From blowouts to data-driven fleets

The tyre hasn’t changed much in a century. The intelligence surrounding it has, however, and mining fleets adopting real-time monitoring technology are already counting the cost savings.

In her piece, “Tyre innovation vs production pressure: can SA keep pace?”, Julia Tew writes that South Africa’s tyre industry faces pressure from cheap imports, plant closures and rising costs, while global innovation advances smart, connected and sustainable tyre technologies. “These include Goodyear’s SightLine technology and Continental’s ContiConnect Live, which enable real-time monitoring of pressure, temperature and wear, alerting operators before failures occur. Bridgestone’s Total Tyre Care platform goes a step further, linking data directly to fleet management systems,” she notes.

“Digitalisation allows us to move from reactive to predictive maintenance,” says Bridgestone’s Jacques Rikhotso. “That’s where the real cost savings lie – in uptime and fuel efficiency.” Tew adds that across the broader global market, other tyre makers like Michelin are expanding connected tyre platforms and predictive analytics tools to further reduce downtime and improve maintenance – underscoring a wider industry shift toward intelligent tyres.

But this isn’t just happening internationally. Right here on South Africa’s West Coast, a compelling case study is unfolding at Tronox’s Namakwa Sands operation near Brand-se-Baai, 385km north of Cape Town. The mine extracts and processes heavy minerals used globally in pigments, metals, ceramics and foundries. Sustainability and operational efficiency go hand in hand here. To support proactive tyre management, Namakwa Sands has deployed the Atlas Tyre Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) across its earthmoving fleet.

The system delivers continuous tyre pressure and temperature monitoring, instant alerts for any deviation from recommended operating parameters, data-rich journey reports for performance analysis and automated fleet-wide estate reports on demand. The result? Operators and control rooms can respond immediately to tyre anomalies – preventing costly failures and improving uptime.

Trevor Nel, site supervisor at Tronox, puts it plainly: “Fifteen electric mining vehicles are currently fitted with Atlas TPMS. In the past, we checked tyre pressures every day. Now, we only check them once a week. Alerts and warnings are (in) real time, and I can communicate directly with the control room if there is a rapid drop in pressure on a specific tyre. This saves big on tyre costs because we can remove the tyre before a run-flat occurs and repair it.”

The benefits extend beyond convenience. Namakwa Sands has seen reduced tyre damage and run-flat incidents, enhanced operator safety and situational awareness, lower machine downtime, reduced fuel consumption through correctly inflated tyres, extended tyre life, improved asset utilisation and reduced environmental impact through smarter resource management.

Connected tyres aren’t the only beneficiaries of this technology wave, however. Kal Tire (one of Canada’s largest independent tyre dealers) and Australian mining technology firm Decoda have announced a strategic alliance that extends tyre intelligence beyond the tyre itself – to the roads those tyres travel on.

The partnership has produced KalPRO HaulSight, which builds on Kal Tire’s existing KalPRO TireSight autonomous tyre inspection system. Using LiDAR and camera sensors mounted to the front and rear of haul trucks – with an “edge” computer processing live footage – HaulSight gives fleet teams instant alerts about road hazards such as spillage, road undulations and high G-force events that can cause truck and tyre damage, consequently slowing operations.

“HaulSight’s ability to detect road hazards as they arise means mines can prevent the tyre damage that TireSight detects,” says Christian Erdelyi, technology services director at Kal Tire’s Mining Tire Group. “We’re excited about how this collaboration with Decoda will further our achievements in the autonomous space to bring customers even greater improvements to tyre life, productivity and fuel efficiency.”

Furthermore, when longer-term planning is required, HaulSight can calculate the cost of lost tyre life, productivity and fuel against the cost of a road improvement. “The responsiveness of the system means mine sites benefit right away, with trucks spending more time hauling, but HaulSight also offers long-range planning insights that enable confident decision-making around tyre maintenance and road upgrade investments,” adds Erdelyi.

As more mines move toward autonomous and electric vehicles, the stakes grow higher still. A 400-tonne haul truck striking an unexpected road ripple without a driver to perceive the issue and adjust is no small matter: spillage, structural stress and lost productivity all follow. George Spink, executive general manager at Decoda, frames the opportunity well: “HaulSight gives mine sites unprecedented visibility across the entire haul circuit and turns that insight into action. By making critical data easy to visualise and act on, operations see measurable improvements – like faster circuits and reduced downtime – from day one.”

Global tyre makers are building the platforms; technology firms like Atlas and Decoda are deploying the hardware. At mines like Namakwa Sands, operators are living the results. The intelligent tyre ecosystem is assembling – piece by piece.