South African mines are under pressure to produce more from existing operations while maintaining safety and sustainability. In a recent ControlTalk conversation, Emerson’s global level industry manager explains why level measurement, and radar in particular, has become central to meeting all three goals at once.

Why It Matters

Mining sits at an inflection point. Demand driven by the energy transition is rising, yet a decade of limited investment in new facilities means most additional output must come from assets already in the ground. That reality puts a premium on visibility into the process, because you cannot speed up production safely without knowing what is happening inside every silo, leaching tank, and tailings dam. Level measurement supplies that visibility, and when the data moves to a safe distance, it protects the operator as well as the process.

Key Takeaways

• Producing more from existing mines depends on automation and measurement that make the process visible enough to react faster.
• Speeding up production without instrumentation raises the risk of overfills, silo collapse, and other accidents.
• Level is uniquely critical in mining because it is used so often and the applications are so critical.
• Remote level monitoring keeps operators away from 30-meter silos and 50-meter-deep tailings dams.
• Radar is the fastest-growing level technology because its readings hold up in dust, wind, and temperature swings where ultrasonic drifts.
• Falling radar manufacturing costs now meet the ultrasonic price point, which is driving rapid adoption.

Turning Process Data Into Faster Decisions

Shivam Misra, global industry manager for level measurement at Emerson, works out of the level factory headquarters in Mölnlycke, Sweden, splitting his time between proposing solutions to metal mining customers worldwide and feeding their challenges back to Emerson’s innovation teams. Speaking with Kim Roberts, editor of SA Instrumentation and Control magazine, Shivam framed the industry’s core challenge in plain terms: the sector needs to produce more, and the most practical path is to use automation and measurement more.

He compares a mining operation to a car. Driving up production is like pressing the accelerator. Go faster, and you raise the odds of an accident, and you risk burning fuel less efficiently, which pulls down sustainability. Measurement instrumentation is what lets a mine speed up without losing control. Measure the right points, control the process better, and you can push output while still meeting safety and sustainability goals.

Why Level Sits at the Center

Level earns its importance in a mine through frequency and criticality. It is measured constantly and on applications where getting it wrong carries real consequences, from silos to sulfuric acid leaching processes to tailings dams. As Shivam points out, level is the application being solved for the customer, and several technologies can deliver it: differential pressure, radar, and ultrasonics, the last of which is a legacy approach now being displaced.

Take the silo example. Fill it faster as you speed up the plant, and you introduce the risk of overfill or collapse. Fit a level transmitter, including one using the WirelessHART technology Emerson helped pioneer, and you bring both visibility and control to that process. That is the difference between running fast and running fast safely.

Keeping Operators Out of Harm’s Way

Instrumentation protects the process, but it also protects the people. Checking a reading on a 30-meter silo or a 50-meter-deep tailings dam once meant an operator had to physically climb to the measuring point, putting both the person and the operation at risk. The alternative is remote level measurement: capture the parameter at the source, then transmit it, increasingly through WirelessHART, to a safe distance where an operator can view and control the process. Operators stay out of hazardous areas while still keeping full command of the process.

Shivam shared a Latin American example that brings this together. A customer recirculating tailings dam water to reuse it was fighting a costly problem: solids building up at the bottom of the bed were reaching the pumping motors and choking them. Emerson deployed a point level device that detects the frequency difference between solids and liquid, then transmits that reading wirelessly to a remote control station. When the operator sees the solids building up, they can pause the operation, arrange removal, and resume, keeping the process running sustainably and safely.

Why Radar Is Pulling Ahead

The move toward radar comes down to physics. Ultrasonic technology needs air to carry its waves, so anything that disturbs the air disturbs the reading. Mount an ultrasonic device over a 40- or 50-meter pit, and its readings shift as temperature changes from dusk to dawn or as wind blows the signal away, which lowers reliability. Radar works on electromagnetic wave propagation and does not depend on a medium. It performs even through wind, dust, fumes, and antenna buildup, so reliability stays high, which is exactly what tight process control demands.

The physics has been understood for years. What changed is cost. Over roughly the last decade, radar manufacturing costs have fallen enough to reach the ultrasonic price point, unlocking fast adoption.

Looking ahead, Shivam describes the mine of the future as invisible, electrified, autonomous, and self-configuring in real time. Industrial automation will drive that shift, and given how often and how critically level is used, he sees it staying at the forefront of that transformation.

Learn More

To explore how Emerson’s level measurement technologies support safer, more productive, and more sustainable mining operations, watch the video podcast, visit the Measurement Instrumentation for Mining and Metals section on Emerson.com, or contact your local Emerson representative.