The technology will be deployed at one of its main operations, Minera Centinela, which is based in Chile’s Antofagasta mining region, initially targeting the thickener circuit.

With the backdrop of an uncertain commodities cycle and after a year-long drop in the price of copper, Antofagasta Minerals is seeing this as an opportunity to invest in innovative technologies to beat the commodity cycle.

A five-year strategic partnership agreement has been signed between the two companies, enabling IntelliSense.io to work closely with Antofagasta Minerals on delivering its technology across the mine extraction, mineral processing and waste management processes with the primary goal of improving efficiency, reducing environmental impact and delivering bottom line benefits to the mine operations.

Pedro Fuenzalida, innovation manager for Antofagasta Minerals, stated: “After the successes seen in the manufacturing industry by deploying technologies that helped standardise operations, we wanted to bring mining into the 21st century by introducing the same principles to our dynamic operations through digital innovations. We believe this to be future of mining where advances in analytics can enable better decision making and deliver step change in productivity improvement and help in stabilisation.”

IntelliSense.io’s technology is used to optimise processes and systems through a combination of sensors, software and simulation. The company has proven successes from its deployments in uranium mining and high-technology manufacturing operations.

Sam G Bose, CEO of IntelliSense.io, added: “To sign a prestigious group like Antofagasta Minerals to our growing mining industry client base acknowledges our expertise in the sector and demonstrates the value digital innovations can bring to global miners.”

IntelliSense.io is also setting up a ‘Centre of Excellence for Digital Technologies in Chile’, which the company stated will serve the Latin American mining industry across copper, gold, iron ore and platinum mining operations.