Momayez and Kemeny Discuss Mining & the Fourth Industrial Revolution

John Kemeny, former MGE department head, and Moe Momayez, interim head of MGE and David and Edith Lowell Chair in Mining and Geological Engineering, recently appeared on Mining Matters, a podcast hosted by Hexagon Mining, to discuss how the Fourth Industrial Revolution will change mine operations. The Fourth Industrial Revolution (also known as Industry 4.0) refers to a transformation currently taking place in which traditional industries are reworked with smart technologies like automation and artificial intelligence.

"Many of the technologies that are in Industry 4.0 have been around for a very long time," Kemeny said. "So, I think really for me what Industry 4.0 might represent for the mining industry is really the effective integration of all these technologies, both for safety and also for optimization."

Momayez added that this might involve more efficient sorting, analyzing and displaying of data.

"If you look at some of the mining companies, what they’ve been focusing on is the creation of remote operation centers," he said. "So, where the information from operations at different locations around the country and sometimes maybe around the world are aggregated, analyzed, and made available for management to review. So, I think that’s where we’re going. And I think more and more companies are going to look at changing the way they operate."