25% More Throughput in Under 24 Hours: Vulcan’s AI-Powered Breakthrough
TL;DR
In the mining sector, achieving operational gains often means years of mechanical upgrades, process fine-tuning, and heavy capital investment. But when artificial intelligence, reliability engineering, and operational technology (OT) work in harmony, improvements become exponential — and immediate.
This is exactly what happened at the BSM-3 crushing plant at Vulcan International coal plant in Moçambique, which delivered record-breaking results through an Industrial AIOps approach focused on optimization, autonomous process control, and systemic reliability.
Record Results That Redefine Operational Performance
Within hours of deploying the industrial AI platform, BSM-3 achieved milestone performance indicators:
- 4,400 t/h feed rate — new operational record.
- 82,000 tons/day — highest daily throughput ever recorded, a 32% increase over the previous peak.
- 100% of critical events eliminated — no feeder failures, blockages, or overload trips since adoption.
- +12 percentage points in BIN-03 level stability — critical for maintaining continuous flow.
These aren’t just efficiency gains — they represent true reliability transformation, the cornerstone of high-performance OT environments.
From Reactive Maintenance to Proactive, AI-Driven Operations
According to Vulcan's report, BSM-3 underwent a full performance transformation by combining advanced analytics, predictive models, automated setpoint adjustments, and control-system improvements.
🔧 Mechanical & Process Enhancements
- Significant reduction in unplanned downtime.
- Consistent and stable ramp-up execution.
- Removal of classic bottlenecks such as blockages and overload trips.
🤖 AIOps for Reliability
- Real-time failure prediction before deviations become critical.
- Dynamic process adjustments based on actual conditions.
- Continuous insights into equipment and system behavior.
📉 Direct Impact on Cost per Ton
A 25% increase in throughput directly translated into lower unit costs — one of the most strategically relevant KPIs for industrial operations.
Why This Project Matters for the Entire Industry
What’s happening at BSM-3 is not an isolated optimization case — it’s a clear indicator of the maturity of AI within OT environments. Unlike traditional improvement programs that require long ramp-up periods, the results achieved were:
- Immediate — benefits observable from day one.
- Sustainable — maintained through continuous AI learning.
- Scalable — enabling the plant to approach future targets of over 100,000 tons/day.
This level of transformation is only possible when AI, MLOps, DataOps, and reliability engineering operate cohesively within the OT landscape.
A Glimpse of Industry 4.0 and 5.0 in Action
The BSM-3 success story reinforces an irreversible trend:
➡️ The next wave of industrial productivity will come from intelligence, not infrastructure.
With dedicated Industrial AIOps platform, in this case, SIENTIA™, plants can:
- Operate with predictive precision,
- Anticipate anomalies,
- Increase system resilience,
Unlock previously hidden performance potential.
This is not simply automation. It is operational augmentation — enabling plants to self-optimize while enhancing human decision-making.
Conclusion: The New Paradigm of High-Performance Industrial Operations
The evolution of the BSM-3 crushing plant demonstrates that integrating AI, OT engineering, and industrial process expertise can define a new operational baseline — not incremental, but transformational.
By eliminating critical events, boosting stability, increasing throughput, and reducing costs simultaneously, BSM-3 proves that AI-driven reliability is now a direct competitive advantage.
And this transformation continues to accelerate as models learn, adapt, and reinforce a culture of data-driven, high-reliability operations.