Note on industry and mining: a review of the challenges in the study, exploration, and exploitation of mines by the CEO of Persore Company.
The long life of mining machinery is the most important factor in reducing production efficiency in mines. Iran’s economy is going through difficult times. The challenges of the post-corona era, sanctions, and economic issues in addition to government bureaucracy and cumbersome laws have caused the processes of exploration and exploitation to deal with many challenges and problems.
In the current situation, next to the crisis of specialist expert availability in the market, the main discussion is about mining equipment and machinery. While in many progressed countries in this industry, equipment and machinery are decommissioned in certain periods and replaced by new and updated equipment. In our country, the average lifetime of mining equipment is very high. Naturally, the use of this equipment has led to the slowness of the exploration and exploitation process, the reduction of system productivity, the loss of a significant part of production in the way of exploitation to processing, and the increase of the total price of mineral products.
The presence of advanced heavy machinery (excavators, loaders, dump trucks, etc.) in mines is one of the most important factors of production and exploitation Therefore, irreparable damages will be caused to the mines if these machines are not available or depreciated and stopped due to the huge costs of repairs and maintenance, lack of spare pieces, etc.
Optimum exploitation of mines is one of the most important factors of economic development and dealing with reducing the effects of sanctions. According to experts, mines can be an important alternative for the country’s oil industry. Naturally, the most important action to achieve this goal is the modernization of mining machinery. The more up-to-date the machinery is, the higher speed and precision exploitation process is carried out. In addition to increasing the production tonnage and increasing the quality of minerals due to the greater ability to separate waste and minerals, reducing production costs, reducing environmental risks, and increasing safety in mines, it also seeks to reduce fuel consumption.
In recent years, the imposition of customs bans and cumbersome laws on the import of exploitation and exploration equipment has caused the modernization of mining machinery to depend on domestic production. The policy of supporting domestic production can be effective and useful when the manufacturing companies have the necessary ability to respond to customer orders. In addition, we should have the potential to produce the relevant machinery inside the country, but the production plans remain as promised and the mines are still facing the challenge of the aging of machinery.
The increase in demand due to the shortage of this machinery has caused a sharp increase in their prices inside the country, and in recent years, due to the scarcity and high cost of spare pieces of machinery and their high aging, the production efficiency has decreased and sometimes it has caused the closure of mines.
To support producers like Hepco, it is not possible to suspend the miners for several years and cause the closure of many mines! A company that produced less than 30 pieces of machinery in 2020, most of which is related to road construction machinery. Can it support the needs of at least 10,000 pieces of machinery needed by mines?
We must accept that aligning with today’s world technology requires correct needs assessment, detailed explanation, and description of research and development processes, constant re-creation, and improvement. We have no choice but to accompany and align with this path. We must accept that the production of a product is not done overnight, even as friends say if we use the reverse engineering method!
In today’s industrial world, where many mines are mechanized with cutting-edged equipment, the most important factor in increasing the volume of mining operations is the change and renovation of mining machinery and transport fleet. In addition, a mechanism should be provided for miners to be able to import new mining machinery.
We are in the fourth industrial age and if we don’t change our perspective, despite the high mineral potential in the country, we will lag behind other countries and will not be competitive.
Currently, there is no clear policy for the continuous supply and import of machinery. Lack of stability and constant change of laws in this field, confusion in decisions, and immature decisions have brought heavy costs to miners and caused a lack of progress, disrupting the planning of mines for production, and if these policies continue, the mining industry will be completely crippled.
The policy of importing second-hand machinery and equipment cannot support the needs of mining activists. Because the challenges in the issue of importing this equipment and the lack of spare pieces and most importantly the financial and banking issues have made this policy unable to support the needs of this industry.
It seems that the practical action of the government and the comprehensive movement of the private sector needs a very strong motive force. It is an indisputable fact that the global market has a very high capacity and potential for investment in industry and mining, but all of this is possible when the existing cumbersome laws are removed and the processes are simplified.
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