Long hours, repetitive tasks and heavy machinery are the norm in mining: so, too, are fatigue and distraction. Tackling both is not just important, it’s essential for ensuring safety and productivity. A safe mine, after all, is a profitable mine.
To improve safety in open pit and underground mines, Hexagon offers a unified, accessible platform with layered systems for collision avoidance, operator alertness, personal protection, vehicle intervention and slope monitoring. More than 65,000 units of Hexagon Collision Avoidance System (CAS) are deployed in over 100 open pit and underground mine sites worldwide, the largest global install base on the market.
Hexagon Operator Alertness System (OAS) employs advanced sensor technology and machine-learning algorithms to monitor operators’ alertness levels. When signs of distraction, drowsiness, or microsleeps are detected, operators receive real-time notifications, providing a crucial layer of protection during their shifts.
ALSO READ:
Hexagon: Enabling the quest for Zero Harm
Hexagon Collision Avoidance System (CAS) protects drivers and equipment, providing 360-degree NLOS (non-line-of-sight propagation) operator awareness for vehicles, assets and operators – through snow, rain, fog and dust.
Both solutions are used by Tarkwa, one of the largest gold mines in the world. Located in Ghana’s Ashanti Gold Belt, Tarkwa is operated by Gold Fields Ghana. The company turned to Hexagon in its pursuit of safer operations.
“Over the years, we have recorded significant incidents, and the stats are clear, the data doesn’t lie,” says Stephen Boamah, Safety & Occupational Hygiene Manager at Gold Fields Ghana. In a video interview, he adds: “We had recorded fatigue-related incidents and equipment-to-equipment head-on collisions. We wanted to bring to bear our culture of care, and to fulfil the corrective actions, leading to Hexagon coming on board. They have improved our operations significantly.”
Gold Fields saw a 91% reduction in fatigue-related incidents after deploying OAS at Tarkwa. Operational shifts run entire quarters without a single fatigue event being recorded, according to mine personnel.
Technology is just one layer of mine safety. Change management and data insights are also important layers. Even when solutions are integrated operators must still be engaged and re-engaged in a cycle of continuous improvement.
ALSO READ:
Mining Indaba 2025: Hexagon’s technologies drives Zero Harm
Autonomy is increasingly part of the equation to balance safety and productivity. Autonomy in mining is more than just deploying the latest sensors and machine learning algorithms. It’s about orchestrating the fleet and understanding the broader mission and daily production goal.
Each truck’s payload, its interaction with other equipment, and its ultimate destination are all critical. Hexagon solutions for safety, productivity and autonomy ensure that every truck safely arrives at the right place, at the right time, with the right payload.
The Drill & Blast (D&B) process is another area where Hexagon is helping mines to be safer without compromising productivity. D&B operations impact the entire mining process, from mining equipment efficiency, through crushing and grinding circuit performance, to recoveries and final product quality. Costs and energy usage increase throughout the comminution process. Efforts targeted at optimizing the blasting process can pay huge dividends downstream, reducing costs and energy consumption.
Hexagon recently forged a partnership with Augment Technologies to release Hexagon Blast Movement Intelligence (BMI), an AI-powered 3D blast movement solution. Boosting blasting efficiency and providing high visibility into ore dilution for informed ore and waste delineation post-blast, BMI safely produces an accurate block model of the muckpile and ultimately maximises yield.
The ability to generate a Muckpile Block Model—a post-blast representation of the grade control block model—is a distinguishing feature of BMI. Paired with Hexagon Blast Movement Monitors, the AI can be validated and improved as the engine helps to safely and rapidly produce the Muckpile Block Model. Significantly, the model is produced without personnel having to walk on the muckpile to place or retrieve the monitors.
BMI is a valuable addition to a D&B solution suite that is well established for its fragmentation analysis and blast optimization capabilities. Hexagon Split Engineering systems measure and optimize fragmentation, revealing opportunities for increased profitability and evaluating the effect of the blast design and the implementation of the blast process.
A mine must measure this process in order to manage and improve it – a principle enshrined in Hexagon’s approach to D&B.
About Hexagon
Hexagon is the global leader in measurement technologies. We provide the confidence that vital industries rely on to build, navigate, and innovate. Hexagon’s Mining division connects measurement and autonomy across surface and underground operations, pushing the boundaries of autonomous technology and data insights to help customers optimise resources and move material safely.