Mining Monitoring

What tanks can you monitor at a mine site?

You can monitor most fixed and portable tanks on a mine site, including bulk diesel storage, fuel trailers, lube and oil tanks, water tanks, and process chemical storage.

Tailings dams and large ponds have their own engineering and regulatory monitoring programs. LevelCon's role at a mine is tank and vessel level, pressure, temperature, and flow, not geotechnical monitoring. Our tank level monitoring guide covers how the sensors, gateways, and alerts fit together.

• Bulk diesel storage: the tanks that fuel haul trucks, loaders, drills, and generators.
• Portable fuel tanks and trailers: level plus location, since the F200's motion-activated multi-GNSS reports where a tank ends up after it moves.
• Lube, hydraulic oil, and used-oil tanks: inventory at maintenance shops and field service points.
• Water tanks: potable water for camps and offices, dust-suppression water, and process water supply tanks.
• Chemical storage: level on tanks holding process chemicals, with sensor materials selected for the specific liquid.

How does remote fuel monitoring work for mining fleets?

Remote fuel monitoring puts a level sensor and gateway on each bulk diesel tank and reports levels to a dashboard at set intervals, so fuel coordinators can see inventory and burn rate without a site visit.

Fleet fueling at a mine depends on timing. Haul trucks and loaders can draw a bulk tank down quickly during heavy production, and an empty fuel bay idles equipment that costs far more than the fuel. Level history turns each tank into a consumption trend, so deliveries are ordered against actual usage instead of a fixed calendar, and a tank drawing down faster than normal shows up days before it runs low.

The same history supports fuel accountability. A level drop that doesn't match equipment activity or a scheduled dispense stands out in the trend, which gives you a starting point for investigating a leak or an unauthorized draw.

• Low-level alert: set at your reorder point, with enough lead time for a delivery to reach the site.
• High-level alert: warns during a delivery that the tank is close to overfilling.
• Rate-of-change alert: flags a drop that is faster than normal consumption.

How do you monitor tanks at an off-grid mine site with no cell service?

Off-grid mine sites use solar- or battery-powered monitors with satellite connectivity, either as the primary link or as an automatic fallback when cellular service drops.

Exploration camps, outlying fuel points, and remote pits often sit outside reliable cellular range, and coverage can vary by carrier and season. A satellite-capable unit such as XSync keeps those tanks reporting. A dual-mode gateway switches to satellite automatically when cellular drops and switches back when service returns. Satellite costs more per message, so it suits scheduled readings and alarms rather than high-frequency data, which is exactly what tank monitoring needs.

Power is the other half. The F200 runs on a serviceable 6,000 mAh primary battery and an integrated solar reservoir for 5+ years of unattended operation at two reports per day, and XSync units charge themselves with a built-in solar panel. Our cellular vs. satellite gateway comparison explains how to choose for each site.

What specs matter for monitoring equipment at a mine?

Look for a sealed enclosure, a wide operating temperature range, a mounting method that suits the tank, and a non-contact sensor wherever the liquid or tank conditions are dirty.

Where a fuel storage area is a classified hazardous location, the F200 is certified for Class I, Division 1, Group D. Approval requirements for underground mining equipment are a separate matter, so confirm them with your site's safety team.

• Ingress protection: the F200 is IP67-rated, and the XSync R adds a reinforced enclosure and sealed cable entry for dust and vibration.
• Temperature range: the F200 operates from -40°C to +65°C, and the XSync R is built to a wider operating temperature range than the standard XSync.
• Non-contact sensing: radar reads level from above, with nothing in the tank to foul. The XSync R's narrow 12° beam reads the surface below it rather than the tank walls.
• Mounting: built-in magnets attach the F200 and XSync to steel tanks, and the F200 also mounts with screws on plastic, fiberglass, or concrete.

How does remote monitoring reduce trips to remote mine tanks?

Remote monitoring replaces scheduled gauging runs with visits triggered by an alert or a planned delivery, so crews drive to the tanks that need attention instead of checking every tank on a route.

On a large property, a gauging run to outlying fuel points and water tanks can take up much of a shift, and it puts light vehicles on haul roads shared with heavy equipment. With levels on a dashboard and in the LevelCon iOS and Android apps, that run becomes exception-based. The cost logic is laid out in how remote monitoring reduces truck rolls. The best place to start is a pilot on the tanks where manual checks cost the most today.

Which LevelCon products fit mining sites?

Mining deployments typically combine stationary tank monitors for fuel and water tanks with F200 gateways, and add ruggedized XSync R units at the harshest locations.

Every device reports to the same LevelCon platform, with a live map of every site, level history, and REST API and Modbus connections into the systems your operation already uses.

• F200: 4G LTE gateway with 4–20 mA, 0–5 V, RS-485, and RS-232 inputs and pulse counting up to 16 MHz for flow meters, plus motion-activated multi-GNSS for tanks that move.
• XSync R: the ruggedized XSync, with built-in 60 GHz radar reading level up to 5 meters away, solar powered, built for vibration, dust, and temperature swings.
• XSync P and XSync T: pressure and temperature at the source on vessels, pipes, and process equipment.
• Stationary tank monitors: sensor and gateway pre-integrated in one enclosure, with a wireless version for tanks where running power or wiring isn't practical.
• Sensors: submersible, radar and ultrasonic, and magnetostrictive float options matched to diesel, water, or chemicals.