Coal and ESG - Embrace radical transparency

Read time: ~2-3 mins

Coal mining companies are facing ever increasing pressure to meet environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards in order to remain competitive and attract capital in today's market. Simultaneously, they are creating record profits due to high coal prices, driven by global instability.

Coal sits at a cross roads. Vilified by the media, lauded by their shareholders, publicly spurned by governments, forgotten in the energy transition.

Transform Operations

The opportunity for coal is clear: embrace transformation while the going is good and set operations up to be lower cost, lower impact and radically transparent. The good times will not last; but we need coal and we need coal operations to be run well or they will migrate to countries with far less stringent environmental and social expectations, and that is bad for everyone.

One of the most impactful transformation tools to hand today is digital twins.

A digital twin (Twin) is a digital replica of a physical asset and/or process. Example Twins in coal include crushing circuits, conveyors, haul trucks, draglines, longwalls, fine coal circuits, materials handling simulations and dynamic economic models.

By combining operational data from sensors and enterprise data from maintenance and planning systems, Twins can provide real-time insights into the performance and condition of an asset and associated processes, historic and planned work, all of which enables predictions of future behaviour. This allows companies to identify and address potential problems before they occur, and as operating conditions change, improving the efficiency and safety of their operations. A shared context across data silos allows operations, maintenance and improvement teams to collaborate and make trade offs at the system, rather than the silo, level.

Radical Transparency

Coal miners have a market opportunity to embrace radical transparency in an age of universally negative coal sentiment. Twins can be used to monitor and manage the environmental impact of mining operations. For example, companies can use Twins to track and monitor the movement of soil and rock, as well as levels of water and air pollution. This can help to identify any potential environmental issues quickly, and allow corrective or preventative action to mitigate them. Additionally, Twins can be used to evaluate the impact of proposed changes to mining operations on the local environment, such as the creation of new mine pits or the rerouting of waterways. Similarly, the safety features of Twins that enable near real time monitoring across and beyond sites provide additional environmental safeguards at the micro and worker level.

On the governance side, Twins can also help coal mining companies meet regulatory compliance by providing them with detailed, real-time data on their operations. This data can be used to demonstrate to regulators, institutional shareholders, and even the public, that the company is operating in a safe and environmentally responsible manner. Transparency on the progress of safety and environmental improvement projects would also go a long way to re-establishing trust and combating hearsay.

Transformation Now

Coal mining companies are facing increasing pressure to meet ESG standards, and one way they can achieve this is by transforming and creating radical transparency via digital twin adoption. Twins are not imaginary and they are not black boxes; they enable miners to improve themselves and they enable transformational change in how we operate and maintain physical assets. By using Twins, companies can improve the efficiency, safety and environmental impact of their operations, as well as demonstrate to regulators that they are operating in a responsible manner. Coal miners have a clear and feasible opportunity to put a stake in the ground and establish a position as leaders in transparency and trust during the energy transition.

Click below to start embracing your radical transparency today: