Schneider Electric and AVEVA unite with Vale

Schneider Electric, the leader in the digital transformation of energy management and automation, and AVEVA, a specialist in industrial software, driving digital transformation and sustainability, are powering the unification of operations for Vale, a global natural resources and mining company

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The combination of AVEVA and Schneider Electric software, technology and mining domain expertise is providing Vale with the ability to integrate, centralise, and remotely monitor operations across its Mariana and Itabira complexes in Brazil.

Vale ranks among the top five largest mining companies in the world. Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, the world’s leading producer of iron ore, pellets and nickel employs a global workforce of over 170,000 people in 38 countries.  

While primarily implemented to improve safety through remote operations, digitalisation is critically important to driving efficiency and sustainability in mining. Through the partnership, Vale can unify operations across multiple sites and upgrade its old system to one capable of remotely controlling all the diverse technologies operating across each mining facility. 

Vale chose Schneider Electric and AVEVA for the technological performance and visibility offered by their solutions. These provide an extremely high level of flexibility due to their vendor-agnostic nature, making it easy to integrate disparate technologies across multiple sites. 

Paulo Henrique Fontes Coura, senior automation leader at Vale, stated, “Schneider Electric and AVEVA have become an integral part of that journey. Rather than simply offering the software, they provided a complete, bespoke end-to-end service helping us optimise at every turn. This included training, support, and advice throughout.”

Schneider Electric deployed ecoStruxure control expert – asset link, combining AVEVA System Platform and Schneider Modicon M580, to provide visibility and unify operations for Vale. The technology enables data to be integrated directly into the system, so Vale’s managers have granular insights without having to manually transfer any intelligence. By bringing this data together, Vale can now create a master operations center and remotely manage everything. This greatly improves operational efficiency and means less people are onsite, providing a significant boost to safety. 

“Mining operations are data-rich environments where digital transformation can drive sustainability and productivity gains for improved asset utilisation and enhanced value optimisation,” commented Marc Ramsay, vice-president, global strategic partners, AVEVA. 

“Together with Schneider Electric EcoStruxure, AVEVA System Platform supports Vale in realising the mines of the future through contextualised operations built on a collaborative, standards-based foundation that unifies people, processes, and assets across all of Vale’s facilities for continuous operational improvement and real-time decision assistance,” concluded Ramsay.