How to minimise disruptions in your mining operations?

Keeping mining operations running without disruptions is a question that is every day more and more embedded within the risk matrix of companies, especially in the mining sector, which constitutes one of the most important parts of the economy in many countries. It is a sector, where protecting critical infrastructure is quite a challenge.

Mines are located in places with difficult access and poor coverage. Their control, power and operating stations are located at dispersed points within vast geographical areas. High volumes of particulate and corrosive material are produced, making difficult to use conventional solutions.

And that’s not all. Mines also have large fleets of trucks for transporting material and heavy-duty machinery, and therefore need fuel depots and large warehouses for spare parts.

With so many sensitive spots and this large amount of strategic assets and critical infrastructure, have you ever wondered how easy it might be for a third party to access your strategic asset? Or access warehouses with sensitive material such as explosives?

It is more common than you might think for people going about their daily tasks to connect something that they should not have connected, or use a certain substance in an environment that should not be accessed because it is highly explosive. These kinds of uncontrolled situations can lead the operation to come to a total standstill, or worse, they can threaten the health and safety of the people in and around the site.

We have effective high security solutions for the management of access and keys and the requirement of locking elements in all areas in a sector that, in addition to all these physical challenges, has a large number of outsourced services, contractors and suppliers. Thus, Abloy's digital portfolio for access control maximises operational efficiency for mining operations:

• Reduced number of keys in use
• Centrally controlled user accesses
• Schedules and calendars for maintenance route creation
• Audit trails to all areas, regardless of the closing element of each location

At Abloy, we have locking elements from high security smart padlocks to cabinet and door locks in general, with optimal performance in highly corrosive environments that are resistant to particulate matter, ATEX certified for work in explosive environments and, in general, solutions tailored to reduce all latent risks within the operation and protect critical infrastructure.

We put our hallmark of trust in everything we do and through security and innovation, create solutions that protect people, operations and companies.

David D. Estrada L.

Business Development Manager

ABLOY Colombia

ABLOY Critical Infrastructure