Buenaventura is investing in its operations to ensure they are as safe and productive as possible. After an extensive technology review, it chose Mine Site Technologies’ ImPact Underground Digital Network as the backbone for a tracking system at its Orcopampa gold and silver mine in Peru. The scalability of the network was what appealed most to the company, offering other future applications when required. The Wireless Network Switches and Wireless Access Points will be placed strategically throughout the mine and act as readers for the RFID tags carried by miners and attached to vehicles and other equipment.

The location of personnel and equipment will be known in real-time, and displayed on the main TRACKER operator software on surface, as well as being accessed by other authorised PCs on the mine’s LAN. The key components in this initial installation include:
• 34 ImPact Wireless Access Points
• 850 Wi-Fi tags, self contained version with internal battery
• TRACKER Engine and Viewer software
• Tag Management Suite.

The digital backbone is being set up for easy expansion as the mine grows, as well as being fully Wi-Fi compliant to allow other applications and client devices to be used with the network, such as VoIP telephones underground.