Tata Steel signs MoU with start-up for drone-based mining solutions

Domestic giant Tata Steel on Wednesday said it has inked a pact with a Bengaluru-based startup for drone-based mining solutions for effective mine management.

The primary goal of this collaboration is to jointly develop and offer sustainable and end-to-end integrated solutions that will focus on efficiency, safety, and productivity of open cast mining operations.

"Tata Steel has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Aarav Unmanned Systems (AUS), a Bangaluru-based startup, providing end-to-end drone solutions... for effective mine management," the company said in a statement.

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 mining locations in India, it said.

On the partnership, D B Sundara Ramam, vice president, Raw Materials, Tata Steel, said: 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.

The company said it aspires to leverage the opportunities arising from the Government's Atmanirbhar Bharat Programme and regulatory changes to meet captive raw material requirements beyond 2030 by creating a sustainable mining business.

It said it had charted out its vision a couple of years ago to become a leading player in digitalising its mining operations across the value chain.

Digitalisation enables the development of targeted strategies using real-time data and data analytics, provides visualisation and decision matrix tools to predict failure, helps in optimisation of scheduling and material flow, and improves the capability of beneficiation plants through online monitoring of quality data, it said.

Commenting on the partnership, Vipul Singh, Founder and CEO, Aarav Unmanned Systems, said: 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.