Our man in Brazil, seasoned Mining Automation Engineer and Worldsensing Channel Account Manager Leonardo Vidigal, reports back from four insightful days in Northern Brazil. Leonardo is a well known figure for evangelising innovative digitalization in the geotechnical world, with over a decade of experience in leading the Automation and Instrumentation Department at Brazilian mining company Samarco Mineração S.A., as well as playing a key role in developing automation systems for several other companies including Warning Band, IHM Stefanini, Tetra Tech and Vale.
His visit was an opportunity not only to get up close to some of Brazil’s largest and most impressive mines, but also to present our state-of-the-art remote monitoring solution at the 2024 TecWise Summit, run by our Platinum Partner TecWise.
Mining safety has become a pressing concern in Brazil in recent years, catalysed by several high-profile engineering accidents in the country. Nowadays however, Brazil boasts greatly improved regulations and is one of the most cautious countries in the world when it comes to mining project safety. This is, in part, attributed to the widespread adoption and deployment of cost-effective technologies such as advanced remote monitoring systems.
Leonardo’s visit principally involved touring two of Vale’s biggest and most important mining sites in Northern Brazil, Carajás and Sossego, to personally get to know the passionate engineers and share best practices in risk management. On the final day of his excursion, Leonardo was invited to present our innovative remote monitoring solution in front of the esteemed 2024 TecWise Summit audience.
Day 1: Boots on the (red) ground at Carajás mine
Boots tied, hard hats on…time for action! The first day kicked off by meeting key players at Vale’s environmental and geotechnical monitoring centres at the visually arresting rust-red Carajás Nucleus mine site. A visit to the TecWise office in nearby Parauapebas provided further understanding of local operations and helped excavate potential collaboration areas for improving mine safety through advanced monitoring.
Day 2: Down into Carajás iron mine
On the second day, the focus shifted (quite literally) deeper – this time Leonardo was led deep below the dusty red ground into the colossal Carajás Mine, the largest iron ore mine in the world. This open-pit mine is thought to contain roughly 7.2 Billion metric tonnes of iron ore, plus gold, manganese, bauxite, copper, and nickel. Leonardo’s inspection of the TR113-04 conveyor belt tunnel for the installation of monitoring instrumentation is one he won’t forget in a hurry!
Leonardo also met the operational geotechnical and hydrogeological departments on site to listen to their distinct safety challenges and unearth where modern technology such as underground monitoring could be transformative.
Day 3: Touring Sossego copper mine, tailings dam and Sequeirinho
Day three was dedicated to more on-site visits, this time at the impressive Sossego Mine, Vale’s second-largest copper mine. Meetings with the operational geotechnical and hydrogeological departments at Sossego, as well as breathtaking site visits to the Sossego tailings dam and Sequeirinho open-pit mine site provided further exceptional insights into the local operational context and potential safety improvement areas through wireless monitoring.
Day 4: On stage at TecWise Summit
The culmination of Leonardo’s Brazil excursion was the 2024 TecWise Summit, a technical workshop attended by industry giants including Vale, Vale Base Metals, OZ Minerals, and more. At the summit, TecWise proudly unveiled Worldsensing and Sisgeo as their partners, for providing the world’s most advanced structural monitoring solutions.
Leonardo’s presentation on emphasising the role of advanced remote monitoring in improving mine safety was a big hit, with plenty of audience involvement creating an interesting discussion for everyone. The networking that followed was a goldmine of possibilities and potential collaborations. A particular highlight was discussing the monitoring project for a reinforced earth containment structure at the Port of Ponta da Madeira, a large iron ore loading port in São Luís, in the Northern part of Brazil. This project, involving the installation of tiltmeters and vibrating wire nodes with crack meters, demonstrates the practical application of our technology in addressing safety risks associated with infrastructure stability.
Pushing forward with mine safety
Leonardo’s invitation to speak at the TecWise Summit underscored Vale’s and TecWise’s committed interest in innovative solutions like ours to address environmental, geotechnical, and hydrogeological risks inherent in the mining sector. His inspiring visit has allowed us to better understand the peculiar operational challenges present in the unique Brazilian mining environment. This not only helps us discover the potential for improved risk management in these specific mines, but also to tailor our solution to work optimally exactly where it’s needed.
We’re proud to provide state-of-the-art remote monitoring systems in Brazil, and all over the world, with deep conviction in our singular cause: innovative automated technology is raising the bar for safety in high-risk industries, with potentially life-saving outcomes.
GO DEEPER: How remote monitoring takes care of high risk tasks too dangerous for humans
