UK-based supplier of equipment and services to the mining industry Weir Minerals has signed a deal with AVEVA, an industrial software developer, to simplify data access and to share and establish the practice of smart technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI).

Weir Minerals said it would utilise the AVEVA PI System to collect, contextualise and analyse data streams, which will become the data foundation of its Synertrex digital ecosystem.

Along with AVEVA Data Hub, a cloud-native hub for aggregating and contextualising on-premises and remote data, it will offer the mining industry a unique solution for securely connecting mining operators with Weir Minerals as an original equipment manufacturer (OEM).

Ole Knudsen, director of digital at Weir Minerals, said: "The AVEVA PI System is an established industrial data management solution that's currently used by nine of the top ten Fortune 500 mining companies.

"The proven and secure PI System enables us to build a series of Asset Framework templates for our equipment, making it a secure yet simple plug and play exercise to connect our equipment to our customers' digital ecosystems.

"This will enable the critical first steps of a structured and standardised data approach."

Ronan de Hooge, AVEVA's executive vice president of information management, also commented: "We're very excited to work with Weir Minerals to deliver mining operators smart analytics to drive industrial transformation.

"AVEVA's ability to collect real-time performance data in any location and deliver it securely to the Synertrex platform will give operators new insight into the health of their assets and help them optimize maintenance and avoid costly downtime."