The mining industry has started to unlock the potential of combining data, sensors, and intelligence to optimise workflows for real-time decision-making and value chain optimisation. Digitally integrated workflows enable customers to achieve a step change in safety, productivity, recovery and sustainability outcomes for their operations.

To realise the full potential across the entire value chain, technology domain leaders, customers and academia need to increase collaboration in an open ecosystem to develop integrated, end-to-end operational workflows that link orebody intelligence, drilling and blasting, material characterisation and processing.

Orica and Caterpillar have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to explore opportunities to integrate key elements of their respective domains. The initial focus will be on the potential integration between Orica's Rhino, BlastIQ, and FRAGTrack technologies with Cat MineStar Terrain. The goal of this integrated workflow is to provide customers with high-fidelity rock property information enabling significant improvements to on-bench safety, drilling and blasting programme accuracy and productivity, along with higher quality blast outcomes that generate enhanced mill performance.

Value chain optimisation 

In the future, the two companies intend to extend their collaboration to optimisation of the entire value chain, from mine to mill. This approach aligns with both organisations' ambitions to create sustainable solutions and services that will build the momentum for more intelligent and solution-driven mining ecosystems.

Sean McGinnis, vice president of Technology & Global Sales Support, Caterpillar, said: "Our customers are looking for every opportunity to optimise the productivity and safety of their mining and processing operations. By combining and leveraging the insights unlocked by Orica and Caterpillar's technologies, we will be able to provide customers greater access and visibility to the data and information they need to make, better real-time business decisions."

Rajkumar Mathiravedu, vice president of Orica Digital Solutions, added: "The mining industry requires greater collaboration amongst its leading technology players to build connected workflows across different domains to address the current issue of value-leakage arising from traditional and disconnected silos. Collaborative end-to-end ecosystems are critical to harnessing the full potential of advances in sensors, data processing and intelligence to enable the development of safer, more sustainable, and productive methods of resource recovery.

"Orica Digital Solutions is excited to be working with Caterpillar across a range of domains as we aim to better connect the digital and physical worlds to give our customers more timely and actionable insights across their value chains."

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