Chile. Eleven Bosch cameras give the mine's geotechnical team their views on the observation they need to ensure operations at the mine are calm and safe.
It's a very windy business up there, 3,000 meters above sea level, in the Atacama Desert in the Andes in Chile. Digging for copper at the Radomiro Tomic mine of the state mining company Codelco is rough, rough, and dangerous. Every day, dust clouds or rock avalanches endanger the operators of the gigantic trucks and bulldozers that transport thousands of tons of rocks in the 3,500 meters long, 1,500 meters wide and 470 meters deep of the open-pit mine. All this is worth it to get a daily yield of 800 tons of copper.
How does Codelco maintain the highest security in this hostile environment, and yet continue with capital-intensive operation and full productivity, to compete in the global commodity market? A team of 300 geotechnical experts oversees day and night operations at a nearby center, and makes decisions to protect personnel, machinery and roads, disrupting mining as little as possible.
How? Eleven Bosch cameras give the mine's geotechnical team their views on the observation they need to ensure operations at the mine are calm and safe. Depending on the type of weather and lighting conditions, even under the dark night, cameras installed in the cabins around the mine transmit data and video images to the monitoring center.
Six Bosch MIC 412 and 612 thermal cameras provide standard images as well as thermal images. Thermal cameras allow experts to visualize internal geological conditions, such as different temperatures. The temperature of rock walls, for example, provides information about the strength of rocks, and allows the team of experts to determine in advance the rock walls that are in danger of collapsing.
Four other Bosch MIC 550 cameras, and a starlight 7000 HD MIC IP camera with infrared illumination, provide more video images throughout the day, even in complete darkness.
Designed to work in extreme conditions, withstand high-impact solid metal bodies (up to IK10) or continuous low-frequency vibration (IEC 60068 ratings). MIC cameras withstand everything nature can throw, just like temperatures from -40 degrees Celsius to 60 degrees Celsius, strong winds and 100 percent humidity, their robust design has an industry-leading IP68 rating.
Thermal, infrared and starlight cameras are part of the complete Bosch information system. This system forms the basis for the management of the entire mine. From the capture of images from the open sky, for the transmission of the videos wirelessly through radio networks to the monitoring center. It allows geotechnical experts to constantly see and control operations in the well, analyze the geological conditions of the rocks, and take preventive safety measures if necessary. The system also records the videos (via a Bosch DIVAR IP 7000 recording unit), allowing control center personnel to execute research queries for the analysis of historical data and a better understanding of mine conditions.
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