Finnish mining technology multinational arrives in Chile

Zyfra, an artificial intelligence and IoT company, already has operations in Peru and plans to scale up to other countries in the region in 2022.

Finland’s digital solutions multinational, Zyfra, will start operations in Chile this year through its subsidiary VIST Group, a Russian company that develops and implements information technologies for the mining industry.

Zyfra has created an autonomous and teleoperated system for mining vehicles, that generates data in real time and minimizes the risk of human accidents at mining operations.

The tool groups together all the processes that require artificial intelligence (AI) and the internet of things (IoT) in mining operations and functions using sensors and devices installed in vehicles - trucks, drillers, loaders, bulldozers, shovels and motor graders - which send information to a centralized system. 

Explaining the company’s decision to operate in Chile, Zyfra CEO and co-founder, Igor Bogachev, says that “local mining companies are implementing technologies that are 10 or 20 years’ old and the new technologies are very different. We see opportunities for us to update those systems.”

According to the company’s estimates, technology could increase mining companies’ productivity by 18%.

Makeev Mikhail, international commercial director of VIST Group, notes that, in Chile, there are different systems of automation that work perfectly, but operate separately. “Our goal is to have small blocks of work, but all contained in the same system,” he says.

Since it was founded in 2017, Zyfra has installed the system in more than 7,000 machines around the world. Last year, it reported sales of US$30 million and expects to reach US$100 million in 2019.

Expansion to Latin America

Since 2018, Zyfra has had operations in Peru, where it has implemented three digitization projects at the Quellaveco, Mina Justa and Toromacho mines.

Last November, it acquired VIST Group for US$30 million as a means of expanding in Latin America and, a month later, opened its first regional office in Lima.

Bogachev forecasts that sales in Latin America will reach US$3 million in 2019 and US$5 million in 2020. After consolidating its presence in the Chilean and Peruvian markets, the company plans to expand to Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Mexico in 2022. 

To find out more about the use of technology in the mining industry, see this article.

Source: Diario Financiero