Case Study: Newcrest Mining Limited achieves reduced downtime and lower costs with Microsoft Corporation Azure IoT

Mining firm uses IoT and data science to cut downtime, reduce costs

Newcrest Mining Limited, an Australian international mining company, needed a better way to keep crushers and ore bins running reliably in harsh underground conditions. Working with Microsoft Corporation and partner Insight, the company set out to reduce unplanned downtime, lower costs, and improve worker safety using Azure IoT Edge and Azure IoT Hub.

Microsoft Corporation helped deliver an intelligent edge and data science solution that predicts crushed ore bin levels from upstream sensor data, acting as a “soft sensor” when hard sensors fail. The result was about 85% prediction accuracy, up to four hours of continued operation during sensor outages, and an estimated ROI within three months, while cutting downtime, improving productivity, and reducing manual underground inspections.

Newcrest Mining Limited

Gary Slater

Digital and Data Science Architect