Melbourne-based blast systems provider Orica has chosen Microsoft Azure as the strategic cloud foundation for its emerging digital portfolio as part of its digital and sustainable strategy.

The company cited Microsoft Azure's "reliability, scalability and security", which it said provides trusted foundations for innovation.

Additionally, it said access to Azure IoT, a portfolio of Azure cognitive services and extensive library of AI tools, would help to accelerate Orica's digital innovation.

Rajkumar Mathiravedu, vice president of digital solutions, Orica, said Microsoft Azure's technology has been deployed on oil and gas applications which can be "easily applied" to mining.

The company said it is already working on open digital platforms that integrate customers' data with machine learning to create "intelligent production workflows".

Srikant Kadambi, energy lead, Microsoft Asia, said: "Orica has unparalleled domain expertise and global industry knowledge.

"Combining that with Microsoft Azure capabilities & the ability of our teams and ecosystems to deploy these technologies at production scale allows us to work together to create literally ground-breaking solutions for the whole mining value chain."