ebook

Unearthing Operational
Excellence: Maximizing Mining
with Digital Transformation
Hexagon’s solutions can help your mining operations
prepare for tomorrow, today!

Introduction
For thousands of years, in almost every corner of the globe, humans haveapplied their ingenuity in various methods to mine and process ore bodies.
Whether in search of fossil fuels, rare elements or precious metals, drilling thedeep sea, boring massive tunnels, carving out open pits or moving mountains,
mining has evolved and shaped our civilizations over the centuries. An issue
that’s been constant from the beginning of mining activities to the present
day is the significant health, safety and environmental risks associated withthis process.
The dangers associated with mining are multiple and include the hazardous
environments people are exposed to and the use of often large and dangerous
equipment. S&P Global Marketing Intelligence (2017) 1 reported that according
to Joanne Farrell — who was representing Rio Tinto as the Group Executive
HSE and Managing Director Australia at the Minesafe International 2017conference — the mining industry was about seven or eight years behind theoil, gas and chemical industries when it came to process safety at that time:

As an industry, we in mining have not focused or talked
about process safety as much as we could or should have.
We all need to lift the conversation and talk about process
safety in terms of getting our people out of harm’s way andpreventing catastrophic events.”
Accenture and the World Economic Forum (2017) 2 argued that digitaltransformation initiatives embraced by the mining and metals industry overa ten-year period could result in an improvement in safety, with around 1,000
lives saved and 44,000 injuries avoided. This equates approximately to a 10%
decrease in lives lost and a 20% decrease in injuries in the industry. These
initiatives include automation, robotics and operational hardware, a digitallyenabled workforce, integrated enterprise, platforms and ecosystems andnext-generation analytics and decision support.

SNL, “Mining industry needs to improve process safety, take lead from oil, gas sectors”
World Economic Forum, White Paper, “Digital Transformation Initiative Mining and Metals Industry”
Research and Markets, “Mining Global Market Report 2021: COVID-19 Impact and Recovery to 2030”
4EY, “Top 10 business risks and opportunities for mining and metals in 2021”
1

2

3

Mining is a billion-dollar global industry that’s critical for other dependent
markets, such as technologies and electronics, construction andinfrastructure and green energy resources. According to Research andMarkets (2021) 3 it is expected to grow from $1641.67 billion (USD) in 2020
to $1845.55 billion (USD) in 2021 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR)
of 12.4%. The market is expected to reach $2427.85 billion (USD) in 2025 at
a CAGR of 7%. This growth is mainly due to companies rearranging theiroperations and recovering from the impact of COVID-19 that led to restrictive
containment measures involving social distancing, remote working and theclosure of commercial activities that resulted in operational challenges.
According to EY (2021) 4 changes enacted to respond to COVID-19 have created
opportunities for miners to accelerate digital transformation and enhancesafety and productivity:

COVID-19’s impact has highlighted the benefits of various
technologies, such as automation, AI and blockchain, to help
ensure business continuity. Businesses that had alreadyinvested in advancing their digital journey are reaping thebenefits now and will continue to have a competitive edge
beyond the pandemic.”

Accenture and the World Economic Forum (2017) 5 also highlighted theeconomic, environmental and productivity benefits that digital transformation
could generate for the mining industry over a ten-year period (2015 to 2025):•

Double handling of data•

Inadequate schedule compliance or compliance plan performance•

More than $425 billion (USD) of value for the industry, customers,society and environment•

Insufficient leverage of the information collected in business value
decision making•

Over $320 billion (USD) of industry value, with a potential benefit ofapproximately $190 billion (USD) for the mining sector and $130 billion(USD) for the metals sector•

Limited, singular add-on tools or point solutions that are costly andoften incompatible with each other•

Missed opportunities to collect, store and structure more situational,
qualitative and quantitative information•

Multiple data-entry systems for operations and HSE personnel•

Siloed information that’s inaccessible to employees across theoperation•

Slow and expensive methods for making changes that impede
operational continuous improvement efforts•

Sluggish uptake of multiple systems for new employees•

A reduction of 610 million tonnes of CO2 emissions, with an estimatedvalue to society and environment of $30 billion (USD)

Deloitte (2017) also proposed the value of the digital mine nerve center thatbrings together data across the mining value chain in multiple time-horizons,
to improve planning, control and decision making, in order to optimize volume,
cost and capital expenditure and to also improve safety.
6

As a result, mining companies are looking to fast-track their digitaltransformation journey to manage new project ventures, remain competitive,
reduce operational and health, safety, environment and community (HSEC)
risks, maintain a social license to operate (SLO), decrease downtime, increase
worker engagement and productivity and facilitate compliance with criticalregulatory requirements. This is where Hexagon can help your organization
prepare for the “next normal.” Whether you need to digitalize and transform
operational systems and processes, accelerate your continuous improvement
initiatives, improve decision making, maximize leadership time in the field,
help prevent fatalities and injuries, drive compliance to processes, optimize
alarm management, protect your digital investments with state-of-the-art
cybersecurity or build out a comprehensive digital twin, we are here to support
your digital transformation journey and prepare for tomorrow, today.

Based on our own internal expertise and listening to our customers share
their experiences, we have identified three principal business reasons why anorganization should dig deep into its digital transformation journey (employee
safety and fatality prevention, workforce productivity and asset productivity).

In today’s digital age where technology is being embraced at an exponential
rate, personnel at many mines are still using hard-copy documents, siloedspreadsheets, scattered databases and other inadequate data collection
and management tools for crucial day-to-day procedures such as shifthandover. This can lead to miscommunication, mistakes, inefficiencies andmajor operational and safety risks — all of which can be avoided. Some of thecommon challenges faced by mining operators include:

5
6•

Deficient mobile technology and/or applications•

Detached real-time and process data from data historians, the CMMS,
the DCS, EAM, PLC and SCADA systems

World Economic Forum, White Paper, “Digital Transformation Initiative Mining and Metals Industry”
Deloitte, “The digital mine - What does it mean for you?”3

Customer Spotlight
AGL Energy is one of Australia’s leading integrated energy companies andthe largest Australian Security Exchange (ASX) listed owner, operator anddeveloper of renewable energy generation in the country. Its diverse power
generation portfolio includes base, peaking and intermediate generation
plants, spread across traditional thermal generation as well as renewablesources including hydro, wind, landfill gas, solar and biomass. The Loy Yang
open cut brown coal mine in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley, near Traralgon, is owned
and operated by AGL Energy.

•

Coal Draw Directive Report: Provides instructions to the dredger
operators on the drawing positions for the shift, this data is also
expanded on in the j5 Operations Logbook.

•

Shift Handover Report: Generated at the end of each shift, this is astandard j5 Shift Handover report containing additional information
including hazards, safety and planning issues.

•

Shift Leaders Report: Generated at the end of each shift, this reportcompares planned and actual results, includes bunker levels, stocks
at the start and end of shift, output and digging rates of individual
dredgers and major events from PI Event Frames.

•

Shift Production Requirements Report: This report provides thetonnage required and the rate per hour, major events on the dredgers,
digging priority instructions, quality of the coal and the bunkering
strategy.

Customer Challenges
The Loy Yang open cut brown coal mining operation uses four electricpowered bucket wheel dredgers that are 190 metres long and 50 metres high.
Each one weighing around 5,000 tonnes and able to excavate 4,000 tonnesof coal an hour or over one tonne of coal a second. The coal is taken fromthe mine to the Loy Yang Power Station by 15 kilometres of conveyors thatcarry the coal at speeds of 5.3 metres a second to an 80,000-tonne capacity
bunker. The coal is crushed by rotary crushers that can handle 2,500 tonnes
an hour each before it is delivered to the Loy Yang Power Station. During eachshift, the daily directions and targets need to be conveyed to the operations
staff indicating the requirements in terms of quantity and quality of thecoal required. Information detailing the status and availability of the major
equipment is also needed. At the end of each shift, reports are required
to indicate if objectives were met, comparing planned tonnage to actual
tonnage. AGL Energy’s objectives were to streamline the provision of dailyrequirements and combine that data with actual achievements to evaluate
shifts production levels.

j5 Operations Management Solutions are saving time by producing concise
requirements and directions at the start of each shift and is making
information available to the entire operations crew allowing for greatercommunication and direction within the group. The j5 Connector for the
OSIsoft PI System enables the powerful combination of human operations
processes and procedures with real-time data and is exposing the planning
data to a larger audience, improving the operations workflow. The provision ofthis data at the start and end of each shift enables a group approach to daily
production and shift handover meetings.

Hexagon Solution
The Loy Yang open cut brown coal mine utilizes the j5 Operations Logbook, j5
Shift Handover, j5 Work Instructions, j5 Event Manager and the j5 Connector
for the OSIsoft™ PI System™ throughout its operations along with j5
Dashboards, Reports and Views and j5 IndustraForm® Templates functionality
to meet AGL Energy’s extensive requirements. PI System current and futureplanning data is connected to j5 Operations Management Solutions tobuild the requirement details and the resulting shift production levels. This
combined data provides four reports for each shift:
Photo: AGL Energy Loy Yang Mine

Accelerate Your Digital Transformation Journey
to Operational Excellence with Hexagon
Investing in a comprehensive, interoperable and enterprise-scalable digitaltransformation strategy will accelerate your continuous improvement efforts in thisever-changing economic landscape. It will also promote the long-term resilience of yourcompany’s safety performance, workforce and asset productivity and provides yourbusiness with the competitive edge it needs to perform at its best. As your trusted
digital transformation partner, Hexagon’s operations and maintenance solutions canhelp you create intelligent information from disparate sources including unstructured
disconnected data, documentation, and structured digital data sources and existing
databases. Hexagon’s solution also help you find and resolve duplicate data andconsolidate information to reduce operational risk, increase efficiency, decrease
downtime, remove value leaks and meet internal and external compliance. Here is how
we can work with you to implement your operational excellence digital transformation
roadmap, step-by-step.

5

Step 1 Digitalize Operational Processes, Procedures and Permits
The creation of a solid operations management data ecosystem by digitalizing
your operational processes, procedures and permits is a strong first step on
the road to digital transformation. Critical asset, situational, qualitative andquantitative information should be captured, structured and stored digitallyand more importantly, organized and made available to support safety-criticaloperational processes. j5 Operations Management Solutions can take yourshift, operator round, personnel, safety, maintenance and process informationand make it visible and viable to users across the entire organization. This
on-premise, or SaaS, solution is designed to foster greater communication,
coordination, transparency and knowledge transfer between teams that in turnleads to improved safety and productivity, reduced operational risk and a more
empowered and engaged workforce. j5 Operations Management Solutions
offers a unique, straightforward digitalization approach with its patented
spreadsheet-like configuration environment. This distinctive yet familiar lowcode/no-code approach enables personnel to quickly manage changes without
requiring expensive and slow vendor and IT services, accelerating operational
continuous improvement so your information collection and sharing is always up
to date and reflective of your operations. This distinction allows j5 Operations
Management Solutions to be a quick-time-to-value investment, with highflexibility and a lower total cost of ownership.
Reinforcing this first step with an industry-leading knowledge management
suite aimed at making human performance better through digital tools andconnection to the modern process industry solutions used today is critical.

The implementation of j5 Operations
Management Solutions across the water
control function has given greater visibilityof ongoing issues and given us a consistentand accountable shift handover tool.”- Ant Tyler, Systems Operations ComplianceManager, Thames Water, UK

AcceleratorKMS is an industry-leading solution that expedites the digitaltransformation of paper-based, high-risk operational procedures and work
processes. However, it also enables organizations to easily manage, govern,and distribute the up-to-date critical operational content field workers require
to keep operations running optimally and learn faster. AcceleratorKMS isa purpose-built and industry-leading Knowledge Management System for
critical operational content. The digital system includes Procedure Life-cycle
Management (PLCM), a Connected Worker Platform (CWP), a Learner Experience
Platform (LXP), and a Component Content Management System (CCMS). The
combined capability facilitates solutions to many critical problems experienced
in workplaces across America and around the World. The system provides anintegrated digital content ecosystem in an easy-to-use and intuitive package
focused on making the complex simple.

Proven Business Outcomes
These are quantitative benefits that were reported by surveyed j5 Operations
Management Solutions customers in 2020:•

Enhanced situational awareness (30%-50%)•

More accurate shift handovers (30%-50%)•

Increased asset availability (20%-50%)•

Better workforce productivity (20%-50%)•

Improved regulatory compliance (20%-50%)•

Reduced maintenance costs (10%-50%)

To me it’s completely game-changing
to have all this information readily
available on one screen. This is thefirst time an end user can go to one
place and get all the operations,maintenance, engineering andprocess data they need to do theirduties. By having all this information
readily available in a digital twin,
I believe this is an industry firstfor the oil and gas industry, where
it has been difficult to monitor
remote assets and equipment indangerous areas.”- Michael Fry, President and CEO, Deepwater Subsea, USA

Connect Operational Data

Step 2

Next, organizations must bridge the islands of crucial information and records innumerous formats on separate systems and digitally connect them to operational
processes, procedures, permits and data to help reduce operational risk, increase
efficiency, decrease downtime, remove value leaks and meet internal and external
compliance. With PAS AlarmManagement™ you can easily implement industry-wide
best practices to streamline and improve your alarm systems and operator
effectiveness. PAS ControlWizard™ and PAS TuneWizard™ work together to monitor,
assess and tune your control loops to ensure optimal performance, robust control, andimprove overall safety and reliability. PAS InBound® helps you create a master databaseof operational limits. With it, you can ensure alignment across all your sources of recordand analyze your performance against those limits. PAS IPL Assurance® provides
visibility into your Independent Protection Layers (IPL), making it easier to assure youroperations are safe to run. And the PAS Solution portfolio are interoperable with j5
Operations Management Solutions. Adding further value to organizations investingin a digital transformation roadmap guided by Hexagon. Companies can further
enhance information connection and interoperability by aggregating operational dataand enabling a digital thread framework with HxGN SDx®. This central asset lifecycle
information management (ALIM) solution is strategically designed to capture, organize
and link large volumes of information, in context and provides web-based access to yourauthorized personnel. Available as an on-premise or SaaS solution, it can be adopted
by any facility without introducing new software or investments in IT infrastructure.
HxGN SDx is a CFIHOS-compliant, ALIM digital platform that centralizes and unites
operations, maintenance, safety, engineering and real-time data. HxGN SDx can beconnected to Hexagon technology such as j5 Operations Management Solutions andthird-party industrial data sources such as Aspen InfoPlus.21®, IBM Maximo®, SAP® Plant
Maintenance (PM) and the OSIsoft™ PI System™ to provide a consolidated, role andcontext relevant view of information.

Proven Business OutcomesContact Energy (New Zealand)
60% alarm rate improvements by adjusting alarm setpoints, deadbands, delay times
and improving control logic and 65% reduction in long-standing “stale” alarms,
contributing to improvement of operators’ alarm-related workload
Deepwater Subsea (USA)70% productivity savings in documentation and completion of inspections and 95%
saving in time retrieving and searching for quality evidence post inspection

Step 3 Protect Your Digital Investments
On the journey to digital maturity, keeping your operations running safely,smoothly and protected from cyber threats is vital to prevent unnecessaryinterruption to your enterprise. There are no shortages of reports or news
outlets raising the alarm on cybersecurity awareness. In fact, the ARC
Advisory Group 1 (2019) reported that “many industrial operations remain
at risk of costly, disruptive cyber incidents.” Its analysts recommended
that “all industrial companies consider software like PAS Cyber
Integrity™ as a foundational element of a defense-in-depth cybersecurity
strategy.” This solution also provides numerous significant customer
benefits such as: discovers and automatically maintains a complete
inventory of OT assets inventory and enables workflows and documentationfor vulnerability remediations and compliance with ISA/IEC 62443, ISO
27001/2, NERC-CIP, 2 NIST and the NIS Directive, as well as other standards
and regulations, accelerating recovery with backups of critical control
system data and supporting in-depth forensic analysis. ARC Advisory Groupalso noted that the solution’s capabilities support execution of criticaltasks in the “Secure Systems” and “Incident Management” processes
identified in its “Industrial/OT Cybersecurity Maturity Model.” This
includes functionality for developing and maintaining asset inventories,
identifying, evaluating and managing system vulnerabilities, detecting
and managing unexpected system changes and analyzing and visualizing
system security risks.

In industrial facilities, you typically find an arrayof proprietary ICS that are difficult to inventory,
which subsequently makes monitoring for change
and vulnerabilities a security challenge. As thesesystems have direct authority over process safety
and production, there is unaddressed cybersecurity
risk within a facility environment. Hexagon hasarchitected its software to cover these systems,
and its customers have testified to Hexagon’s
effectiveness in reducing security risk.”- Vikrant Gandhi, Industry Director, Frost & Sullivan, USA

Proven Business Outcomes1
2•

Speeds time to recovery from major events, cyber incidents,
and unplanned outages•

Reduces inventory and documentation effort by 70% or more•

Improves productivity by 20% to 50% via always-on change
management insight into OT/ICS configurations

ARC Advisory Group, “PAS Global Cyber Integrity Helps Secure Industrial Control Systems”
NERC, “CIP Standards”
8Digital twins are becoming abusiness imperative, covering
the entire lifecycle of an asset orprocess, and forming the foundation
for connected products andservices. Companies that fail to
respond will be left behind.”- Thomas Kaiser, Senior Vice President of IoT, SAP

End Goal Build, Maintain and Evolve a Digital Twin
A digital twin enables asset owners and operators to build and maintain an information
management data ecosystem throughout the asset lifecycle, allowing for a continuous
journey of operational excellence. By deploying a comprehensive digital twin, complex
data can be analyzed and transformed into actionable information. The significance of
this ultimate digital platform is that it opens the door to the competitive advantages
made possible by using predictive and prescriptive analytics, artificial intelligence(AI), machine learning and automated decision making across the mining value chain.
As mentioned in an article published by Forbes (2017),12 digital twin technology helps
companies improve the customer experience by better understanding customer needs,
develop enhancements to existing products, operations and services and can even help
drive the innovation of new business. Hexagon’s Situational Awareness solution —powered by Luciad — boosts your operations and empowers your workforce by deliveringto them a valuable, data-driven experience that encapsulates easily consumable,
timely information regarding past events (what’s happened), present facts (what’s
happening now) and future predictions (what could happen/what should happen/what’sscheduled to happen). Therefore, seamlessly connecting your safety-critical operations
processes, procedures and permits, alarm management methodology, maintenancework orders, real-time and historical process data, engineering schematics and technicaldocumentation with 3D models, laser scans and cybersecurity safeguards enables arobust and comprehensive digital twin for your entire operation.
12

Forbes, “What Is Digital Twin Technology - And Why Is It So Important?”

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About HxGN SDx
Connect
A digital twin is a dynamic digital
depiction comprised of physicalentity information. It is the single
version of the truth unique to a user’s
perspective for a point in the lifecyclewith many digital levels.

HxGN SDx is a modular, on-premise or SaaS ALIM solution that digitally transforms facilities and allows companies
to build a digital twin to optimize efficiency, reliability, predictability and safety across the lifecycle of an asset.
HxGN SDx is comprised of two independent, yet integrated modules that address the major asset lifecycle stages ofan industrial facility. Each module provides work processes, roles and content tailored to address a specific phaseof the asset lifecycle. Each module also includes a comprehensive set of capabilities with additional options thatcan be licensed as needed:

HxGN SDx Projects
Enables better projects planning and review, ensuring effective information aggregation and collaborative project
execution, improving project efficiency and reducing risk.

HxGN SDx Operations

Think
Data is diffused seamlessly between
the digital depiction and physicalentity to enable co-existence. Then
advanced technologies bring data,
algorithms and context together.

Do
With this comes understanding,prediction and optimization for thephysical entity to drive improved
business outcomes.

Increases operations and maintenance efficiency, safety and internal and external regulatory compliance throughtemplated work processes and manages change and interoperability with other industrial systems of record.

Achieve Operational Excellence in Mining
Employee Safety and Fatality Prevention:
Risk Mitigation and Workforce Accountability
Digitalizing and automating operational processes such as areaand shift handovers, permitting and inspections enables anadditional level of situation data to be collected and insights into
workforce compliance and efficiency. These new insights help
close operational gaps that create safety risks and help improveyour operations to save time and money.

Workforce Productivity:
Decrease Operating Expenses (OpEx)
Optimized assets, reduced downtime, enhanced
productivity and better safety compliance all contributeto lower OpEx and higher profitability. Technology is now
allowing a larger percentage of an operational workforce
to work remotely, which has been shown to increase
employee engagement and happiness while reducing
hazard exposure hours.

Employee Safety and Fatality
Prevention: Meet Compliance
When you need clear, concise and current records for local, stateor federal regulatory compliance requests and procedures,
having your data locked in a physical paper trail to can lead to
unnecessary delays and misinformation. Digital records allow
you to instantaneously deliver accurate, current andcomplete information to internal and external regulators.

Workforce Productivity: Save Time
From the office to the field, personnel can save hours
each day with digital access to the right information at theright time. Instead of spending precious time sorting
through paper documents or multiple systems to track,access and manage vital operational information yourpersonal can put your data and their skills to work
optimizing and improving operations.

Asset Productivity: Increase Efficiency

Asset Productivity: Reduce Operational Risk

Empower your workforce to make informed decisions in real-timewith the information they need, when they need it and where theyneed it — via desktop, laptop or mobile devices. With digitalize
processes, the information you need is always on hand, there's noneed to search for paperwork from a previous shift or interrupt a
co-worker who's on break or on vacation.

Workforce safety is improved when you reduce the chances ofhuman error due to reliance on physical paper, especially when it
comes to equipment inspections and shift handovers. Digitalizingthese processes ensures the right equipment and readings areinspected at the right time and assists employees to quickly
highlight when equipment is operating out of its specified ranges.

11Introducing R-evolution
In February 2021, Hexagon launched a new business venture, R-evolution, to further develop its sustainability
agenda, which include climate goals to significantly reduce its own carbon footprint. R-evolution will invest in andrun profit-driven, sustainable projects that leverage Hexagon’s technology to accelerate the world’s transition to asustainable economy. The first set of investments, centered around renewable energy, will involve the construction
and operation of solar farms in Andalusia, Spain, producing energy with 50,000 tonnes less CO2 equivalents perannum than the grid’s residual mix.

Working With a Trusted Digital
Transformation Partner
As YOUR trusted digital transformation partner, we provide
evolving solutions that allow people to design, engineer,construct, operate and maintain industrial assets withstate-of-the-art technology backed by a team of global
experts and research. Together, we are co-creators of thesmart solutions that improve today, work tomorrow andempower adaptive change. Putting data to work — to boost
safety, efficiency, productivity and quality outcomes — arevalues we share with you.

Our focus ison autonomy

Our commitment is
to innovation

Our value isstrategically vital

Our stability is
consistently proven

Leveraging data to its fullest
potential is the outcome
we want – moving beyond
automation to autonomy

With nearly 4,000 employees
in R&D and more than 3,700
active patents our technology
leadership is clear

Efficiency, productivity andquality results in scalable
sustainability – fewer resources,
less waste, less pollution

Sales growth from €500 million in2000 to €4.3 billion in 2021 withapproximately 20,000 employees
across 50 countries
13Revenue Distribution

About Hexagon’s PPM Division
Hexagon’s PPM division is the leading global provider ofenterprise engineering software, enabling smarter designand operation of plants, ships and offshore facilities. With50+ years of experience in delivering innovative industrial
software, Hexagon solutions transform unorganized data
into intelligent, actionable information that enables smarter
design, construction and operation of industrial projects
across the asset lifecycle.

34%

37%

Awarded Solutions Provider

Global Presence

Ranked No. 1 over 13 consecutive years,
across 5 different categories, recognizedin 2019 by ARC Advisory Group

More than 4,000 employees,with offices in 50 countries

R&D Focused

Innovative

More than 19% of total
revenue invested in 2021

More than 40 registered patents
around the world

29%

14

About Hexagon
Hexagon is a global leader in digital reality solutions, combining sensor, software andautonomous technologies. We are putting data to work to boost efficiency, productivity,
quality and safety across industrial, manufacturing, infrastructure, public sector, andmobility applications.
Hexagon’s PPM division empowers its clients to transform unstructured information
into a smart digital asset to visualize, build, and manage structures and facilities of allcomplexities, ensuring safe and efficient operation throughout the entire lifecycle.
Hexagon (Nasdaq Stockholm: HEXA B) has approximately 22,000 employees in 50 countries
and net sales of approximately 4.3bn EUR. Learn more at hexagon.com and follow us@HexagonAB.
© 2022 Hexagon AB and/or its subsidiaries and affiliates. All rights reserved. 04/22 PPM-US-ENG