Mine operators and regulators can now monitor readings from sensor equipment installed at tailings storage facilities more quickly, less expensively and without having to physically traipse around the tailings dam to manually collect the data. In some cases, engineers can check in on dams’ sensor readings in near real time from thousands of kilometres away.
This is largely thanks to the technological sorcery of the internet of things (IoT). When mentioned in relation to mine tailings monitoring, IoT technology means that old-school geotechnical sensors – like thermistors, inclinometers and piezometers – are made “smart,” or imbued with the ability to communicate.
In other words, battery-charged data acquisition systems are matched to the sensors threaded across a tailings dam, collecting sensor data and transmitting it to a central hub through a communications network. That central gateway will, in turn, push data to a digital dashboard where mine engineers and regulators can review it.
“A fully automated monitoring system 30 years ago would have been very expensive compared to today,” explained Vincent Le Borgne, R&D manager at GKM Consultants, a Montreal-based geotechnical monitoring firm that guides mine operators through all stages of mine tailings monitoring, from installing sensors to commissioning data dashboards.
“Historically, if there were any instruments at all on site, you would have a field technician or engineer who would manually read each instrument and then write it in a logbook and store it away somewhere.”
For the rest of this article: http://magazine.cim.org/en/technology/the-internet-of-tailings-en/