Tata Steel has signed a memorandum of understanding with Aarav Unmanned Systems (AUS), a Bangalore-based start-up providing end-to-end drone solutions, for effective mine management.
The primary goal of the collaboration, said Tata Steel, is to jointly develop and offer sustainable and end-to-end integrated solutions that will focus on the efficiency, safety, and productivity of open cast mining operations. Tata Steel will also work jointly with AUS to provide exclusive drone-based solutions including mine analytics and geo-technical mapping, to Tata Steel group companies across various stocks and mining locations in India.
''We see enormous potential in redefining core mining processes such as exploration and mine planning using drone data and adequate analytics.''
D. B. Sundara Ramam, vice president, raw materials, Tata Steel
On the partnership, D. B. Sundara Ramam, vice president, raw materials, Tata Steel, said: “We are excited to work with AUS again, this time for a longer duration and with a broader vision of sustainable development. Drone survey enabled digitalisation and other technology will assist in gathering impactful and actionable insights. We see enormous potential in redefining core mining processes such as exploration and mine planning using drone data and adequate analytics. These end-to-end mining solutions are economical, demand fewer on-foot exploration requirements, and improve production, efficiency, and site safety. We also intend to offer our learnings to the rest of the world's mining companies as a professional solution from our fully owned unit, Tata Steel Industrial Consultancy Limited.”
AUS has been working closely with the steel giant to provide state-of-the-art drone technology to modernise its mining operations. The latest contract will focus on using remote mine monitoring to improve efficiency, safety, and productivity of the mines.
“Tata Steel is one of the world’s leading steel companies and it has been an honour to provide our sustainable and integrated mining solutions for their operations.''
Vipul Singh, founder and CEO, AUS
Commenting on the partnership, Vipul Singh, founder and CEO, AUS said: “Tata Steel is one of the world’s leading steel companies and it has been an honour to provide our sustainable and integrated mining solutions for their operations. The accuracy, reliability and consistency of data is critical in the mining sector, and our solutions will be able to improve Tata Steel’s productivity & efficiency and contribute to modernize their mining operations. Tata Steel’s trust in us to create end-to-end solutions jointly with them, for the domestic and global mining industry, directly reflects on the vision we share and openness of a behemoth like Tata Steel to partner with a startup to derive the most effective solution.”