Huawei is uniquely positioned in the connectivity market for the range of solutions it can offer to the mining sector. Whilst it has faced and faces challenges in North America, Australia and Europe based on restrictions on its participation in 5G solutions, elsewhere its position in mining is growing rapidly – especially in Africa, South America and Central Asia. IM Editorial Director Paul Moore recently met with Theodore Shao, VP of Mining, Oil and Gas in LATAM for Huawei at the Exposibram 2025 event in Salvador, Brazil – to find out in more detail about its solutions for mining and how they can help future proof mines for the latest innovations in areas like automation and AI.
IM Editorial Director Paul Moore with Theodore Shao, VP of Mining, Oil and Gas in LATAM for Huawei
We started by talking about Brazil itself. Shao: “I think one of the biggest challenges in Brazil, and in South America, for the continued digitalisation trend in mining is connectivity. In Brazil especially, a lot of the major mines are in hilly and forested terrain with inconsistency of coverage by the main cellular network operators. For setting up private 4G LTE or 5G networks there is another challenge – the mine environmental permits that the mines already have do not cover setting up fixed cellular tower structures and deforestation for that purpose. Often additional aviation related regulations due to the tower heights.”
Cell on Wheels
He says this is where Huawei has been able to apply its Cell on Wheels (COW) solution – portable, mobile base stations mounted on a trailer or vehicle for easy transport and deployment, and including equipment like a telescopic mast, antennas, and a power source like a generator or battery module. It isn’t very tall and can be mobilised very quickly plus doesn’t require dedicated deforestation – it can be located on an access road or track or small existing clearing. They effectively create 5G bubbles – but these bubbles can be merged so coverage is continuous. COW is not a new technology, but the realisation of how it can be utilised in remote mines is – bringing private network flexibility and adaptability to these environments – for example it can easily permit the extension of a 5G network to a small satellite pit that is located some distance from the main operation – where the miner may not want the extra CAPEX of putting in a fixed cellular infrastructure.
Huawei has already provided this solution to Vale’s Carajás operation – specifically the Gelado project, which produces high-quality pellet feed by reusing tailings deposited in the Gelado dam since 1985, when Vale began operating in the region. Mario Azevedo, Head of Technological Engineering and Foundation Projects at Vale, explained to IM during an event in March that the company is using the coverage to enable the remote control of amphibious excavators and, in the future, of 100% electric dredgers. Vale chose to implement Huawei’s COW system because it offers the most agile and flexible solution for the dynamic nature of tailings dam operations.
Shao says this is also the first end-to-end remote mining control solution using a private 5G network in Latin America. The solution aimed to reuse existing infrastructure (equipment rooms, fibre optics, towers, etc) and consider the most agile options. Solar power and energy storage are used in locations where the power grid is deficient. As stated, building fixed towers requires environmental impact assessments and takes time – the COW was the most flexible and also the most reliable option based on RF comparison. There are five COW stations around the perimeter of the Gelado dam operation area. The project uses a dual-band 4G and 5G network to meet service and reliability requirements. The 4G network ensures MCPTT voice communication, which can also provide temporary communications in case of emergency. The 5G network ensures uplink transmission of remote control video and other data. The dual approach is essential to maintain connectivity integrity and ensure operational capacity. Data does not leave the mining area, which ensures data security. The MAE-Light Network Management System (NMS) meets local operation and maintenance (O&M) requirements in mining areas, and the O&M permission for the 5G private network is owned by Vale.
Huawei is now talking to a number of mining companies about the use of the same technology in Brazil as well as in Chile. Chile is different as there are not the same limitations on permanent cellular tower structures in the Atacama, but there is still a COW advantage as it is very quickly deployable in very remote areas. It has not yet been used for fully autonomous equipment but this is certainly a valid use case – especially as the industry starts using more flexible OEM-agnostic AHS with on-board intelligence on the trucks.
Comprehensive connectivity
Aside from this specific example of COW, Huawei is also talking to Latin American miners, both surface and underground, about better comprehensive connectivity options to increase transmission efficiency. And connectivity solutions provided by Huawei are not limited to 5G private networks. It includes active networks using campus switches to build future-proof campus networks on minesites with simplified management, high reliability and service intelligence or passive networks such as GPON using its OptiXstar line of Optical Network Terminals (ONTs) and Optical Line Terminals (OLTs) using fibre optics to provide high-speed internet access for mining customers.
Huawei WiFi6 routers underground
In Peru, where Huawei has been operating the longest, it has deployed the first FTTM + WiFi6 solution for underground mines in South America – with the total project involving GPON sets, WiFi6 sets, eSight sets and its iMaster NCE Campus. It demonstrates the capability of its end to end optical networks solution for underground mining. It offers a plug and play deployment, improving the speed and efficiency of commissioning. The optical network includes Optical Ring Passive and Optical Ring End connectivity underground and on surface the Optical Distribution Network which carries carry the signal to the ONU, a device that converts the optical signal to an electrical signal for devices like routers and computers.
This underground success builds on existing Huawei presence in Peruvian mining, as it has been active in the Peruvian market for decades and was its first entry into South America – today Huawei has seven open pit LTE 45 networks operating in open pit mines in the country, including Toquepala, Toromocho, Cuajone, Constancia and others. It has worked closely with Peru domestic network operators like Telefonica Peru and Claro Peru. Two of these LTE 4G networks have also recently been upgraded to 5G. Shao: “These mines want to ensure continuous connectivity without interruption, plus having our network solution future proofs them for further potential developments – many of them are already looking at using our next generation autonomous haulage for example, which does not rely on predetermined path tracking, where one obstacle can stop multiple trucks.”
Left to right: Ruben Alvarado, CEO of Codelco; Maximo Pacheco, Chairman of the Board of Codelco; Daniel Zhou, President of Huawei for Latin America; and Guo Yi, General Manager of Huawei Chile
In Chile, a major development for Huawei came in July 2025 with the signing of an MoU with Codelco “to explore cutting-edge solutions in on-site connectivity, energisation, and the use of artificial intelligence for automation.” The document contemplates exploring opportunities such as the use of Artificial Intelligence for automation and efficiency improvements, connectivity in open-pit and underground mining operations, cloud services, and technologies applied to mining processes, among other areas. One aspect of this is to improve personnel tracking and monitoring underground and enhance safety in large mines like El Teniente. Huawei is working with some of its ecosystem partners to be able to combine its connectivity with high precision location tracking. On LTE 4G, Huawei in 2024 already completed a private network installation at Codelco Andina.
Autonomous driving & teleoperation
The Huawei autonomous driving system is centred on intelligence being on the truck, so it can identify the obstacle and decide to go around it while at the same time updating the path in real time in the cloud so that all the other trucks coming behind can follow it, which can include sharing an instruction with them to slow down. It is already being used in China at multiple mines including Yimin, JISCO, Xigou, Jinding and Yulong with higher efficiency and productivity than manned trucks.
The system combines LiDAR, 4D mmWave radar and camera based multimodel sensing to provide data to the MDC (Mobile Data Center), an intelligent driving platform that provides the hardware and software foundation for autonomous driving and is on the truck – the MDC in turn controls the truck using Huawei’s 5G T-box; a telematics control unit that integrates 5G modules to provide high-speed, low-latency communication. The MDC is connected to the 5G/RTK base station and the cloud via an on-board RTK terminal.
Huawei also offers teleoperation of mining shovels and drills, which is also of great interest to the South American market – especially where equipment is working in hazardous ground such as where there are underground workings below an open pit, or where equipment is working in an old waste area or tailings dam, as in the Vale case. The shovel teleoperation is again already widely used in China, and uses AI-enhanced multimodal sensing to provide teleremote operators with a high precision, high situational awareness experience based on a 150-degree horizontal/vertical viewing angle, 4K x 60 FPS video quality and latency of less then 180 ms.
The AI algorithms eliminate many issues associated with purely manual remote operations such as large device vibration affecting data accuracy, imagery being affected by poor lighting and dust or fog, image distortion and a small field of view plus poor resolution from cameras not allowing small object recognition. It also provides realistic force feedback to further improve operator perception. The operator has the option of using one click loading – where the system automatically selects the relative position of the bucket and mining truck – automatically adjusts the loading point, and automatically plans the rotation track. The accuracy of the cm-level positioning and track planning exceeds 95%.
Another point is that some of the mines in South America are looking at keeping LTE 45 for the mine area wide area coverage, but then having 5G capability only in certain areas – such as an autonomous haulage or dozer teleoperation zone, for example, where low latency and high bandwidth are most needed. Huawei networks thanks to their converged core are able to offer this with the same antennas and base stations that have been set up for the LTE 4G network. And that again helps miners to protect existing investment.
F5G – Fifth Generation Fixed Networks
Shao also emphasised that a major differentiator for Huawei is the comprehensive range and flexibility of network solutions it has, and the fact that it can offer a unified network solution for the life of mine. And the connectivity does not just cover the mining production areas and mining equipment – it also covers the mining camp, mining offices and entire mining property, with full CCTV video backhaul and extensive security monitoring as well as environmental monitoring. And it can be scaled up and down from the early advanced exploration stage through mine infrastructure development, mine ramp, full production and ramping down through to mine closure.
This offering is part of Huawei’s F5G solution, F5G standing for Fifth Generation Fixed Network, a set of fixed, fibre-based communication network standards that focus on enhancing fixed broadband access. Huawei’s unified optical network solution encompasses every aspect of connectivity a mine might need – including WiFi6/WiFi7; LAN Switches; Firewalls, SD-WAN; 4G/5G; optical DWDM; optical access; routers; DCN for SCADA and DCS in the concentrator; storage; virtual OS; Cloud; even meeting systems like Zoom. This means mining companies are not having to build multiple networks for multiple purposes, and therefore no longer have to deal with multiple digital infrastructure and connectivity providers like Cisco, Fortinet, Nokia, AWS, Ericsson, Infinera, Google Cloud and many others.
This provides simplicity and much higher levels of security and a much lower investment cost. These networks are also already today able to support multiple AI and autonomy applications and use slicing technology to separate different types of network traffic.
Shao added: “In the mineral processing plant, it is very difficult to deploy an active network due to the conditions such as dust, high temperatures and humidity requiring a lot of network resilience – but our unified network can include deployment of a GPON passive network in this application. It works better as it has fewer active components, plus that makes it less energy intensive and greener. However, in a corporate office on the minesite, an active campus network is the better solution.”
There is also a lot of interest in South America in Huawei’s Digital Twin technology – to simulate both the mining and mineral processing operation, such as for use in remote operations centres – then utilise the data generated to enable Huawei’s AI engine – the Pangu Mine Model to apply algorithms to specific scenarios and AI use cases. The model ‘learns’ from the data it receives – and a lot of this in mining can be derived from digitising human knowledge and experience in areas such as blending higher and low grade ore in the pit, combined with other data sources such as the grade block model and at the face XRF scanning; or listening for subtle sound differences in milling operations in the plant for example and combining that with data from vibration and condition monitoring sensors on the mills themselves.
Finally, a note on solutions for critical comms network coverage – such as in the case of mine rescue in a poor network situation, power failure or long distance ore transport vehicles in a blocked road situation without network coverage. At Exposibram 2025, Huawei was showcasing its MiniRapid Pro product, which is effectively a compact, rapid deployment portable 5G core network base station that can be vehicle-mounted, even single-person carry, and offers one-click startup. It can use Starlink as the backhaul but offers as much as a 1 km radius of network coverage as opposed to a Starlink station itself which would only provide about 50 m. With an external antenna the radius with MiniRapid Pro can be extended to 3 km. Plus it offers up to four hours of use with the portable battery pack before needing an external power source.
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