Market Insights

The combined mobile device and cloud technology is projected to fuel business growth in order to simplify the blast process. The emphasis imposed on the explosives of service providers is to ensure openness in exchanging information, boost efficiency and preserve protection in order to allow better and faster decision-making. Cloud systems are growingly preferable to use analytical platforms to obtain access to the comprehensive output of drilling and blasting equipment and processes also help to fuel business growth.

A variety of mining companies are introducing a Consolidated Blasting System (CBS) to increase production and to stimulate development on the market. Deploying CBS allows mining firms to ensure mining safety, reduce error rates and save manual process time and labor. The use of the existing copper cabling in mining would not require higher costs since the system uses data routing for the surface control box to make CBS a cost-effective solution. In addition, CBS enables mining undertakings to decrease the average time for mine re-entering and then to maximize output.

Integrating the 5G distribution infrastructure with mining operations will theoretically create additional industry growth opportunities. The high-performance and low latency characteristics of the device are intended to promote the activities of mining companies in difficult geographies. 5G technologies will help miners move from legacy strokes to a quicker and more efficient Wi-Fi infrastructure, which simplifies the stroke process and increases protection. For instance, the use of the 5G technologies in mining activities has been seen by the Swedish Boliden Aitik mine and has been able to save almost US$ 2.9 Mn.

Asia Pacific led with a sales share of over 34% due to booming automation services market in 2019. This is attributable to the existence of mines in countries such as Australia, China and India. There are many copper, coal and gold mines in China and Australia in particular. Therefore, local service providers opt to partner with automation service providers to provide local mining automation services. For instance, in 2018 Orica Limited launched Wireless Innovation in Australian mines to help eliminate wired connexion limitations, increase productivity and improve safety standards. In North America, 2019 saw a large share of revenue in the demand for floating automation services. North America has a vast range of U.S. firms such as Autonomous Solutions Inc., offering advanced tele-operating blasting automation solutions and coordinated drilling and lowering, as well as payload APIs that work on third-party platforms. The US is particularly a hub for the production of state-of-the-art blasting automation activities, such as AI and IoT.

Latin America has also made a major contribution to the expansion of the regional sector in countries such as Chile and Peru. Both countries are one of the largest copper suppliers. For instance, in May 2020, Orica Limited partners with Exsa SA to give Peruvian mines a new, integrated and semi-automated production facility.

Vendors have already begun partnering with companies to strengthen and diversify their service portfolios, boost corporate processes and ultimately consolidate their respective roles in the automation services bursting industry. For instance, ABB partnered with its partners in November 2019 to deliver independent mining robotic solutions to automatically identify and charge explosive blasting holes. Epiroc Chile has coordinated the entire operating plant fleet of LosPelambres Copper Mine in July 2020 with Antofagasta Minerals.  Some of the prominent players in the blasting automation services market include iRing Inc., Autonomous Solutions, Inc., Orica Limited, Dyno Nobel, MineWare Pty Ltd., and others.

The global blasting automation services market is segmented as below:

Market Segmentation

Blasting Automation Services Market By Application

Metal Mining

Non-Metal Mining

Coal Mining

Blasting Automation Services Market By Geography

North America

• U.S.
• Canada

Europe

• UK
• Germany
• France
• Spain
• Rest of Europe

Asia-Pacific

• China
• Japan
• India
• Australia
• South Korea
• Rest of Asia-Pacific

Latin America

• Brazil
• Mexico
• Rest of Latin America

Middle East & Africa

• GCC
• South Africa
• Rest of Middle East & Africa