The mining, metals, and materials industries have undergone profound transformations in recent years, particularly with regard to production process technologies and the industry’s energy matrix. These topics were discussed in various roundtables throughout the 6th edition of ABM WEEK, held in São Paulo from June 7 to 9.

The meetings gathered experts from academia and industry, who showed that the pace of implementation of new technologies has increasingly accelerated in the wake of the need to reduce costs and improve production automation.

With regard to the introduction of new fuels and the struggle for energy efficiency, the development of alternatives is linked to the achievement of internationally established carbon emission reduction targets, whose milestones were set as 2030 and 2050. All this has largely changed the industry – and will continue to change it even more in the years to come.

of the watchwords in technological innovation debate was Industry 4.0. New tools commonly associated with it were in the spotlight in some of the discussions, as was the case of the IoT Applications in Mining roundtable.

According to Ricardo Augusto Rabelo Oliveira, Computer Science professor at the Federal University of Ouro Preto (UFOP) and an Industry 4.0 expert, Brazil is currently experiencing a fundamental moment for the application of IoT tools in industry, with the introduction of the 5G cell phone technology.

“The use of industrial control sensors doesn’t specifically result from Industry 4.0, as it had already been consolidated in previous stages of development. With 5G, we now have the possibility of transmitting data in sufficient volume to enter a new phase once and for all,” Oliveira said.

Luís Alberto Ferreira Dutra and moderator André Wulff Hirano, both from Anglo American, participated in the discussions about specific cases of deployment of IoT and other disruptive innovations in the mining industry.

“The process remains incipient. But some players have adopted such tools on a trial basis. Vale, for example, has a mining site near Belo Horizonte where trucks are tele-operated,” Oliveira mentions.

The roundtable Industry 4.0 – Using Data and Analytics in Safety Management in Melt Shops highlighted different uses of new data technologies in steelmaking, especially in the field of people and equipment safety.

“Industry 4.0 has been used in the monitoring of supervised areas, smart clothing, risk mitigation systems, and in project concepts aimed at safety, from the equipment and process design stage up to implementation,” says Guilherme Frederico Bernardo Lenz e Silva, professor of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering at the University of São Paulo (USP).
Lenz e Silva also highlights the great opportunity at the Brazilian industry’s disposal upon the introduction of 5G technology. “For those who have not yet migrated, it’s time to start using these tools in their processes and safety management systems,” he stresses.

However, major industry players already feature successful cases of data technology application to safety in steel production, the professor adds.

“It became clear at the roundtable, which counted on the attendance of both technology providers and large steelmakers, that Artificial Intelligence is already being applied to operational and process safety,” Lenz e Silva remarks.
The meeting was attended by Sandro de Souza Santos from ArcelorMittal Tubarão, Leandro Silvino Crivellari from Ternium, Thiago Norio Nakata from Gerdau, Marco Ometto from Danieli Automation, and Frank Kolmbauer from Primetals.

Cloud solutions, which are a natural component in the adoption of IoT and AI in production processes, also promise to revolutionize data handling and management in the mining and metals industry. The topic was discussed at the roundtable Shifting Paradigms – Cloud-based Solutions for AT/IT, with the participation of Primetals Technologies Austria GmbH’s Bojan Jozić, Oracle Brasil’s Marco Righetti, and Vetta/SMS Group’s Thiago Turchetti Maia.

“The cloud system is modular and adaptable to new requirements. We’re not talking about expensive systems involving recurring expenses, but rather annual ones. I see good possibilities for application in the steel industry,” Bojan Jozić said at the meeting.

In addition to Industry 4.0, the need to urgently decarbonize the mining, metals, and materials industry is another driver of huge transformations we have seen and will continue to see as a result of the introduction of new technologies and fuels.
The roundtable Natural Gas: A Strategic Input for the Steel Industry addressed the use of this fuel in steel production and the resulting reduction in carbon emissions.

“The recent gas market regulation revision has changed it from being just an energy input for the industry into a component playing a strategic role and contributing to cost reduction,” explained Juliana Rodrigues de Melo Silva, energy specialist with Abrace (Brazilian Association of Large Industrial Power Consumers and Free Consumers), during the meeting.

With the recent breach of Petrobras's monopoly in natural gas production, the market has been changing rapidly. According to Melo Silva, ten new suppliers entered the market in January 2022 offering natural gas at a price 40% lower than that of Petrobras.

According to Pedro Zagury, technology and applications manager with White Martins, the steel industry is rapidly moving towards decarbonizing its entire value chain, which has required “a series of measures and changes in technological processes to meet the 2030 interim carbon reduction targets.

“Consolidated technologies are already in place for applications in the steel industry, such as oxy-combustion, in which pure oxygen is used in the combustion process, providing fuel savings, increased productivity, and carbon reduction,” Zagury adds.

The second step is set to be the use of hydrogen in the ore reduction process, which “will demand very large volumes of hydrogen and green energy,” he points out.

“We’re positioning ourselves with our know-how and products to meet what our customers in the steel industry have been looking for,” he concludes.

The 6th ABM WEEK is hosted by Gerdau and is sponsored by the following companies: Açokorte, Air Liquide, Alkegen, Amepa GmbH, Aperam, ArcelorMittal, Atomat Services, AutoForm, BM Group/Polytec, BRC, Braincube, CBMM, CEMI, Combustol, Clariant, Danieli, Dassault Systèmes, DME Engenharia, Eirich, Enacom, Engineering, Evonik, Fosbel, GSI, Harsco, Hatch/CISDI, Ibar, Imerys, IMS Messsysteme GmbH, Isra Vision Parsytec, John Cockerill Industry, Kuttner, Metso Outotec, Nalco Water/Ecolab, Nouryon, Primetals Technologies, PSI Metals, Reframax , RHI Magnesita, Saint-Gobain, SMS Group Paul Wurth/ Vetta, Spraying Systems, Suez, SunCoke, Tecnosulfur, Ternium, Timken, Thermo Fischer, TopSolid, TRB, Unimetal, Usiminas, Vale, Vamtec, Vesuvius, Villares Metals, Wallonia.be (ADI – Industrial Services, John Cockerill Hydrogen, BorderSystem, Datanet International, Synthetis e PEPITe), White Martins e Yellow Solution. Special support: : CNPq.  Institutional support: Abal, Abendi, AIST, AIST Mena, Alacero, Casa de Metal, CBCA, Elsevieir, Ibram, ICZ e Instituto Aço Brasil, CIMM e Ind4.0.