The Weather Intelligence Advantage in the Mining Industry

As the past few years have shown, the weather has a pivotal influence on and is a growing challenge for safe, effective mine site operations. It’s clear that extreme weather conditions are increasingly becoming a risk to safety and profits, and long-term outlooks predict more unprecedented conditions in the years to come. To reduce the operational losses, asset damage, and safety risks caused by weather impacts, accurate situational awareness and environmental monitoring are essential for allowing sufficient time to plan and respond effectively.

Flooding impacts ground stability, increasing the risk of slope failure and the overtopping of tailings dams. Drought affects the water supply, with high temperatures endangering worker health and production. Lightning poses the threat of fatality for personnel and damage to assets, as well as increases site shutdowns. Rain and wind impact blasting operations, with blast plumes potentially harming both teams on-site and the communities surrounding mine sites. Key work schedules and machinery maintenance must occur when conditions are optimal to improve efficiency and minimize profit loss. These are just a few of the ever-present risks that can be closely monitored and potentially reduced when you harness the power of weather intelligence.

 

Mining operations must prepare for weather-related risks

We have reached a point where historical weather events no longer provide an adequate yardstick for what may occur in the future. This uncertainty must be taken into consideration when assessing your operation’s resiliency to climate extremes. Our weather intelligence supports your proactivity, enabling you to pinpoint potential meteorological causes for major revenue loss and environmental and safety risks, gradually moving to prevent and protect. It’s also foundational when planning and designing mines and infrastructure and acquiring assets. Now is the best time to identify the weather extremes related to your site and focus on preparation, utilizing insightful analytics to mitigate risk where possible.

 

Forecasting solutions for the short and long term

DTN has worked closely with the mining industry to identify its greatest weather challenges and addresses them with innovative monitoring, forecasting, and alerting solutions. The Miningzone interface centralizes all these services. Deployed at over 400 mining companies globally, it delivers accurate data and actionable insights to improve safety, efficiency, and planning. Access to Miningzone provides a detailed analysis that allows you to begin putting in safeguards to reduce the impacts of severe weather on-site. Plan to improve your water security, safeguard your site against the threat of fire and flood, and evaluate your current evacuation and operation procedures. Understanding the nuances of your exact location, and the variability of conditions as the climate shifts, allows you to be proactive with your risk management to protect your profits.

Now is the best time to identify the weather extremes related to your site and focus on preparation, utilizing insightful analytics to mitigate risk where possible.

Short-term forecasting, such as the operational forecasting system, is built on your specific data and procedural requirements. This valuable decision-making tool enables operators to visualize and respond to any weather threat to your operations in real time and up to seven days out. This delivers a major advantage when scheduling crew work and maintenance. Forecasts are presented using simple green, yellow, and red coding, providing instant recognition when thresholds are likely to be breached. The forecasts are coupled with commentary from our Risk Communicator meteorologists, customized to your site and operations, giving you detailed intelligence to drive your decisions. You can view weekly forecasts, 12-hour blocks, or drill down to a one-hour resolution. The data updates every 10 minutes, supporting a quick response and adapting to changes in the field conditions.

 

Using a centralized interface to underpin operational efficiency

Miningzone is a password and IP-protected control centre. Its suite of industry-specific solutions includes but is not limited to, alerting, hyperlocal forecasting, severe weather monitoring, lightning detection, and blast dispersion modeling. All the solutions are entirely customizable to the unique site, operations, and parameters of your mine. Personnel with access can instantly visualize the critical data they need to make informed operational decisions via their personal device or any device within the network. Miningzone’s ability to streamline the communication of data across large teams — including monitoring and alerting of severe weather systems — underscores both safety and operational efficiency. When everyone has precise alerting based on their location, they can quickly take personal responsibility for their safety.

All the solutions are entirely customizable to the unique site, operations, and parameters of your mine.

Full situational awareness and access to comprehensive data are essential to support operational decisions. The Miningzone interface delivers vital weather insights and environmental intelligence. This actionable information drives confident and informed decisions, improving the flow and efficacy of operations and ensuring everyone has real-time awareness.

 

Stemming the tide on flood risk for your mining operations 

The last two years have shown us the enormous cost of La Niña’s higher-than-average rainfall, specifically for the mining industry in eastern Australia. If your mine is vulnerable to flooding, you can utilize the Rainfall Risk System to monitor rainfall across any number of geofenced culverts or site sections. The technology creates hundreds of virtual weather stations for each chosen catchment, enabling precise determination of both rainfall intensity and accumulation. Alerts are raised when thresholds for any section are approaching or have breached thresholds, giving you targeted visibility of flood risk to inform your operational response. Real-time alerts are sent by SMS, email, and our industry app WeatherGuard, providing immediate situational awareness for all personnel out on the site. Rainfall data can be supplied to a third-party solution to integrate hydrology and culvert alerts for your site; this is particularly useful in elevating environmental risk visibility. The Rainfall Risk System easily integrates into the Miningzone interface.

 

The advantages of utilizing customized mining weather intelligence insights

Every mining site worldwide has its own distinct operational scope, environmental landscape, vulnerabilities, and challenges. Therefore, trying to apply generic forecasting systems to a site with its own complex and unique needs is a financial and safety risk. Taking your weather monitoring and management to another level with completely tailored solutions is imperative. Providing another advantage, DTN offers meteorological modeling and consultancy services that deliver targeted guidance to ensure no stone is left unturned when identifying how weather affects your business and how to transform your approach to these challenges. Our meteorologists monitor your site 365 days a year, tailoring meteorological briefings, risk forecasts, and analytics for incoming weather events and their likely impacts. You can reduce unnecessary downtime and concentrate on your work schedules, knowing you will be alerted if threatening weather conditions are on the horizon. And when they come, you have expert advice tailored entirely to your site and scope guiding your planning, preparation, and response.

 

A multi-faceted approach to improving safety and efficiency every day

The advantages of innovative and easy-to-visualize weather intelligence are substantial. The capacity to identify adverse conditions well before they hit improves your response. Ensuring every member of your team knows when they are personally at risk on-site due to accurate severe weather alerting enables them to keep themselves and your assets out of harm’s way. Having foresight about what kind of extreme weather or conditions you can expect over the year ahead means you can prepare effectively and reduce profit loss.

This actionable information drives confident and informed decisions, improving the flow and efficacy of operations and ensuring everyone has real-time awareness.

The advantages of innovative and easy-to-visualize weather intelligence are substantial. The capacity to identify adverse conditions well before they hit improves your response. Ensuring every team member knows when they are personally at risk on-site with accurate severe weather alerts enables them to keep themselves and your mine’s assets out of harm’s way. Having foresight about what kind of extreme weather or climate conditions you can expect over the year ahead means you can prepare effectively and potentially reduce profit loss.

If you want to safeguard your mine, a multi-faceted approach will give you the advantage. We are here to support your operational efficiency and site safety and help protect your bottom line. If you have a complex weather challenge — whatever the season — we will work hard to solve it and provide effective solutions. As you move to improve your mine’s resilience and everyday operations, we are ready to help strengthen your response.

Discover our comprehensive suite of mining solutions, tailored to your site and operational scope.