Increasing productivity through automation solutions

Mitsui & Co, one of the world’s most diversified trading, investment and services enterprises, lodged an initial investment in Position Partners in 2019 before increasing its stake in 2022 to become the majority shareholder.

With the support of Mitsui’s technology and service networks, Position Partners has accelerated the deployment of digital and automated systems on all types of mining-related machines and equipment, partnering with customers seeking to increase efficiency and productivity, lower costs, meet environmental, sustainability and governance (ESG) targets, and increase safety.

“Position Partners’ strategic alignment with Mitsui & Co. means increased growth, along with an accelerated program encompassing digital transformation across many sectors, all while continuing a deep focus on providing operational technology for mines and their contractors,” Position Partners executive business manager – mining, solar and landfill Andrew Granger told Australian Mining.

“Many of our customers are operating multiple mine sites, each with unique environments and conditions associated with the resource they are mining. The operational technology solutions we offer must meet a diverse set of operational requirements across Australia, New Zealand and south-east Asia.

“We tailor solutions for our customers using fleet management systems, high-precision machine guidance, rehabilitation strategists, industrial wireless mesh networks, proximity and safety systems, stockpile management solutions, deformation monitoring, and mine survey solutions.

“We are striving to be the best technology partners and application specialists for the specific on-site mine requirements of our customers.”

Mine sites across Australia use a range of advanced technology solutions developed by Position Partners, including the iVolve Mine4D fleet management system (FMS).

This integrated management technology provides managers and supervisors a unique view into site operations, delivering real-time insights into production and allowing decision-making to optimise material movement and manage key assets through a single platform.

The iVolve Mine4D maintenance module provides access to machine data to support proactive maintenance to reduce the impact of in-service failures and unscheduled downtime.

Several tools are embedded in the iVolve Mine4D FMS.

The iControl map-based visualisation tool displays data for a complete overview of the state of mining fleets and assets, while the iReport provides on-shift production and maintenance data in real-time.

The iVolve in-cab display gives operators the ability to log-in, complete electronic pre-start reports, input time usage and production data, and monitor utilisation and production statistics.

iVolve’s focus on sleek on-screen design ensures a seamless in-cab experience.

“The effective monitoring of asset and material movements is a critical dimension to mining operations, to ensure they are productive, efficient and safe,” Granger said.

“The iVolve Mine4D fleet management system enables mine managers the ability to gather and visualise real-time data in a flexible style of monitoring and reporting, with the ability to access as much information as they require to supervise their operations, while simultaneously keeping track of machine health.”

Position Partners recently announced an agreement with MACA, a diversified contracting group, to retrofit its mixed fleet of 100 haul trucks with autonomous hardware and software.

MACA, with support from Position Partners, will be the first contract miner to deploy artificial intelligence (AI)-powered autonomy for its customers, establishing safer, more productive, and more cost-effective operations.

Together with SafeAI, a US company specialising in AI and automation for heavy equipment, the companies will establish one of the largest autonomous heavy-equipment fleets in Australia.

SafeAI has built a next-generation autonomous platform that brings the latest in AI to mining.

The company’s platform is interoperable and vehicle-agnostic, enabling mining companies to retrofit any vehicle, from any manufacturer, with autonomous technology.

With advanced multimodal sensors and significant on-board processing power, SafeAI-enabled equipment can independently make efficient, accurate decisions to keep operations running smoothly and safely.

“MACA have been instrumental in allowing Position Partners the opportunity to deploy, service and support many technology solutions,” Granger said. “The agreement we have reached to automate a mixed fleet of trucks incorporating SafeAI’s retrofit autonomy solution represents a significant step in the arrival of Autonomy 2.0 and the scaling of MACA’s fleet of autonomous vehicles.”

This new interoperable retrofit technology has the potential to unlock newfound scalability and flexibility across Australia’s many fleets of mining vehicles.

“Moving forward, Position Partners will focus on providing tailored service and support to mining companies who embark upon retrofitting their existing vehicle fleets with the SafeAI solution,” Granger said.

Position Partners is focused on supplying integrated and flexible technology solutions for under-resourced mining operations.

“Our approach is to provide detailed insights for our customers, to be able to measure and predict the performance of specific mine sites, or multiple sites, so that they know how to best deploy their resources,” Granger said.

“The commonality of data is important, as is the flexibility in the retrieval of data, as our customers often require specific planning, monitoring and measurement tools that are dependent on their specific mining conditions.

“We always seek to stay ahead of the technology curve, so when new digital solutions arrive we are eager and able to employ hardware and software upgrades for the benefit of our customers, as well as provide the service and support they require.

“Optionality is a key part of our future, and Position Partners are here to support that.”

Read the full article in Australian Mining