Mining company Epiroc has acquired software company MineRP, which specialises in increasing productivity for mines through integrated planning, execution and analytics.

“The acquisition is a perfect fit [owing] to the synergies between the two companies,” says Epiroc integration manager Kumeshan Naidu.

He says the acquisition “aligns seamlessly with Epiroc as a significant partner on a mine’s digital and automation journey, providing smart machines, advanced digital and automation technology solutions and the associated efficiency, productivity, safety and environmental benefits”. 

The acquisition of MineRP provides Epiroc with an opportunity to expand its growing digital portfolio, with the added advantage that the company is already familiar with the company and its capabilities.

MineRP delivers an Integrated Mining Platform that ensures the consolidation of data of mining operations which other systems available in the market are unable to do within the mine production space.

The unique mine integration platform offers unified technical and financial planning and control.

Where usually the digital twin is spoken of as a digital representation of the mine’s mineral and production assets, the digital triplet has now been birthed with the addition of the financial aspect where the costs associated with mining activities are traced through the value chain.

Meanwhile, Epiroc also holds shares in companies like ASI Mining, which provides technology solutions for the autonomous operation of mining vehicles, and Sweden-based company Mobilaris, which provides solutions such as a multi-role three-dimensional location-based decision support system that enhances the safety, productivity and efficiency of mining operations by allowing the location and movement of workers, vehicles and equipment to be visualised in real time.

A complete Mobilaris demo has been set up in the Epiroc Control Tower in Jet Park, Johannesburg, enabling customers to experience the system’s capabilities and functionalities and be ‘virtually present’ at their sites.

The state-of-the-art Johannesburg Control Tower, inaugurated in September 2020, further underlines Epiroc’s undivided commitment to digitisation.

“We developed this collaborative space to enhance remote customer support capabilities and to further explore and optimise our digital and automation technologies and information management solutions,” Naidu adds, noting that Epiroc also offers an in-house developed, cloud-based solution that is centred on telematics data collection by Internet of Things devices for most brands of mining equipment.