Smart Operations, Greater Efficiency: NMS O&M System Goes Live at Bensteel Concentrator

Recently, the video news program Today at Benxi Steel reported that the intelligent operation and maintenance system at Benxi Mining’s concentrator plant has been successfully put into operation. The system was tailor-made by NMS, deeply integrating IoT, digital twin, and artificial intelligence technologies. Its commissioning further demonstrates the maturity and adaptability of NMS’s intelligent maintenance solution, providing strong support for refined equipment management and the plant’s transition toward intelligent production.

In the past, equipment management at the Nanfen concentrator plant relied mainly on manual inspections, experience-based judgment, and reactive maintenance. This traditional model has increasingly shown limitations and has become a bottleneck restricting efficiency improvement and refined cost control. Recognizing these challenges, the Nanfen concentrator plant made the strategic decision to adopt an intelligent maintenance system to drive management transformation.

In July 2025, the Nanfen concentrator plant officially launched the intelligent operation and maintenance system project in collaboration with NMS. The project emphasizes both innovation and practicality, adopting IoT and wireless communication technologies to simplify architecture, standard interfaces and protocols to ensure future system scalability, and a flexible on-premise deployment solution to secure core data. After successive stages including research, solution design, hardware deployment, platform construction, and system optimization, the system has now entered its advanced application phase. The NMS project team continues to optimize alarm mechanisms based on operator feedback and enhances the automated reporting system using machine learning models to further unlock data value.

The system focuses on core production processes of the concentrator plant, integrating five major functions: data acquisition, digital twin, multi-parameter predictive maintenance, equipment management, and AI reporting. It covers 13 key pieces of equipment, including cone crushers, banana screens, fine screens, and HP apron feeders. Through advanced sensor networks deployed at critical points along the production line, the system enables real-time monitoring of vibration, temperature, lubrication oil conditions, current, and pressure data. Based on this data, a 3D SCADA visualization platform has been developed, allowing operators to fully understand equipment status and production efficiency in the control room. Meanwhile, through multi-parameter analytical models and AI algorithms, the system can detect subtle changes in equipment health, enabling a fundamental shift from reactive maintenance to predictive maintenance. This significantly reduces unplanned downtime, improves overall equipment effectiveness, and supports more scientific spare parts inventory and procurement planning.

In addition, the system’s AR-based remote maintenance support and training functions enhance technician capability and efficiency, reduce reliance on on-site high-skilled labor, and lay the foundation for leaner and more intelligent operations. The high-quality operational data accumulated by the system also provides valuable input for future process optimization.

Since going live, the system’s predictive maintenance capabilities have already shown tangible results, successfully identifying multiple potential anomalies and enabling early intervention. This has effectively prevented unplanned downtime and equipment damage, highlighting the value shift from reactive repair to proactive prevention.

The successful implementation of NMS’s intelligent operation and maintenance system at Benxi Mining’s Nanfen concentrator plant represents a concrete step in the industry’s drive toward high-end, intelligent, and green development. It also marks an important milestone in NMS’s practice of mining digitalization, delivering measurable benefits in cost reduction and efficiency improvement. The system has already been deployed in several large-scale mining operations across China, earning consistent recognition for its stable performance. Looking ahead, NMS will continue to uphold its philosophy of professional excellence, integrity-driven cooperation, and value-oriented partnership, supporting more mining enterprises in advancing toward high-quality development.