Anglo-American said the IROC, located in the Las Condes business district in the Chilean capital, will host more than 100 staff working remotely on operations at Los Bronces, which lies at an altitude of 3,500m above sea level.
"The new facilities will become the brain of the operation, where the integration of all digitalization and remote control technology projects will take place", said the firm. More than 80% of the IROC staff are operators who formerly had to travel to the mine to work.
The staff will use a digital model of the mine and 700 cameras located there to monitor geomechanics, drilling, loading and transportation, mine services, crushing, grinding, flotation, and the operations of the pulp transportation system and cathode plant.
The IROC will also manage operational support through monitoring the conditions of mine and plant equipment, the logistics of supplies and products, mine planning equipment and metallurgy, and optimisation of the production chain.
"This is the first Integrated Remote Operation Center that Anglo American has set up in the world, and it has decided to do it in Chile, in the most important mine in the copper business operated by the company, so we are very proud," said executive president of Anglo American in Chile, Aaron Puna.
Puna said the project was part of the company FutureSmart Mining programme.
"We continue to re-imagine mining to improve the lives of people, in this case, our workers and their families, who will see a substantial improvement in their quality of life," he said.
