Ethernet Direct Successfully Penetrate One of the Biggest South American Mining Application

The project involves copper mine representing approximately 8.1% of world copper production and 23.4% of Chilean production. The deposits are located in North Chile, 170 km southeast of the city of Antofagasta, at an altitude of 3,100 meters above sea level. In this mine, there is an average of one million tons of material being moved per day. And the operation includes the processes of drilling and blasting, loading and transportation, ore crushing, and disposal of sterile material. The infrastructure consists of two open pit mines, two concentrator plants, an electro-winning plant to produce cathodes from oxide and sulphide ore. Two pipelines transport copper concentrate from the mine to the filter plant. A sea water desalinization plant was recently built in that same area to supply part of the operation’s water consumption.

With an operation of this scale, large amount of data input is transmitted to the network on a copper cable to signals that run on fiber, making hassle free fiber optic transmission possible in the network. The goal is to have a superior performance in safety, production and unit costs. Mining industry carries out non-stop operation. In the high altitude mine, data needs to be transmitted to the administration & control network. The distance is over 20 km and for increased reliability, the industrial media converter should work in ruggedized box for outdoor deployments. Plug and play with easy installation and maintenance is required since after the installation, network administrators would not be able to check the devices.

In this mining application, Ethernet Direct RUE-113 Industrial Ethernet to Media Converter offers cost-effective fiber connectivity from Ethernet switches to diagnostic equipments. With the optic port, RUE-113 transmits data at high speed for long distances up to 30 km with an SC connector. For power protection, it is equipped with a terminal block to provide dual power inputs with reverse polarity protection.

In case of disconnection from the mine site to the plant site, the built-in Link loss forwarding promptly alarms users in case of port breaks or power failure, making RUE-113 suitable for an industrial environment.