By: Geeq  on Oct 7, 2020

Mines are like huge manufacturing operations facilities that are located, many times, underground. As commercial mining has modernized, many steps in the production process have become better defined with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that track production efficiency across different activities and sites. Always under pressure to reduce costs, mining operations must balance cost savings in production with expenditures in areas of workplace safety and incident response. Finally, as the product cycle involves transportation and movement of humans and capital across different zones, real time geolocation technology is used increasingly to monitor, track, and manage assets.

IoT is Everywhere

As is often the case for industries adopting IoT, an immense amount of real time data is produced by all the sensors. Sensors that instantly locate workers, tools, vehicles; sensors that monitor environmental safety, define zones, and optimize conditions with respect to activity – in mining as in other smart factories and industrial settings, there may be hundreds or thousands of devices sending real time signals. However, if data collection forms the backbone for a successful mining operation, what happens if all actors do not have the same data?

At the end, the success of the mining operation comes down to being able to coordinate on the same on-time reliable data to make the right decisions. When multiple actors with potentially different objectives and scopes of work are required for a complex job, one has to wonder, do they share that information? Probably not.

At the end, the success of the mining operation comes down to being able to coordinate on the same on-time reliable data to make the right decisions. Can blockchain solve that? Yes, in part.

The Case for Geeq Blockchain

Mining presents several use cases where the addition of Geeq™ blockchain can solve information coordination problems as well as provide a valuable way to organize collection and storage of real-time information that permit new ways of analyzing data to improve production decisions for the future.

The mining industry provides an example of each of the five business problems which Geeq identifies as cases where its blockchain can be used to improve operational efficiency. Paired with the fact that mining is becoming increasingly reliant on IoT, pairing IoT with the organization of Geeq applications specifically designed for IoT increases the ability for companies to take advantage of machine learning techniques, secure that they are analyzing reliably logged real-time data.

Geeq’s Unique Selling Points

Geeq’s proprietary technology offers endlessly scalable blockchain solutions with unparalleled security compared to other blockchain methodologies. Consider all the forms of security listed in the left-most column below.

Because Geeq was originally designed to back IoT data with blockchain-based services, practical constraints and inexpensive costs were a priority. Here are estimates for putting simple IoT telemetry on a Geeq blockchain. To check out the assumptions and calculations used to calculate these estimates, please check out this resource in our Explainer section.

Conclusion

Currently, the mining industry is relying in very centralized data solutions. Not only are centralized data solutions vulnerable to external threats, they limit the efficiency of the operation. In mining, especially, the potential benefits of using distributed IoT sensors and devices are obvious. However, in order to access the full potential of those data streams, as well as to benefit from the security and convenience of decentralized data structures, Geeq’s blockchain-based IoT brings added security, flexibility, and the ability to coordinate actions on shared, independently verified reliable data in real time and in planning for the future.

Photo by USGS on Unsplash