the scaling stage. However, they have gained a lot of momentum in recent years and an increasing number of projects are being realized across the globe and in various climate zones. Nonetheless, the largest share of the overall potential is still untapped ...

ENERCON GmbH, Aurich/Germany, is a privately-owned manufacturer, constructor and operator of high-performance wind turbines. The company is built on values such as innovation, quality and entrepreneurship; all of which help achieve the goal of providing renewable energy to the world – wherever the need for energy may be. With this vision in mind, ENERCON accepts the challenge of building windfarms ...

In many countries, the cost of solar power is already at about the same level as the cost of power from coal-fired power stations. Especially in comparison with existing diesel power stations, solar power has been able to develop its cost advantages to the full as a result of the continuous fall in system costs. As a decentralized source of ...