Orica partners with Caterpillar to enhance integrated workflows across the mining value chain

Orica, a leading mining and infrastructure solutions provider, has announced a technology collaboration with Caterpillar, a leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, with the aim of improving real-time data exchange and developing integrated workflows across the mining value chain

With the mining industry beginning to come to terms with the potential of digital solutions to enhance value chains, Orica has reiterated how digitally integrated workflows can enable customers to achieve a step change in safety productivity, recovery and sustainability for their operations. In order to fully realise this potential. Technology domain leaders, customers and academia need to increase collaboration in an open ecosystem to develop integrated operational workflows which link orebody intelligence, drilling and blasting, material characterisation and processing. 

In light of this, the two companies have signed a memorandum of understanding to explore opportunities to integrate key elements of their domains with an initial focus on the integration between Orica’s Rhino, BlastIQ, FRAGTrack and Cat MineStart Terrain technologies. It is envisioned that these integrated workflows will provide customers with high-fidelity rock property information enabling significant improvements to on-bench safety, drilling and blasting programme accuracy and productivity, higher quality blast outcomes that generate enhanced mill performance.   

Sean McGinnis, vice-president of technology & global sales support, Caterpillar, remarked, “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.”