AI Is Harnessed in TTM Digital Twin to Avoid Collisions and Improve Safety in Mines

The Council for Science and Industrial Research's (CSIR) Mining Cluster in collaboration with the Mandela Mining Precinct (MMP) and the Minerals Council South Africa have successfully built a near-real-time digital risk assessment tool to prevent vehicle collisions in the mines, namely the Trackless Mobile Machinery (TMM) Digital Twin.

A joint meeting of the Portfolio Committee on Science, Technology and Innovation and the Portfolio Committee on Mineral and Petroleum Resources received this news from Ms Sibongile Ntsoelengoe, the Director for CSIR's Mining Cluster, who told the committees that TMM Digital Twin was developed and tested over a period of 18 months and then launched in 2023 and commercialised in 2024.

Ms Ntsoelengoe said that the TMM Digital Twin applies fourth industrial revolution technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and other data analytics to evaluate vehicle risk interaction and predict optimum scenarios to support decision making.

"This technology provides data-driven insights to enable the continuous improvement of TMM safety, productivity and cost reduction for existing operations and life of mine planning, thereby improving the safety of mining operations in compliance with Chapter 8 of the regulations of the Health and Safety Act 29 of 1996," said Ms Ntsoelengoe.

According to the CSIR, the African continent constitutes 30% of the world's mineral reserves, including many minerals that are essential to the green transition, such as chromite, copper, gold, iron, manganese and platinum group metals (PGMs), among others. PGMs include six chemically similar precious metals, namely platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium, ruthenium and osmium, which are valuable in many industrial, technological and environmental applications due to their unique properties, such as resistance to corrosion, catalytic activity and high melting points.

The committees heard that TMM Digital Twin was commercialised in partnership with PAISA Technology, which was granted a license to access the technology's safety risk profiling solution along with continued support from experts at the CSIR' Mining Cluster. PAISA Technology is a local, youth-owned, level 1 B-BBEE SMME focused on delivering AI-driven systems aimed at enhancing workplace safety. MMP is a public-private partnership initiative between the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation and the Minerals Council South Africa. The initiative is aimed at revitalising mining research, development and innovation in South Africa to ensure the sustainability of the industry.

Lastly, the Minerals Council South Africa is a mining industry employers' organisation that supports and promotes the South African mining industry.

Justice Molafo
3 June 2025