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The mining industry is producing something besides minerals these days: it’s producing massive quantities of data.
Data on finances, safety, equipment, productivity, scheduling, and more. It belongs to a category of information coined “big data” to describe the large, complex sets seen in the modern world of industrial production and technological innovation.
However, while these mining companies may produce tonnes of data, they don’t necessarily have the equipment needed for extracting, processing and using them.
A new sector has popped up to service this need, a data analytics sector that provides hardware and software solutions to help businesses track and use the data to improve operations.
In Sudbury, this sector is primarily servicing the mining industry, and it’s gaining recognition as the Greater Sudbury Development Corporation (GSDC) advances their economic action plan.
The city focused their April Resourceful Cities lecture on the data analytics services sector, how it can be engaged by the mining industry, and local businesses that are leading the way.
“The key thing here is it’s a very diversified sector,” said Paul Reid, the city’s business development officer in the mining and supply/services sector. “The city participates to try and advance the growth in this sector. It’s all part of an ecosystem.”
One of the businesses that has witnessed growth is Symboticware, a hardware and software company founded by Kirk Petroski in 2008. He addressed how the sector has changed in the last eight years, specifically in the North.
“We’re taking the foundation and history of Sudbury, with the collective knowledge of the industry, and exporting more than just mineral extractions,” said Petroski.
Petroski said the slow cycle in mining is pushing companies to innovate and, despite rescinded budgets, investing in technology is becoming the norm.
“Solutions around mining are becoming valuable,” said Petroski. “There’s more attention to innovation and technology, and companies are faced with very little choice. You need to look at technology to make even marginal improvements.”
Symboticware’s specific products include things like an equipment monitoring device that prevents vehicles from exceeding manufacturer speed guidelines, and a mobile equipment monitor that provides real-time data collection on risk mitigation and energy savings in remote locations. Symboticware can provide the tools to collect this information, organize it, and use it in ways that improve the customers’ safety, productivity and reduce costs.
These technologies are a part of the trend of Internet of Things (IoT), which is essentially the networking of various technological products and devices that communicate big data to each other over the internet. The automated communications process involved is called telemetry, the global market for which is $75 billion currently, and anticipated to reach $103 billion by 2019.
Another company jumping on board this growing market is Dean Lupini’s Key Logic Software Solutions, which services the mining and engineering sectors. His company specializes in 3D imaging by taking information from clients and visualizing it in ways that eliminate manual work. Lupini said his sector is responding to a demand for information management that is emerging locally and around the world.
Petroski and Lupini are two of several business owners who have opened in Sudbury in the last decade, and Reid said the city sees huge growth ahead in the sector. Compared to the traditional products of mining, the byproduct data are less tangible, but no less valuable, said Petroski.
“It’s not bricks and mortar; it’s knowledge,” said Petroski. “But we help customers unlock and collect valuable data from their industrial mobile assets to help improve business outcomes.”
