Mining company Sigma Lithium inked a deal with Nokia and systems integrator Alcon to install a private LTE campus network to support its operations, a deployment expected to improve worker safety and productivity.

The network will be used to connect 200 employees and support a range of industrial applications at a mining site in Brazil, with the aim of boosting productivity and creating operational efficiencies.   

Workers will be connected to the network through certified rugged devices and use a range of applications based-on industrial edge computing to improve safety and up productivity. Apps to be supported include voice and video communications and smart badge systems.

Nokia claimed the deployment represented the first LTE private network in the Americas to support Lithium mining, while highlighting the importance of the metal in battery production for the likes of electric vehicles and solar energy storage.   

Sigma Lithium is aiming to produce next-generation electric vehicle batteries in a carbon neutral way; the Finnish vendor claimed this will be aided by the installation of the network.