Nigerian Mining Leader Saves $820K Annually with viAct’s AI-Powered Safety Platform

The mining industry in Nigeria fuels much of its economic growth and industrial development. As the region is endowed with vast reserves of iron ore, limestone, and precious minerals, the industry remains a key pillar in the nation’s diversification efforts.

But behind the unlimited resources and opportunities for growth lies a challenging reality—one where mining safety risks soar as sites grow larger, deeper, and more complex.

In early 2024, one of Nigeria’s leading mining companies faced an urgent truth: their legacy safety systems could no longer keep up with the demands of modern mining.

Let’s explore how this transformation unfolded, starting with the key challenges that had brought operations to a breaking point.

Challenge #1: Blind Spots in Confined Spaces

Confined mining shafts and processing tunnels are among the most dangerous zones. In this Nigerian operation, miners working in these areas often disappeared from view once inside. No visual oversight, no oxygen tracking, and no real-time activity monitoring meant serious hazards went unnoticed.

One particular instance that made the company question their existing safety methods was when a worker remained inside a shaft 2 hours past shift end, unnoticed. 

When he was finally located, oxygen levels had already dropped to unsafe levels, and dehydration had set in. Thankfully, he survived—but the incident triggered internal panic and worker unrest.

The lack of situational awareness in these confined spaces created delays, inefficiencies, and unacceptable risks.

Challenge #2: Unauthorized Access to High-Risk Zones

Manual gate logs and clipboard sign-ins were no match for the complexity of this site. Hazardous areas like chemical storage, blasting zones, and overhead loading bays are common in the industry.

But traditional methods had little control over who entered and when. Workers sometimes stepped into areas they weren’t trained for, exposing themselves and others to catastrophic danger.

A night shift worker mistakenly entered an unmarked blast prep area. While the operation was halted in time, the investigation showed he had bypassed entry by mistake, and no one noticed due to manual record errors.

The risk to life was too high, and the lack of traceability was compromising operational credibility.

Challenge #3: Near-Miss Collisions from Blind Machinery

Underground vehicle movement, especially with loaders and dump trucks, had become chaotic. Narrow tunnels and low visibility conditions meant that workers were frequently caught in close proximity to moving equipment, especially during night shifts or shift changes.

In one quarter alone, there were 14 near-miss incidents involving ground workers and vehicles. These events went unreported or were noticed only in hindsight from CCTV reviews. It was only a matter of time before a near miss turned into a fatality.

This posed not just a risk to lives, but massive delays, potential equipment damage, and liability.

Challenge #4: Falling Object Hazards from Suspended Loads

With excavation, drilling, and lifting operations underway, suspended loads and overhead cranes became common—but poorly monitored. Unsecured tools, loose rock, or swinging chains often became hazards. Monitoring was completely manual and reactive.

A wrench dropped from a suspended platform narrowly missed a worker by inches. There was no detection, no alarm, and no warning. Only later did the CCTV footage reveal how close the incident had come to a fatal outcome.

The site knew it needed more than just hard hats and warning signs—it needed intelligent intervention.

In response to these persistent challenges, the mining company partnered with viAct to digitize its EHS framework using a smart video analytics platform.

1. Plug & Play AI Video Analytics: viAct integrated with the mining company’s existing CCTV/IP camera systems using RTSP, requiring no hardware overhaul. Real-time video feeds were transformed into smart safety alerts.

2. Selection of Module: With 100+ pre-built modules available for deployment, the process here tackled each of the challenges with the best fit.

• Confined Space Monitoring: AI tracked when workers entered and exited confined zones, flagged prolonged inactivity, detected collapsed postures, and alerted EHS teams in real time.

• Access Control for Hazard Zones: Computer vision monitored entries into chemical storage areas, blast zones, and overhead loading areas—ensuring only authorized personnel with valid mining digital permits were allowed.

• Collision Prevention: Zones around large machinery were digitized. Any person entering an unsafe distance from moving equipment is triggered with a proximity warning system.

• Falling Object Detection: AI continuously scans suspended loads for unsecured objects or instability due to wind, vibration, or overloading.

3. Centralized Safety Command Center (SCC): As the cameras start monitoring, a web-based dashboard is set-up to visualize every detection, alert, and violation trend. It is accessible through mobile devices and can be looked into either being on site or off-site.

As the tasks were monitored with precision, the results became evident immediately post-deployment. Here’s how the transformation took shape.

AI-enabled confined space monitoring resulted in an 84% drop in incidents. For example, a post-deployment case triggered an alert in just 11 minutes when a worker inside a narrow shaft stopped moving. Real-time intervention prevented collapse and saved recovery time.

Annual Savings: $140,000 through fewer emergency rescues, lower downtime, and reduced lost-time injuries.

Access violations fell by 91% within 4 months. AI prevented 48 unauthorized zone entries monthly, each time documenting video proof and time-stamped reports. Using mining operation boundary control with AI, the explosive zones are protected.

Whether it is slope edges, high-wall areas or haul roads, zone-based clearance is a must to enter. With improved compliance, safety scores jumped, and insurance providers responded with reduced premiums.

Annual Savings: $90,000  via incident prevention, fine avoidance, and better insurance terms.

AI-driven proximity alerts cut near-miss vehicle and machinery collision incidents by over 85%. As a result, fewer halts, zero injuries, and uninterrupted workflow improved operational hours by 11% across the quarter.

Annual Savings: $240,000 from reduced repair costs, legal buffers, and higher productivity.

In underground mining operations, the software analyzes historical rockfall data, tunnel stress metrics, and geospatial imagery to detect early warning signs of instability.

By tracking micro-fractures, vibration anomalies, and changes in strata behavior over time, the system can predict 65% potential collapse zones before failure occurs.

Annual Savings: $150,000 via injury avoidance, faster lifting ops, and better contractor compliance.

AI-backed audit logs transformed site inspections. What once took 6 days now takes 2 hours. Real-time reports showed trendlines, heatmaps, and site-wise safety scores.

Annual Savings: $200,000 through insurance renegotiations, third-party audit clearance, and fewer violations.

Here’s how the use of AI-based video monitoring helped the Nigerian mining leader to accumulate a total savings of $820K which a year earlier was impossible to even imagine.

What makes this story truly game-changing is not just the dollar savings, but the shift in culture.

With viAct’s AI at the core, the mining company established:

This shift not only streamlined internal operations but also strengthened stakeholder trust. As one European buyer stands by viAct’s belief of “The fewer the risky behaviors, the higher your score”, a mindset that made Safety Score reporting a non-negotiable in procurement discussions.

This success story sets a blueprint for others in the Nigerian and African mining sector. In a world where safety incident prevention is paramount and investor scrutiny is sharp, safety is not just a compliance task—it’s a strategic advantage.

If your mining site is still running on manual logs, it’s time to shift gears.

Because in today’s high-risk world, your Safety Score might just be your strongest business score.

Yes. The platform is designed to monitor multiple concurrent safety scenarios using a single video feed. Whether it’s PPE compliance, unauthorized zone entry, fall detection, or unsafe equipment handling, the AI can detect and flag several risks in parallel.

Each detected incident is tagged separately, timestamped, and categorized by severity. This allows EHS teams to prioritize responses and review events without overlap, ensuring no critical violation is overlooked — even in complex, high-traffic worksites.

The moment something unsafe is spotted — say, a missing helmet or a worker entering a danger zone — viAct’s safety system kicks into action. Here’s how you’ll know:

1. Your safety officer gets an SMS or email.

2. Your phone might ping via WhatsApp whether you’re on-site or off-site.

3. On-site, buzzers or flashing lights go off.

4. Everything gets logged on a central dashboard with a video snippet.

In short, alerts go to the right person, in the right format, at the right time.

It takes into account various instances like the number of violations detected, response time taken, recurrence of unsafe behavior This score is visualized on the dashboard and is often used in internal reviews, stakeholder reporting, and safety benchmarking.

Absolutely. viAct’s AI modules have seen it all — thousands of hours of video from construction sites, mines, factories. That’s why it can detect violations with more than 95% accuracy. In fact, many clients say it catches what humans miss — faster and with proof.

As one EHS Lead from a Copper Mining Project in Northern Chile shared:

“We were initially skeptical about whether an AI system like viAct could really understand the chaotic, fast-paced nature of our mining operations. But within the first month, AI video analytics started flagging PPE violations, near misses, and zone intrusions that even our seasoned supervisors didn’t catch in real-time. The accuracy crossed 96%, and what impressed us most was that every alert came with clear video evidence. We stopped guessing and started acting — instantly and with full confidence.”

Absolutely. The platform is built for enterprise-grade scalability, whether you’re managing a single facility or a network of 50+ sites across regions.

With site-specific dashboards, you get a clear view of what’s happening at each location in real-time — violations, alerts, safety scores, and more — all within one centralized interface. Incident reporting is standardized and unified, making it easy to compare performance across sites, track recurring issues, and identify best practices.

Through role-based access controls, your teams — from site supervisors to regional safety heads — can access the data they need without compromising security. It transforms your operations into a virtual command center, giving you complete visibility and control over safety operations, no matter how spread out your projects are.

Are you still waiting to reach the next level of industrial safety?