6 Key insights from Digital Optimisation in Mining and Energy
Arcadis and Forwood collaborated to deliver a half-day event on digital optimisation in mining and energy.
The Digital Optimisation in Mining and Energy event was held 20th November 2024 at the Melbourne Hotel in Perth. Co-hosted by Arcadis and Forwood Safety, safety professionals gathered to learn about the latest tools and strategies for optimising safety, compliance, and asset management in the mining and energy sectors.
Across three sessions, experts from Forwood and Arcadis presented the latest cutting-edge solutions in critical risk management, optimised investment planning, and digital compliance. They demonstrated how these solutions can help organisations tackle the complex challenges facing the mining and energy industries.
Each session was a great success, with attendees actively engaging, asking questions, and participating in discussions.
Read on for six key insights delivered by our expert speakers Simon Barnier, Debra Mullins and Fabricio Da Silva on the day.
Session 1: Best Practice in Leveraging Data & AI in Critical Risk Management
Our first speaker, Simon Barnier, Head of Global Markets, Forwood, shared valuable insights into best practice Critical Risk Management (CRM) and its role in preventing fatalities. To achieve greater safety outcomes, Simon demonstrated the need for organisations to evolve their approach to CRM by integrating broader risk management practices, leveraging data insights, and adopting innovative solutions tailored to their specific sectors.
Insight #1: Best practice critical risk management is proactive
Best practice critical risk management strives for continuous improvement. To address safety gaps before they arise, organisations must broaden their CRM to a total risk management approach.
Uniting the four pillars of CRM best practice, total risk management encompasses:
- Identifying critical risks and controls
- Verification of critical controls in the field
- Data-driven decision making
- Continuous improvement
By integrating traditional critical control verification practices into a comprehensive, data-driven approach, organisations can more efficiently identify and assess risks, build critical controls, and adopt strategies to address emerging safety issues.
Insight #2: Data can predict where fatalities are most likely to occur
Leveraging data is a powerful strategy for identifying the leading indicators and soft signals that reveal safety gaps within an organisation. By utilising AI, organisations can forecast potential risks and plan based on data trends.
For example, real-time data can be leveraged to predict trends likely to increase the risk of fatality or serious injury. To demonstrate, Simon showed how Forwood’s global dataset of 200m+ datapoints can pinpoint critical controls with projected increases in non-conformance.
By predicting trends in non-conformance, organisations can identify risk hotspots as they emerge and identify outlier sites or shifts. Organisations are then empowered to put measures in place to prevent fatalities in the locations where they are most likely to occur.
Simon presented Forwood’s CRM solution as the effective method for mining and energy companies to leverage the power of data in their safety processes. Using Forwood’s CRM solution, companies can:
- Leverage AI to predict potential trends and assess verification quality
- Use Geolocation data to identify hot spot and cold spots
- Support continual improvement with near real-time dashboard reporting
Overall, Simon’s analysis and insights demonstrated the effectiveness of leveraging data in a proactive approach to safety management. By focusing on continuous improvement, mining and energy organisations can better protect their workforce and achieve long-term operational excellence.
Session 2: Optimised Investment Planning
In Session 2, Debra Mullins, Data Science and Analytics Practice Lead – Australia, Arcadis, presented optimised investment planning as a powerful tool for meeting the complex challenges facing the mining and energy industries.
Debra’s presentation shed light on these challenges and demonstrated Arcadis’ cutting-edge, proprietary tool Enterprise Decision Analytics (EDA) — a digital investment planning solution designed to optimise investment strategies and facilitate sustainable growth.
Insight #1: The mining and energy industries are at a crossroads
The mining and energy sectors are undergoing a profound transformation, driven by the need for electrification of fleets and networks. To stay competitive in this changing landscape, mining and energy organisations must keep pace with client expectations and environmental demands.
Maintaining current service levels requires organisations to respond the pressures of:
- Failing and ageing infrastructure
- Different policy changes and reporting requirements
- The push for carbon reduction
Under these conditions, mining and energy companies face increased capital expenditure to achieve growth and transition to net zero. However, without greater efficiency and smart project planning, these investments are likely to fall short.
Insight #2: Optimised investment planning uses data to meet these complex challenges
Optimised investment planning is a data-driven approach to asset management and capital investment planning.
Unlike traditional asset investment planning, optimised investment planning leverages data-driven scenario planning to balance the trade-off between cost, risk, and performance.
In a traditional approach, an asset investment plan based on priorities can risk leaving opportunities behind. Optimised scenario planning runs multiple scenarios to determine the best investment or delivery plan for an organisation to achieve its goals within its unique constraints.
To demonstrate the efficiency of optimal investment planning, Debra challenged attendees to a game of Beat the Optimiser. This game introduces a real-life example to highlight the complexity of decision-making when managing hundreds of projects with multiple impacts.
Using cards representing different carbon-reducing projects, attendees were asked to find the optimal combination to maximise Carbon Value within a limited time and budget. While some attendees came close, no one beat the optimiser. This demonstrates how an optimiser can create greater efficiency within the planning process than we can as humans.
Overall, Debra’s presentation was an insightful and interactive introduction to how mining and energy companies can leverage advanced analytics to ensure smarter, faster, and more resilient investment decisions.
Session 3: Digital Transformation in Compliance: A case study
Our third speaker, Fabricio Da Silva, Tailings Specialist, Forwood, presented valuable insights into the evolving landscape of compliance and safety in tailings management.
Highlighting the evolution of global standards, Fab demonstrated how an integrated, data-driven approach to tailings management can help organisations address the growing challenges of compliance while optimising operational efficiency.
Insight #1: Evolving global standards need an integrated approach to tailings compliance management
Tailings management standards have evolved in response to the increasing failures in tailings dams over the past decade. While many of the standards predate these incidents, compliance with their guidelines has often been inconsistent.
As in other areas of mining and energy operations, compliance in tailings management faces complex challenges. These challenges include fragmented data, manual processes prone to errors, and delayed decision-making due to outdated information.
To address these challenges, Fab presented the benefits of an integrated and centralised approach to tailings management. A centralised tailings management system integrates technical, environmental, social, and legal data to enable real-time monitoring and timely, data-driven decision-making, reducing the risk of non-compliance.
Introducing Forwood’s Tailings management solution, Fab explained how by tailoring the solution to their operations, companies can:
- Integrate data
- Automate compliance
- Enhance risk management
- Support sustainability
Forwood’s Tailings management solution uses real-time data and advanced analytics to allow companies to detect trends early and address risks proactively. Fab emphasised the replicability of this system across other areas of mining and energy, such as ground control or ESG compliance.
Insight #2: Benchmarking is key to tracking and achieving compliance goals
Organisations can use benchmarking as a strategic practice to identify areas for improvement and measure their progress towards compliance goals.
By proactively identifying and addressing compliance gaps, benchmarking can help reduce the likelihood of negative outcomes and lower an organisation’s risk profile. It also works to demonstrate a strong compliance posture, enhancing an organisation’s reputation to investors.
To be effective, companies must benchmark their tailings compliance against the applicable standards and guidelines. These include:
- Local regulations
- Industry guidelines
- Technical bulletins
- Enterprise management system
In summary, Fab demonstrated that the aim of integrated tailings management is not just compliance but operational excellence, sustainability, and the protection of people and the environment. By embracing integrated, data-driven solutions, organisations can meet evolving regulatory demands while achieving operational efficiency and sustainable growth.
Acknowledgments
Forwood would like to thank all our speakers for their insightful and impactful presentations. Your passion and expert knowledge were instrumental in making the event a resounding success.
We’d also like to thank the Melbourne Hotel for their superb catering and hospitality.
To our co-hosts Arcadis, thank you for sharing your knowledge and insights, and for collaborating with us to deliver this exciting event.
Please explore Forwood’s CRM and Tailings solutions to learn more about optimising safety and compliance.
