Vale, a prominent Brazilian multinational mining company valued at $41.8 billion, is pleased to announce its collaboration with Nokia Bell Labs. This partnership aims to introduce digital twins and monitoring systems on private networks, thereby enhancing the performance, reliability, and safety of mining operations.
This agreement builds upon their existing relationship at Vale's autonomous iron ore mine in Carajás, Brazil, which holds the distinction of being the world’s largest open-pit iron ore mine.
Nokia Bell Labs has been diligently working on this initiative for several months, and early assessments suggest that the system could potentially boost productivity by as much as 25% while significantly improving safety in IT operations by up to 85%. Asad Khan, research director of 5G and wireless networks at SNS Telecom, conveyed this optimistic outlook in an email to Fierce.
The digital twin technology will begin by providing a comprehensive digital and visual representation of the network from the perspectives of all connected devices and mining machinery, such as hauling trucks and autonomous drillers. As meaningful data accumulates over time, the system will leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning to proactively adapt the network to meet specific requirements, according to Khan.
Nokia is well-positioned to extend its expertise from the Vale project to other private network deployments. As Khan noted, “Given Nokia's extensive footprint in private networks across mines and various industrial settings, this seems to be a natural evolution. Additionally, it is intriguing that Nokia recently presented this digital twin solution to Roy Hill in Australia, a notable client of Ericsson’s private network offerings.”
Currently, Nokia stands as a leading provider of private networks outside of China, as highlighted by the Dell’Oro Group's findings. The company has successfully partnered with clients such as John Deere, which is increasingly prioritizing private networking solutions. While Huawei continues to be the largest global supplier of private networks, including in China, Ericsson ranks third, followed closely by Samsung.
The importance of private networking sales is expected to grow for vendors in the coming five years. However, industry experts, including those at Dell’Oro, suggest that these revenues will not fully compensate for potential shortfalls in public radio access network (RAN) sales.