Normet and Codelco, one of the world’s largest copper producers, have entered a five-year technology development program to advance autonomous and remotely operated underground mining.
The collaboration will pilot new solutions at Codelco’s El Teniente mine in Chile, with the goal of making mining processes safer and more productive.
The program centres on three development areas: an autonomous concrete transport and spraying solution, remotely operated scaling, and autonomous stationary breaker operations.
Together, the technologies are intended to remove personnel from hazardous underground environments while improving operational performance and process continuity.
The initiative responds to a growing challenge for the industry.
As mines expand deeper underground and reach increasingly difficult ore bodies, they face greater exposure to seismic activity, rising temperatures and demanding ground conditions.
“Through this collaboration, we are addressing some of the industry’s most critical challenges, including safety and operational efficiency,” said Gonzalo Ramírez, Corporate Innovation Director of Codelco.
The first pilot will target autonomous concrete spraying and transport.
It will draw on advanced perception systems, environment mapping, onboard artificial intelligence, connectivity solutions and data-driven decision-making to enable increasingly autonomous operation.
The second pilot will develop remotely operated scaling capabilities using advanced mapping and extended reality technologies.
The third will focus on autonomous stationary breaker operations, which are designed to support uninterrupted rock flow in challenging production environments.
Development work for the pilots will be carried out at Normet’s recently opened Technology Center in Pirkkala.
The facility serves as a hub for autonomy, robotics, software development and digital technologies for the mining industry.
It was established to accelerate the development, testing and deployment of advanced mining technologies, making it a natural base for the program’s engineering activity.
Once the technologies mature, they will be piloted in production conditions at El Teniente.
Testing in a live operating environment is expected to provide practical data on how the systems perform under real-world pressures, and to help establish future operating models for safer and more autonomous underground mining.
For Codelco, the program offers a route to address safety and efficiency concerns at one of its flagship operations.
For Normet, it provides an opportunity to apply its technology and its knowledge of underground processes to a demanding, large-scale mining environment.
The partners say the long-term nature of the agreement allows for sustained development and iterative improvement, rather than a single deployment.
By running the pilots in sequence and in production conditions, they aim to refine each solution before wider adoption.
“As mining operations move deeper and conditions become increasingly complex, automation and remote operation are essential to improving safety and productivity,” said Ed Santamaria, President and CEO of Normet.
The collaboration reflects a broader shift across the mining sector toward automation and remote operation as companies seek to protect workers and maintain output in more complex ore bodies.
As the pilots progress at El Teniente, the results are expected to inform how autonomous systems are adopted in underground operations in the years ahead.
