Freeport Indonesia Adopts ‘Smart Mining’ Technology

Freeport Indonesia adopts the latest technology or ‘Smart Mining’ for mining operations. President Director of PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) Tony Wenas revealed that mining operations have used infrastructure with the latest technology. According to him, technology adoption needs to be done to reduce operational costs (efficiency), optimize productivity, and strengthen the safety aspects of workers.

“Our business is a conventional business, namely mining. But that does not mean we are not adaptive to existing technological developments,” he said at the Indonesia Digital Conference in Jakarta (22/11/2022).

Reported by tribunnews.com, Tony explained that if mining is not adaptive to the latest technology, mining operations will eventually stop. He feels that adapting technology or digitalization is a step that needs to be taken by the mining sector.

Starting from finding reserves to processing ore, it has been done digitally. This can be achieved with a data computing system. There is also the use of drones and CCTV that have been integrated in one digital system. Both are used to monitor mining activities at the Freeport Indonesia mine.

“So the benefit of this process is to improve quality to make quick decisions and increase efficiency and productivity as well as to avoid natural challenges,” explained Tony.

The latest technology adapted is the application of 5G Mining technology. It is known that 5G networks have advantages in terms of speed, signal strength, latency, data security, and device intelligence. This technology was obtained from a collaboration with PT Telekomunikasi Selular (Telkomsel). The application of 5G technology is the first application in the Southeast Asian mining industry.

This 5G Mining technology is used in the operational and public areas at PTFI. Among them, the operation area includes the remote testing area and trials on the loader unit (ore transporter) in the extraction tunnel at the Grasberg Block Cave (GBC) underground mine.