The Chilean unit of Telefуnica Empresas expects significant investments in fiber optics and other communications technologies over the next three years from gold and copper mining projects, Eduardo Dorado, Telefуnica Empresas’ manager of industry, commerce and services, told BNamericas.

According to Dorado, the company, which is part of Spain’s Telefуnica (NYSE: TEF) and focuses on corporate communications, is eying expansion projects from Codelco, Barrick Gold (NYSE: ABX) and Anglo American (Nasdaq: AAUK) and new projects from Xstrata Copper. Major gold projects in the pipeline include Pascua Lama, El Morro and Cerro Casale.

“Definitely one of the industries where we see the most investment in Chile over the next three years is mining, along with energy,” Dorado said.

“It’s an industry in a clear process of development of new projects… not only in copper but in other types of deposits,” he added.

Of Telefуnica Empresas’ 150 sales people in Chile, there is a team of eight people in Santiago and eight in other regions dedicated only to energy and mining.

According to Dorado, the company develops solutions for the different stages of development of a mine, ranging from satellite communications and devices for exploration geologists to completely equipping mining camps and production sites with broadband for production purposes as well as mobile communications and TV for workers.

“Mining companies don’t like to see themselves as an extension of a network but rather as a separate communications node,” Dorado said.

HYPERCONNECTIVITY, VIRTUALIZATION, MOBILITY

Marco Sandoval, Telefуnica Empresas’ commercial development manager, told BNamericas that hyperconnectivity, virtualization and mobility are the pillars of Telefуnica Empresas’ communications offering for miners.

Mining has evolved with the rest of society and workers do not want to be isolated, according to Sandoval.

Telefуnica will be working this year extending and closing fiber optic rings and developing systems to support critical areas of the business, all of which need to be backed up with large amounts of bandwidth.

“We offer vast amounts of broadband that is ubiquitous in the production areas. A lot of automation is required in mines, which means you can decentralize the centers of measurement, control and operation. This has a major impact on the personnel of the mine,” Sandoval said.

“You have to provide solutions with low latency and jitter and that maintain real time communication for critical areas,” he added.

The company has a string of data centers that allow the virtualization of on demand services. Such services can be provided to a company that has operations outside Chile as well, for example in Peru and Argentina.

Technology solutions include telepresence and collaboration to facilitate communication among decision makers, fleet tracking as well as basic communications for local communities which miners are investing in as part of their corporate social responsibility programs.

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