The digital twin in mining vanity or value?

Creating a digital twin of your mining operations is an expensive and intensive journey. The question is, will it produce value or is it just a vanity project driven by ego and profit seeking consultants?

In essence the digital twin of a mining operation is the real time digital copy representing, in 3D, the state and status of the sum, and the parts of the operation and its assets over time. Deloitte define the digital twin as fundamentally, an evolving digital profile of the historical and current behavior of a physical object or process that helps optimize business performance.

The worth of having a doppelganger of an operation was dramatically proven in 1970 by NASA during the famous Apollo 13 space mission’s “successful failure”. 55 Hours after launching and about 220 000 miles from earth, an explosion in the Command Module’s no 2 oxygen tank caused it to lose its normal propulsion system, supply of electricity, light and water.

Crucial to saving the lives of the astronauts and guiding the craft back to earth was the fact that NASA had an exact replica of the Apollo 13 spacecraft on earth.

The physical twin at NASA was a simulator spacecraft with mirror image systems, clothing, tools and objects the astronauts had in space. It allowed the NASA engineers and pilots through innovative thinking and simulations to come up with lifesaving ideas to deal with among other things, carbon dioxide build up, navigational challenges and the restart of the Command Module before re-entering the earth’s atmosphere.

For mining the digital twin unlocks the ability to rapidly asses the current status (financial and operational). Plan and simulate scenarios to determine the best strategy to get back on track, when faced with challenges like a sudden change in market conditions, rising costs, or a catastrophic operational event.

MineRP 4.0 is an integration platform of mine technical systems, with in-built, 3D modelling, rapid parametric planning, enterprise scheduling, orchestration, 3D reporting and analysis tools. In addition, the MineRP4.0 facilitates seamless platform to platform integration with other integration platforms like, Scada, IIoT and commercial ERP.

Click here to find out how MineRP 4.0 enables the digital twin and unlocks value for your operation. Or Listen to our latest podcast - The digital Twin - collecting every bit in every byte