Social media is all the more powerful when combined with advances in mobility and positioning. Business collaboration tools such as mobile devices enable smart miners to use an internal, secure social media site from any remote location across the globe in real time, providing immediate access to critical operational information.

1. Mining&Technology
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2. 92 MINING & TECHNOLOGY AUSTRALIA 2011 | ISSUE 3
TECHNOLOGY & RESEARCH | IT & COMMUNICATIONS
YOU NO LONGER NEED TO BE A
technology geek to be dependent on various
forms of electronic communication and
collaboration tools in your personal life. We
share and consume information through blogs,
use social networking to reach out to our friends
and families, and participate in professional
networks to broaden our knowledge and
connections. Sensis reports that 62 per cent
of Australian internet users use social media
platforms in some form; for many people, these
platforms have become the accepted means of
interpersonal communication and information
sharing.
What are the implications for the mining
industry?
Massive talent and skills gaps, workforce
attrition and extraordinary growth in the mining
industry have created a sustained demand for
new people in the sector. An estimated 62,000
people will be required to fill new mining jobs by
2015. Engaging and skilling new employees and
connecting them to the rest of the enterprise are
critical for meeting ongoing production demands.
Managing the workforce knowledge base is
a key challenge, given the high rate of employee
turnover and limited pool of experienced
workers. The future workforce needs to be
managed to ensure the right knowledge and
information is available and accessible. Employers
must also create accessible avenues to ensure that
enterprise knowledge is recorded and retained
for the future.
Knowledge and information management
challenges faced by mining companies include:
zz collaboration and co-creation in a
geographically distributed and diversified
work environment
zz connecting information silos
zz meeting the mobility and real-time expectations
of the next generation of workers.
Social networking offers a common solution to
these challenges. It will allow industry to:
zz identify and leverage employee skills –
search and locate employees with the right
skills in real time across all boundaries and
deploy them effectively to solve immediate
production issues across the enterprise;
zz manage enterprise knowledge – engage
the skills of employees more effectively, as
mining enterprises are vulnerable to a drain
or gap in ongoing knowledge which must
be captured and made accessible to all new
employees;
zz connect the value chain – enhance the way
people in the value chain work together, and
build better integration between people by
building integrated value chain processes, not
just processes built on functional silos; and
The
smartMINER
Mining enterprises must capitalise on
developments in information and communications
technology to build a new breed of “smart miners”,
write Gerard Siromani and Rob Ritchie.
“Engaging and
skilling new
employees and
connecting
them to the
rest of the
enterprise are
critical issues
in meeting
ongoing
production
demands”

3. MINING & TECHNOLOGY AUSTRALIA 2011 | ISSUE 3 93
zz drive innovation – open discussion and
debate to drive rapid development of ideas
for innovation – without this, these ideas
would be lost before they could be acted
upon.
Mining enterprises need to look beyond
traditional collaborative forums and intranet
portals to address the shortage of experienced
staff and enable direct engagement with their
employees. There is great potential within the
existing workforce; enabling more effective
collaboration will unleash a new breed of ‘smart
miner’.
Facebook, for example, is widely criticised
and blocked by many organisations, but it is
still the largest social media site on the internet,
with over 500 million users worldwide. People
contribute 30 billion pieces of content to the site
to share with their peers.
A secure internal Facebook-like facility
could use familiar social media tools to form a
community within a mining company where
engineers, mechanics, operators and other groups
across the globe and the organisation can join to
exchange ideas, ask questions, share experiences,
share documents and collaborate in real time.
Such communities within a company
have been shown to improve efficiency and
productivity in several energy and mining
companies, including Shell and Rio Tinto, where
“communities of practice” have become critical
to their operations. Rio Tinto head of technology
and innovation, Preston Chiaro, says communities
of practice represent a significant shift in the
company’s culture. Miners are becoming more
interdependent, and relish finding solutions from
among their peers.
Social media is all the more powerful
when combined with advances in mobility and
positioning. Mobile devices enable miners to
use an internal, secure social media site on their
iPhones, iPads or other mobile devices from any
remote location across the globe in real time,
providing immediate access to critical operational
information, such as safety hazards, danger
zones, emissions limits and asset performance.
With geographic positioning technology, this
information can be tailored to a specific location,
prioritising the relevant information while
enabling others within the community to provide
location-based assistance, no matter where they
are. This technology can be used to enhance
risk management and safety, which are critical
to every mining enterprise. Relevant data in the
form of procedures and location-based guidelines
can be extracted and assessed using mobile
devices and social media applications.
A commitment to the use of mobile devices
to access real-time data at remote locations,
along with the application of enterprise social
networking technology, will not only improve
efficiency and productivity but also connect
miners to their colleagues located around the
globe. They will become smarter miners; their
connection will facilitate innovation within the
organisation and help to alleviate feelings of
isolation experienced by many people working in
remote locations. n
Gerard Siromani is the National Manager for the Resources
Sector for Infosys Technologies Australia. Rob Ritchie advises
on business systems and global collaboration within the
mining sector.
A recurring problem in the brakes of a bulldozer in Rio Tinto’s Bengala
coal mine was resolved through social collaboration with maintenance
engineers in another Rio Tinto operation in California. They had spent
almost a year finding a solution for exactly the same problem the
engineers in Australia were experiencing, and were able to offer a quick
solution – a clear demonstration of the value of collaboration across the
globe and within the organisation.
SOCIAL NETWORKING AT WORK
“Employers
must create
accessible
avenues to
ensure that
enterprise
knowledge is
recorded and
retained for the
future”