JSC Kuzbassrazrezugol, a division of Russian mining company Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company (UMMC) that specialises in coal extraction, plans to implement Zyfra's ZM OpenMine mining fleet management system at all of its sites.
Zyfra is a Finnish-Russian supplier of digital solutions for mining and other heavy industries.
The ZM OpenMine system is already operating at UMMC's Bachatsky coal mine, which is located 150km south of Kemerovo in southwest Siberia, Russia. It manages over 200 vehicles, including 40 excavators and 120 dump trucks. As well as the basic functionality modules and control of various types of mining vehicles such as excavators, dump trucks, drill rigs and bulldozers, the company has also implemented services for diagnostics, tyre monitoring, ore quality control and railway transport.
It has been estimated that using the ZM OpenMine system at the Bachatsky open pit alone will save UMMC up to US$2 million in 2021 due to the increase in transport load, decrease in downtime, and savings in fuel and lubricants.
By the end of this year, the ZM OpenMine system will be introduced at the Krasnobrodsky, Kaltansky and Taldinsky coal mines. It will then be launched at the Kedrovsky and Mokhovsky coal mines by mid-2022. The project's total size is more than 1,100 equipment units.
It is projected that implementing the ZM OpenMine system across UMMC's coal mines will result in overall savings for the company of US$9 million by the end of 2022.
Sergey Fedotov, head of the UMMC digital transformation programme, commented: "We are implementing digitalisation projects in accordance with UMMC's digital strategy, which includes cost-effective initiatives focused on health, safety and environment. The implementation of automatic dispatching is the best example of such initiatives. The ZM OpenMine system helps to fully control the entire mining fleet. In particular, the system minimises the risk of hazardous situations in production, improves labour discipline, and also leads to resource savings: tyres, fuel and lubricants, consumables."
For the next digital transformation steps, UMMC intends to introduce digital twins with a full three-dimensional geological model of its open-pit coal mines for planning, design and monitoring of mining operations.
Pavel Rastopshin, managing director of Zyfra Group, said: "The ZM OpenMine system has already proven itself on the market as a reliable tool for keeping the efficiency and safety of mining transport under control. We believe that our system will allow UMMC to strengthen its position as an industry leader in the region and achieve high efficiency and industrial safety indicators."
