2
efficiency, an asset health system to minimize the impact of
maintenance events on your operation and improve your
equipment availability, an operator fatigue management
system designed to avert fatigue-related incidents by identi-
fying operators’ ability to resist sleep, and a set of machine
guidance applications to improve the precision, productiv-
ity and efficiency of a mine’s drills, loading equipment, and
dozers.
We work openly with other technology providers to
actively accept their inputs into our system for reporting
purposes, real-time event notifications, and making criti-
cal production and safety related decisions. With an open
database and system APIs, we also share the operational,
maintenance, and safety data that we collect with other sys-
tems in use at the mine.
The first autonomous haulage systems introduced into
the open pit mining industry were developed and supplied
by the major OEMs. These systems however required that
the entire fleet was a certain make and model from that one
OEM and that the fleet must be managed with that OEM’s
Fleet Management System. Wenco identified this as a threat
to our business as a premier supplier of Fleet Management
Systems. To combat this threat, Wenco’s Martin Politick,
Director of System Engineering and Architecture, intro-
duced the idea of Open Autonomy, defining and creat-
ing standard-based interfaces for any FMS to connect and
operate with any autonomous haulage system.
In 2018 Wenco submitted a proposal to ISO. Now
ISO 23723: Autonomous System and Fleet Management
System Interoperability has become a published and public
standard with Martin as the convenor of that project to this
date.
This initiative is much more than simply ensuring
Wenco’s viability as an FMS provider. This initiative helps
advance the open standards strategy within the industry,
encourages competition within industry, and ultimately
helps the industry tackle some of the more significant chal-
lenges it now faces.
INDUSTRY CHALLENGES
Lower Quality, Harder to Access Deposits
The mining industry is currently grappling with a significant
challenge: declining ore grades. This trend is observed glob-
ally in metallic mining. Though it is indicative of resource
depletion or availability, the trend can also be attributed
to various factors such as geological complexities, improve-
ments in extractive technologies, and the extension of the
lifespan of older mines. In the case of copper, the average
copper ore grade is decreasing over time, while the energy
consumption and the total material moved in the mine
increases.
The average copper ore grade has decreased approxi-
mately by 25% in just ten years from 2006 to 2016.*
As high-grade deposits become increasingly scarce,
mining operations are forced to extract lower-grade ores,
which often require more intensive processing and yield less
valuable output.
Another challenge is the increasing difficulty in reach-
ing deposits. As easily accessible deposits are depleted, min-
ing operations are compelled to venture into more remote
and challenging environments. This not only raises opera-
tional costs but also poses additional logistical and envi-
ronmental strains. As mining operations delve deeper and
target lower-grade ores, the volume of waste material that
needs to be moved and managed increases, escalating costs
and exacerbating environmental impacts.
This combination of lower quality and harder to access
deposits means that future deposit extraction will be con-
ducted at greater depths and lower grades compared to
current practices, and this tendency will have a signifi-
cant impact on operating conditions and costs. As mines
become deeper and stripping ratios increase because of
that lower grade, more waste material needs to be extracted
resulting in a corresponding growth in the necessary truck
fleet.† Reducing the cost of truck haulage, which makes up
about half of the operating expenses of a mining operation,
is more essential now than ever.
Uneconomic Satellite Deposits
As mining operations progress over time, it’s impor-
tant to consider that the easily accessible and exploitable
resources are typically the first to be developed or depleted.
*Decreasing Ore Grades in Global Metallic Mining: A
Theoretical Issue or a Global Reality? MDPI Nov 2016
† Decreasing Ore Grades in Global Metallic Mining: A
Theoretical Issue or a Global Reality? MDPI Nov 2016
efficiency, an asset health system to minimize the impact of
maintenance events on your operation and improve your
equipment availability, an operator fatigue management
system designed to avert fatigue-related incidents by identi-
fying operators’ ability to resist sleep, and a set of machine
guidance applications to improve the precision, productiv-
ity and efficiency of a mine’s drills, loading equipment, and
dozers.
We work openly with other technology providers to
actively accept their inputs into our system for reporting
purposes, real-time event notifications, and making criti-
cal production and safety related decisions. With an open
database and system APIs, we also share the operational,
maintenance, and safety data that we collect with other sys-
tems in use at the mine.
The first autonomous haulage systems introduced into
the open pit mining industry were developed and supplied
by the major OEMs. These systems however required that
the entire fleet was a certain make and model from that one
OEM and that the fleet must be managed with that OEM’s
Fleet Management System. Wenco identified this as a threat
to our business as a premier supplier of Fleet Management
Systems. To combat this threat, Wenco’s Martin Politick,
Director of System Engineering and Architecture, intro-
duced the idea of Open Autonomy, defining and creat-
ing standard-based interfaces for any FMS to connect and
operate with any autonomous haulage system.
In 2018 Wenco submitted a proposal to ISO. Now
ISO 23723: Autonomous System and Fleet Management
System Interoperability has become a published and public
standard with Martin as the convenor of that project to this
date.
This initiative is much more than simply ensuring
Wenco’s viability as an FMS provider. This initiative helps
advance the open standards strategy within the industry,
encourages competition within industry, and ultimately
helps the industry tackle some of the more significant chal-
lenges it now faces.
INDUSTRY CHALLENGES
Lower Quality, Harder to Access Deposits
The mining industry is currently grappling with a significant
challenge: declining ore grades. This trend is observed glob-
ally in metallic mining. Though it is indicative of resource
depletion or availability, the trend can also be attributed
to various factors such as geological complexities, improve-
ments in extractive technologies, and the extension of the
lifespan of older mines. In the case of copper, the average
copper ore grade is decreasing over time, while the energy
consumption and the total material moved in the mine
increases.
The average copper ore grade has decreased approxi-
mately by 25% in just ten years from 2006 to 2016.*
As high-grade deposits become increasingly scarce,
mining operations are forced to extract lower-grade ores,
which often require more intensive processing and yield less
valuable output.
Another challenge is the increasing difficulty in reach-
ing deposits. As easily accessible deposits are depleted, min-
ing operations are compelled to venture into more remote
and challenging environments. This not only raises opera-
tional costs but also poses additional logistical and envi-
ronmental strains. As mining operations delve deeper and
target lower-grade ores, the volume of waste material that
needs to be moved and managed increases, escalating costs
and exacerbating environmental impacts.
This combination of lower quality and harder to access
deposits means that future deposit extraction will be con-
ducted at greater depths and lower grades compared to
current practices, and this tendency will have a signifi-
cant impact on operating conditions and costs. As mines
become deeper and stripping ratios increase because of
that lower grade, more waste material needs to be extracted
resulting in a corresponding growth in the necessary truck
fleet.† Reducing the cost of truck haulage, which makes up
about half of the operating expenses of a mining operation,
is more essential now than ever.
Uneconomic Satellite Deposits
As mining operations progress over time, it’s impor-
tant to consider that the easily accessible and exploitable
resources are typically the first to be developed or depleted.
*Decreasing Ore Grades in Global Metallic Mining: A
Theoretical Issue or a Global Reality? MDPI Nov 2016
† Decreasing Ore Grades in Global Metallic Mining: A
Theoretical Issue or a Global Reality? MDPI Nov 2016