The mining department holds a very important place in the hearts of the entire state and thereby the entire country. All the minerals we get to use; from Graphite to Granite to limestone and even sand, are all parts of the findings that the Geology and Mining department explores.
Ever wondered, How the Geology and Mining department works? Well here is what consists of the daily routine of their lives.
A piece of land is found, either by the fellow Geologists or by private companies in search of minerals, the samples of which are taken and tested for proof that minerals of some sort will be found if a pit, deep enough is dug. Then, through the method of tenders, a private company is chosen to work on that land, and the land is given on lease for a period of 10-15 years.
How Inspection officer check the lease inspection area?
The main work of the Mining and Geology department begins after the above-mentioned process gets over and the inspection process begins. The officers, who are the most important in this process are;
- Mine Supervisor
- Royalty Inspectors
- Surveyors
The major inspection points of these inspectors are:
- Checking the Lease area.
- Making sure the Geo-fencing is in place.
- Measuring the pits that are dug, by latitude, longitude, depth, width and breadth.
- Checking the trucks that deliver the minerals to the Stockiest or to the market directly.
- Checking Royalty slip and weigh bridge pass, both with all the information on the weight, time, and date of the material to be delivered.
- Checking the geo-fencing, area usage and the storage itself (measured with width length and height), at the Stockist’s place.
- Checking the delivery challan and the weigh bridge pass, when the truck leaves the Stockist’s land.
What are their difficulties?
When the mining inspection process needs to be done manually, it ends up taking a lot of time, papers, money and energy that needs to be spent in it. First of all the entire record that needs to be kept is kept manually, so as and when the inspection needs to be done, the entire file that carries all the documents on that lease land, and then to make an entry, in a form, manually again. Post that, the entire file needs to be carried back to the office and comparisons get done there.
On the other hand, even the checking of the Delivery Challan, Weigh Bridge pass and Royalty Slip needs to be verified in person and there is no way in which one can check, if this slip has truly been generated by the system of nCode.
All this and much more form the challenges that the Geology and Mining department face in their day to day tasks.
What type of mining inspection functionality do officers use in GeoMine Mobile App & How?
- Attendance module: The Geologists, commissioners and others collectors can all check the attendance of the Fellow Geologists, Mine Supervisors, Royalty Inspectors and Surveyors, which is recorded and sent with a GPS location.
- E-inspection: With the GeoMine app, the Fellow Geologists, Mine Supervisors and the Royalty Inspectors can keep the entire information about the Lease Holders and Stockist.
- (n)Code reconfirmation: The GeoMine app has integrated the API of N.Code, using which the officers can scan the code given on Royalty pass or Delivery challan and thereby verify if they were truly the pass or challan that the N.Code system produced and not fake.
- Geo-Fencing: Once the original pillars of geo-fencing are marked in any land that is soon to be given on lease, it gets feed in, in the GeoMine app. In the next inspection, one can instantaneously compare the original geo-fencing marks and its condition now, in a case of Lease Holder, Quarry Permit and Stockist as well.
- Reporting Module: The officers don’t have to go back to the office, to give the report, on a physically filled form. With GeoMine, they can immediately send the report with pictures attached.
GeoMine is an app that takes a manual procedure, which had been followed in the Geology and Mining department and turns it into an automated one. Using the attendance module, the supervisors can track the officers and see where they are and whether they are at the location which they are allotted to be at. Even the officers feel that their work is being noticed, and thereby they work harder. This is called a self-reinforcing loop and making the mining inspection process fast & flexible for officers too.
This is how, the entire working system that had been set up, is automatized. And because of this:
- The workload gets lesser
- There is no need to return to the office to compare data
- There is no need to carry big files
- There is no need to fill the same form manually, every time that the inspection takes place and more.
In a way, GeoMine has optimized the working system of the Geology and Mining department, making sure that more and more work is done in a lesser period of time. Currently, about 160+ field officers are using this app, in Gujarat itself, and more people are on the way to becoming digitalized with GeoMine as their tool.