When the infrastructure fails, the operation loses its eyes
In the open-pit mines of Chile, the boundary between machine and network has dissolved — a truck without its digital systems is no longer a truck, but a blind and stranded weight. As hauling circuits consume up to two-thirds of operational budgets, mining companies have come to understand that a failed signal or crashed dispatch system is not a technical inconvenience but a financial wound that opens in minutes. The industry's response has been to hold its digital infrastructure to the same exacting standards once reserved for steel and hydraulics, pursuing availability targets above 99.8% as a matter of survival rather than ambition.
- A single unplanned outage on one truck can drain between $10,000 and $19,000 in hours — and when failures cascade across multiple vehicles simultaneously, losses can surpass $50,000.
- The real danger is not the idle truck but the vanishing visibility: when telemetry and GPS go dark, the mine loses its ability to coordinate, locate, or anticipate anything happening across the site.
- Mining operators are now setting formal availability targets — 99.8% for onboard truck systems and 99.99% for field telecommunications — and treating them with the same urgency as mechanical uptime.
- Redundancy, rapid-response protocols, and proactive monitoring are being embedded into digital infrastructure the way safety systems are built into heavy equipment.
- At the most advanced operations, these targets are no longer aspirational benchmarks — they are operational realities, separating mines that absorb failures from those that spiral into production crises.
In Chile's open-pit mines, the trucks hauling ore from pit to plant have become something more than machines — they are nodes in a digital network, and when that network fails, the financial damage begins almost immediately.
Hauling and transport account for 45 to 65 percent of an open-pit operation's total spending, making it the single most consequential function on any mine site. When a truck's dispatch system crashes or its GPS signal disappears, the mine doesn't simply lose one vehicle — it loses coordination, visibility, and real-time awareness of its entire fleet. A two-to-three-hour outage on a single truck costs between $10,000 and $19,000. When failures cascade across multiple trucks at once — a common pattern during unscheduled maintenance — losses can exceed $50,000.
Marcelo Santander, chief technology officer at Tres60 by SGS, describes a transformation that has reshaped how the industry thinks about its assets. Dispatch systems, telemetry feeds, and geolocation tools have crossed a threshold: they are no longer conveniences layered on top of operations, but the connective tissue the operation depends on to function at all.
The industry's response has been to apply the same rigor to digital infrastructure that it once reserved for mechanical reliability. Availability targets now stand at 99.8% for onboard truck systems and 99.99% for field telecommunications — and at the most mature operations, these are no longer goals but achieved realities. A software failure is treated the way a hydraulic leak would be: as an emergency demanding immediate response.
For mining companies operating on thin margins in volatile commodity markets, this is not an investment in sophistication — it is a hedge against collapse. The mines that have built this level of technological resilience are the ones that can absorb a failure before it becomes a crisis, and that know, at any moment, exactly where their fleet is and what it is doing.
In the open-pit mines of Chile, the trucks that move ore from pit to processing plant are no longer just mechanical machines. They are nodes in a digital network, and when that network fails, the cost arrives in minutes.
Hauling and transport—the circuit that loads ore and moves it across the mine site—accounts for between 45 and 65 percent of an open-pit operation's total spending. This is not a secondary function. This is where the money lives. When a CAEX truck stops because its dispatch system has crashed, or its telemetry has gone dark, or its GPS has lost signal, the mine does not simply lose the use of one truck. It loses visibility. It loses coordination. It loses the ability to know where its equipment is, what it is carrying, or when it will arrive. For a two- to three-hour unplanned outage on a single truck, the financial hit ranges from ten thousand to nineteen thousand dollars. When the failure cascades—when two or three trucks go down at once, a common occurrence during unscheduled maintenance—the damage can exceed fifty thousand dollars.
This arithmetic has transformed how mining companies think about their fleets. Marcelo Santander, the chief technology officer at Tres60 by SGS, a firm that specializes in operational continuity and technical support for mining operations, describes a shift that has happened quietly but completely. Dispatch systems, telemetry feeds, and geolocation tools have moved from nice-to-have conveniences into essential infrastructure. Any interruption now has immediate operational consequences. The technology is no longer supporting the operation. It is the operation.
The response has been methodical. Mining companies have begun treating technological availability with the same rigor they once reserved for mechanical reliability. They have set targets: 99.8 percent availability for the systems embedded in trucks themselves, and 99.99 percent for the telecommunications infrastructure that connects them. At the operations where this approach has matured, these numbers are no longer aspirational. They are real.
What this means in practice is a complete reimagining of how mines manage their digital assets. It means redundancy built into every layer. It means rapid-response protocols for failures. It means treating a software crash the way you would treat a hydraulic leak—as an emergency that demands immediate attention. Santander notes that a few years ago, these standards of availability were demanded only of the mechanical assets: the trucks themselves, the shovels, the dozers. But the world has changed. Technology now occupies an equally critical role in keeping the mine running. When the infrastructure fails, the operation loses more than a truck. It loses its eyes, its coordination, its real-time visibility into what is happening across the site.
For mining companies operating on thin margins in a volatile commodity market, this is not a luxury. It is survival. The mines that have invested in this level of technological maturity are the ones that can absorb a failure without it cascading into a production crisis. They are the ones that know, at any moment, exactly where their fleet is and what it is doing. They are the ones that can respond to problems before they become disasters. In an industry where every hour of downtime translates directly into lost revenue, that capability has become as valuable as the ore itself.
Notable Quotes
When that infrastructure is interrupted, the operation can lose monitoring capacity, fleet coordination, and real-time visibility— Marcelo Santander, CTO of Tres60 by SGS
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why did mining companies wait so long to treat technology like a critical asset? Trucks have had computers for years.
Because for a long time, the technology was redundant. You could lose a GPS signal and still move the truck manually. You could lose dispatch and still radio instructions. But as mines got bigger and more complex, and as the economics got tighter, that redundancy disappeared. Now you need all of it working at once.
So it's not that the technology got more important. It's that the operation got more dependent on it.
Exactly. The mine itself became digital. The technology is no longer a tool the mine uses. It is the nervous system the mine runs on.
And when the nervous system fails, you lose fifty thousand dollars in a few hours.
Yes. But more than that—you lose control. You cannot see what is happening. You cannot coordinate. You are flying blind.
Is 99.8 percent availability actually achievable, or is that just a target?
At the best operations, it is real. They have built redundancy into every layer. Multiple communication paths. Backup systems. Rapid repair protocols. It is expensive, but the cost of failure is higher.
So the mines that can afford this infrastructure pull further ahead.
That is the pattern. The technology becomes a competitive advantage, not just an operational necessity.