Hexagon’s Mining division executive vice president Dave Goddard told Safe to Work how 2025 is shaping up to be the industry mainstay’s biggest year yet.
Acquisitions, new innovations and expansions were just some of the milestones ticked off mine technology provider Hexagon’s 2024 bucket list.
Known for its cutting-edge mining technologies including artificial intelligence (AI), collision avoidance and mine planning, Hexagon is one of the industry’s most ambitious pioneers when it comes to mine efficiency and safety.
Hexagon’s Mining division celebrates a decade of operation in February this year. While the industry giant tends to focus on automation technologies powering the future of mining, the anniversary is a reminder that it has a rich, historical legacy of products that have changed how mining is done.
Hexagon MinePlan, for example, dates all the way back to 1970 when Dr Fred Banfield, widely considered the godfather of mine planning, began applying computers to analyse mine plans.
Jon Olson, the architect of the world’s first fleet management system in 1981, also developed the foundational elements of Hexagon’s fleet management system.
SAFEmine, with its collision avoidance system, was among the first mining-related acquisitions by Hexagon, followed soon after by the acquisition of fatigue monitoring specialists Guardvant.
Hexagon’s continued development of these systems for operator alertness, personnel protection and vehicle intervention has given its customers full visibility on issues unseen by siloed solutions.
With the mining industry’s pace of progress reaching a stratospheric trajectory, Hexagon is continually challenged not just to innovate, but to ensure its systems work together to offer miners the best possible support. The company has continuously embraced that challenge since launching its mining business 10 years ago.
As a new year gets underway, Safe to Work caught up with Hexagon’s Mining division executive vice president Dave Goddard to talk transitions, trends and the future of mining.
What movements did Hexagon make in 2024 that have set the company up for success in 2025?
Hexagon’s Mining division completed a year of firsts in 2024.
We released an AI-powered 3D blast movement solution, deployed innovative underground safety systems and introduced 4D radar in our collision avoidance solution.
We helped Ma’aden create the Middle East’s first digital mine and acquired indurad, a leader in industrial radar systems.
Elsewhere, we brought safety insights to market, as well as upgrades and enhancements to our Collision Avoidance System – also known as CAS – and Operator Alertness System, or OAS.
In the mine planning realm, we debuted AI-driven blast movement monitoring with Hexagon Blast Movement Intelligence, and within fleet management, we released an updated version of Hexagon OP Pro with fleet analytics capabilities.
Through our earlier acquisition of HARD-LINE, we introduced new applications of teleoperations beyond underground and across the mine, for example by enabling Brazil’s first teleoperated eight-by-four mining trucks.
What trends do you see emerging in the industry that will play out across 2025?
At a macro level, we expect miners to be cautious with new investments and continue to find creative ways to extract value from their existing assets.
As average grades decrease and talent continues its scarcity, Hexagon’s technologies and solutions become even more critical to improving production efficiency and enhancing safety.
Can you tell us about Hexagon’s acquisition of indurad?
The acquisition of indurad and its autonomous haulage subsidiary xtonomy was an important step towards realising Hexagon’s vision of fully connected and integrated mine workflows.
indurad’s unique offering of one-, two- and three-dimensional radars and real-time location systems solutions expands our portfolio in collision avoidance, positioning, digitalisation, process optimisation and automation.
indurad’s proven ability to understand unique problems that customers are trying to solve from pit to port, complemented with its radar expertise, enables digital twins that are otherwise next to impossible to achieve with other sensors.
How will this acquisition enable Hexagon to continue driving safety in Australian mines?
The indurad acquisition is part of a bigger safety journey Hexagon is on with its customers.
Technology is just one layer of mine safety. Change management and data insights are also important layers.
Neither Hexagon’s CAS nor OAS stand alone as 100 per cent effective. Even when both solutions are combined, operators must still be engaged and re-engaged in a cycle of continuous improvement.
That’s the power of safety layers and navigating the EMESRT (Earth Moving Equipment Safety Round Table) Levels 1 to 9 as a cyclical process.
Autonomy in mining is more than just deploying the latest sensors and machine learning algorithms. It’s about orchestrating the fleet and understanding the broader mission and daily production goal.
Each truck’s payload, its interaction with other equipment and its ultimate destination are all critical.
Hexagon’s solutions for safety, productivity and autonomy will continue to ensure that every truck arrives at the right place, at the right time, with the right payload.
What other key acquisitions and technologies are setting the company up for a successful 2025?
Besides indurad, the integration of HARD-LINE highlights and further reinforces our position as the most comprehensive provider of solutions that enable customers to become increasingly connected and autonomous.
For example, customers using Hexagon CAS can now easily enhance that solution by integrating TeleOp and/or the radio remote control systems developed by HARD-LINE for another layer of protection.
This will see greater protection for miners in areas where operators may inadvertently get too close to a remotely operated machine. CAS is deployed in more than 100 mine sites worldwide, including open-pit and underground operations.
What is Hexagon’s overall outlook on mine safety in 2025?
Hexagon began 2025 with 65,000 CAS units deployed, the largest global install base on the market.
Our customers can expect an integrated safety ecosystem of solutions that unify collision avoidance, operator alertness and intervention systems.
Beyond this cohesive safety and productivity platform is a mission-centric approach to autonomy that ensures vehicles don’t just operate safely but contribute to optimised production by managing payloads, traffic rules and destination timing.Our solutions are OEM (original equipment manufacturer) agnostic and flexible enough to adapt to mixed fleets and varied site conditions while maintaining consistent safety and productivity standards.
How will Hexagon continue to support the industry in 2025?
Hexagon is focused on providing the flexibility for our customers to use OEM-agnostic solutions while they navigate the journey to autonomous operation, all the while optimising their safety and productivity with data insights every step of the way.
More broadly, our solutions are actively used in North and South America, Australia, Africa and other major mining geographies.
Each of these regions presents unique operational challenges, from safety and productivity to regulatory requirements.
By leveraging our global expertise and local knowledge, Hexagon can tailor solutions to deliver optimal outcomes and make a positive impact wherever we’re engaged with customers.
This feature also appears in the January-February issue of Safe to Work.