Brazilian telecoms company TIM hs closed an agreement with Anglo American to allow the expansion of 4G LTE coverage to five operational plants in Goiás, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, including its Barro Alto nickel and Minas-Rio iron ore mine and plant complexes, to enable the miner to up efficiency, plus allow the expansion of connectivity projects in more critical regions and activities, including potentially more autonomous operations.

“Supporting connectivity in mines is essential to ensure the continuous deployment of new technologies within a production process”, says TIM’s Corporate Solutions Director, Paulo Humberto Gouvêa.

Under the agreement, TIM will expand 4G coverage in Barro Alto and Niquelândia (GO), where Anglo American produces up to 44,000 t of nickel iron per year. The operation is responsible for the group’s main global nickel production, applied mainly in the stainless steel industry as ferronickel.

In the Minas Gerais municipalities of Conceição do Mato Dentro and Alvorada de Minas (MG) there is the Minas-Rio mine and plant, responsible for the extraction and processing of iron ore. From there, the product goes via a pipeline to Porto do Açu, in São João da Barra (RJ). At the port, the company has another plant responsible for the process of filtering the iron ore that will be exported.