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With an operating footprint of up to 50km from the mining pit to iron ore carriers, it was easy for Citic Pacific Mining, Australia’s largest magnetite mining company, to lose track of its assets, such as light vehicles, buses and service trucks. The lack of visibility over those assets had not only disrupted Citic Pacific’s production operations and maintenance, but it also meant the loss of potential fuel tax rebates given to the mining industry. “We discovered that we could not claim fuel tax rebates for many of our light vehicles because we didn’t know where they were and how far they had travelled,” Ray Achemedei, general manager for information services at Citic Pacific, told Computer Weekly. The solution came in the form of the internet of things (IoT), enabling the mining company to track its fixed and mobile assets via sensors. “Sensors are getting cheaper and can be quickly deployed on light buses and trucks,” said Achemedei. “With sensors, we can now gather real-time data on an asset, not just to know where it is, but...