Oil and gas major Shell and NYSE-listed IBM have joined forces to introduce a new business-to-business digital mining services marketplace platform to offer field-tested technology and digital solutions that can help mining companies improve safety, mine planning, operational efficiency and sustainability.

As mining companies respond to the current world events that are disrupting their operations, they are increasingly looking to improve resiliency in their operations through digitalisation and embed more automated solutions.

Mining companies need to quickly become more intelligent at every step of the value chain; however, many mining companies are struggling with similar challenges and are looking for ready-made, proven solutions to quickly change the way their operations and processes work.

Oren, which was co-developed by the duo, aims to become a one-stop digital platform for the mining sector to access the best digital solutions and technologies from Shell and IBM, as well as a host of other leading and emerging companies.

The online marketplace is expected to accelerate the digitalisation of the mining industry, speed up the transformation of mining workflows and build in more operational resilience in a rapidly changing world.

It will facilitate technology transfer, innovation and integration from solution providers across the ecosystem, as well as assist miners in efficiently locating solutions at all levels of the organisation and make their existing workflows more intelligent to enable their digital journeys, says IBM iX global managing partner Matt Candy.

“The next push in mining requires a new approach towards industrywide technology platforms, which requires new levels of openness, innovation and collaboration,” adds Shell global marketing lubricants VP Carol Chen, noting that miners can benefit from many of the digital solutions used in the energy industry, including, for example, those that help manage operations safely and efficiently in remote locations.

This emerges as current world events disrupt regular business operations, with mining companies seeking solutions to become more agile and resilient and embedding more automated mine solutions, such as self-driving haul trucks and remote operations centres, in their operations.

A Shell survey found that 80% of more than 350 mining businesses are wrestling with similar challenges in their operations.

These include difficulty aggregating data to make actionable insights; the lack of intelligent workflows, owing to siloed organisational working; improving sustainability; and ensuring employees are safe while deploying autonomous technology.

The Oren marketplace platform allows solution developers – both established enterprise companies and startups – to get their market innovations to mining clients quickly.

This is key, as many mining companies have limited time and resources to develop in-house tools to mitigate these challenges.

“[The mining companies] are looking to deploy ready-made, proven solutions to improve operations by aggregating data from different sources to create a single view of their operations in order to abstract insights and really drive action and make more informed, data-driven decisions,” the companies comment.

The platform enables mining operations to develop a roadmap designed to deliver the interconnected mine of the future by creating connected solutions that integrate and leverage data, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, automation and analytics.

The Oren team will bring expert support to mining companies to help build their specific digital journey roadmap.

The marketplace allows access to field-proven mining solutions such as cloud-based digital service MachineMax for off-highway vehicles and industrials fleet optimisation; smart lubricant condition monitoring service Shell Remote Sense; and IBM’s Maintenance, Repair and Operations Inventory Optimisation Services, which helps manage spare parts inventory optimally for both critical and noncritical spares.

The platform also hosts dedicated environmental management and compliance software that can provide detailed analysis and reporting on pollutant inventories, greenhouse-gas emission, energy consumption, environmental impact assessment, mine rehabilitation and mine life cycle assessment.

Further, there will be early-adopter access for pioneering technologies that help transform mining operations and a searchable repository of best practice mining use cases to show solutions in action at other mine sites.