Today’s mining industry must contend with a host of challenges: the growing demand for natural resources, ever-tightening environmental regulations, a decline in the availability of skilled workers, and the omnipresent need to ensure worker safety, to name just a few. Robust, dependable process instrumentation and weighing solutions from Siemens combine the highest precision with minimal maintenance requirements – keeping your processes under control in even the most difficult conditions.

Growing demand for – and decreasing supply of – natural resources

As the demand for natural resources increases throughout the world, we also face a decline in ore grade. The mining industry uses millions of tons of mined minerals each year. However, the concentration of minerals per ton of ore is decreasing in many regions. Reliable monitoring and control, reduced downtime and maintenance, and increased productivity and efficiency are more important than ever. Siemens devices provide advanced asset management, diagnostics, and preventive maintenance for tough applications.

• SIMATIC PDM Maintenance Station monitors the condition of smart field devices independent of your control system.
• SIWAREX DB digital junction box supplies comprehensive diagnostic data for individual load cells in weighing applications.

Tighter environmental regulations and rising energy costs

Energy costs are growing, stricter environmental regulations are targeting greater energy and water efficiency – and the mining industry is feeling the effects. Prevention of failures and waste is critical for meeting regulations and decreasing energy usage. Siemens provides the tools for accurate monitoring of water consumption, advanced pump control, and minimizing air consumption.

• HydroRanger 200 ultrasonic level controller monitors and manages complex pumping routines for enhanced efficiency.
• SIPART PS2 valve positioner minimizes air consumption during valve operation to reduce overall energy usage.

Worldwide shortage of skilled mining labor

Finding the right people for the job can be difficult in any industry. Finding workers skilled in the intricate parts of the mining process is an even greater – and growing – challenge. Complicated process instrumentation comes with maintenance requirements that you and your workers can’t afford. Siemens process instruments feature quick-start wizards for easy installation, minimal maintenance with easy-to-understand diagnostics, and seamless integration into distributed control systems, all of which mitigate the decline in skilled labor.

• Milltronics MMI belt scale provides high accuracy without the need for pivots, reducing maintenance.
• SIWAREX weighing electronics can be seamlessly integrated into the SIMATIC automation environment, including SIMATIC PCS 7 and TIA Portal.

Essential workforce safety practices

The mining industry has no shortage of tough applications: high temperatures, hazardous materials, potentially dangerous situations. These conditions can be harmful to workers as well as to your company. Help keep your miners safe with reliable instrumentation that reduces the need to send operators into hazardous environments. Siemens offers heavy-duty dust-tight enclosures, remote–mounted transmitters, wireless communications, and Bluetooth configuration options.

• SITRANS FM TRANSMAG 2 electromagnetic flow transmitter features rugged, fully welded construction with the option for remote mounting.
• SITRANS LR100 radar transmitter comes complete with Bluetooth wireless technology for quick and easy setup using a smart device.

Remote access requiring increased infrastructure costs

Many new sites your company prepares for mining operations are located in challenging areas. Remote mining sites require a great deal of costly infrastructure, and sending technicians to these locations can be both time–consuming and expensive. Siemens industrial wireless communications provide a link between your field instrumentation data and your PC, tablet, or smartphone. Mobile wireless routers enable data transfer in remote locations and come with options for multiple cellular communications standards including LTE, UMTS, and GSM.

SITRANS store IQ Smart Monitoring App allows facility technicians, operators, and managers to remotely monitor the activity and health of process equipment, regardless of location.

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