Nokia said that the Chilean conglomerate Antofagasta Minerals (Grupo Antofagasta Minerals) has completed the deployment of an industrial-grade private LTE network to provide secure and reliable support to its Minera Centinela operation.
The network allows Antofagasta Minerals to accelerate its digital transformation towards the mining of the future, said a press release from the Finnish telecom giant.
The network, already in operation after being deployed in a record four months for Minera Centinela, will initially connect a fleet of autonomous trucks, said the release. It will support a wide array of operations as part of a five-year digitalisation plan.
Nokia has designed and deployed the private 4.9G/LTE solution, including Nokia AirScale radio equipment, mobile packet core, IP/MPLS service aggregation routers, and Wavence microwave transmission.
Gino Ivani, Technology Manager for Antofagasta Minerals, said: “We are transforming the way mining is done. We are very pleased to leverage Nokia industrial-grade private wireless solutions and its experience in mining automation to support our efforts.”
Leonardo Serra, Corporate Head of IT Projects at Antofagasta Minerals, said: “Copper is critical for the delivery of clean energy and consequently to reduce emissions. As demand for copper increases, we are deploying technology innovations, such as Nokia private wireless connectivity, allowing us to enhance productivity smartly and sustainably.”
