Abstract:
In the face of increasing competition, market demands, the search for better productive performance, increased safety in operations, reduction in the generation of waste and environmental emissions, mining companies have been looking for ways to increasingly become competitive, or that is, to present advantages in relation to the competition through, mainly, the reduction in losses and optimization of its production processes. Underground mines have several operating processes that occur simultaneously or not, but which are responsible for the development and success of the economic enterprise. These can be considered as unit operations and comprise the basic operations of drilling, blasting, loading and transport. In practice, these operations, when used to extract the ore, are called production operations. The work in an underground mine can also be represented by the three main basic functions used for mineral preparation and extraction, they are: development, excavation and movement. For some time now, changes have been made in the operations cycle to accommodate some type of equipment or technology capable of better adaptation to the production process, since automation is a present reality and a very attractive alternative that meets the needs with the demands for an increase in the competitive differentials of organizations. Thus, the technological option is a path of no return that is increasingly sought after in mining operations, that is, the technological process in mining companies directly affects unit operations with the introduction and use of increasingly technological, safe and productive machinery. The purpose of this article is to present concepts, challenges and perspectives related to the application of automation and information technologies in underground mines. Managers must effectively adapt organizations to new standards of security, operational efficiency and integrated information management. The standardization of interfaces must be accepted as a basic premise for process integration. The minimum requirements necessary for the automation of an underground mine will be presented at the end of this work.
