“As the first mine in Latin America to deploy this technology, we will definitely recommend FireFly to other mine sites! We are proud to be a pioneer together with IoT Automation.”
IoT Automation was contracted by Minera Candelaria, located in Chile’s Atacama Region, to install FireFly Smart Lighting. This is the first mine in Latin America to deploy smart lighting technology initially, to help manage traffic along the decline of the mine.
Cesar Olmos Vega, Electrical Utility Engineer of Minera Candelaria, talks about the case study with IoT Automation.
“Managing traffic along the decline is a common challenge with all underground mines – especially where two-way traffic operates along a one-way road. At Minera Candelaria, our operational standard is to give high priority to loaded haul trucks moving up the decline. It is critical that traffic along the decline haulage route is optimized to minimize vehicle congestion and cycle time delays. Before we implemented the FireFly Smart Lighting, traffic along the decline was coordinated through a dedicated radio communication channel into the mine. The radio only supports half-duplex communication, so we found it challenging to keep the channel open to alert light vehicles when a loaded haul truck was approaching the decline.”
“Another challenge we wanted to address at the same time was our emergency evacuation process. We had been looking for a low-consumption lighting system to illuminate the decline and to give us the ability to guide personnel in the event of an emergency.”
Minera Candelaria contracted IoT Automation to install their FireFly Lighting technology, a software – controlled smart lighting system with multiple applications, as it provided an all-in-one solution for both traffic management and personnel safety.
Benefits:
- Vehicle traffic management
When “high priority” vehicles travel along the decline, the FireFly Lighting System creates a customisable “red early warning zone” of illumination further in front of the truck providing oncoming vehicle operators with real-time information that a higher priority vehicle is approaching their location.
Cesar Olmos Vega: “The most positive result that we have so far is the ability to alert underground workers that a heavy vehicle is coming up the decline, as well as having the option to evacuate the decline to the portal automatically, even if we have a power outage as the FireFly system has its own UPS that can last for up to six hours.”
- Emergency response
Cesar Olmos Vega: “Emergency response and the real-time situational awareness of personnel/vehicles were identified as issues that FireFly could address, particularly personnel tracking, evacuation and direction to refuge chambers.”
FireFly Enables underground mine workers to easily demarcate safe and unsafe zones during major incidents through coloured warning signals. It also utilises directional lighting patterns to provide clear visual instructions to the workers as to the safest and fastest evacuation route they should take.
“A highlight of this system (FireFly) is that it makes it possible to have personnel tracking with less than 20 meters of accuracy.”
Each person and vehicle operating in the mine can be detected by the FireFly Lights through Bluetooth Beacon Tags. Their location data can then be shown via a virtual tagboard or sent to a third-party tracking system via an API. This creates a smart underground network that other systems and technology can utilise, ultimately making the mine safer, smarter and more efficient. When connected to video surveillance, FireFly also supports a play-back function, allowing mine managers to track-back video-capture to assist in incident investigations.
- Low-cost and user-friendly
Another major selling point is that the FireFly system is straightforward to use, easy to implement and highly cost effective compared to alternative systems and technology.
Cesar Olmos Vega: “The implementation process was simple to do because all the cable is pre-terminated, and the entire system is plug-and-play. It took just around four hours to deploy 400 meters of lights.”
Future Deployments of FireFly
The first deployment was in the Cross 9 in Candelaria Norte underground mine. Future deployments of FireFly lighting will help integrate a range of planned new systems and technology – further assisting personnel to manage the mine’s daily operations. “Moving forward, we plan to populate all the new decline with this system. We think that this kind of technology can help us handle traffic management automatically. It can also be integrated into sensors through the FireFly system’s built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth—another feature that we can utilize by using the same hardware.”