The Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (Saimm) will be hosting the two-day Future of Mining 2016 forum from September 12 to 13 at Electra Mining Africa, which is being held at the Expo Centre, in Nasrec, Johannesburg.

The forum is part of Saimm’s attempts to drive change in the mining industry through the collaboration of mining houses, technology providers, solutions providers, education facilities, government and other professional organisations.

Panel discussions, case studies and networking opportunities will highlight the future of mining during the two-day event.

There will be three forums during the event. The first – ‘The Connected Mine, Mining 4.0’ – will focus on the fourth Industrial Revolution, known as the digital revolution or Industry 4.0.

The fourth Industrial Revolution is categorised by the advent of smart connected devices, the Internet of Things (IoT), wearables technology, virtual and augmented reality, the cloud and software as a service (SaaS), all of which are expected to result in an explosion of data and big data analysis to generate valuable insights for decision-making.

In addition, this session and panel discussion will explore achievements in other industries and systems thinking applicable to mining.

“The next-generation mining company has the opportunity to leverage the digital revolution to generate actionable insights that will enhance decision-making and significantly improve planning and operational performance,” says Saimm council member Gary Lane.

The second forum – ‘The High Tech Mine’ – will look at equipment trends emerging in the market relating to ultra-low-profile mechanised mining, semiautonomous mining, continuous hard rock mining and real-time mine imaging solutions.

“Together with novel mining methods and layouts, this equipment has the opportunity to drastically improve safety, productivity levels and reduce cost to improve financial returns to all mining stakeholders,” says Lane.

The third forum, which will take place on the second day, will showcase examples of what leading industry players are already achieving in conjunction with leading experts, and will highlight what the mining industry needs to do to drive revolutionary change through collaboration and innovation.