Changed on 04/04/2020
Low cost device for measuring drip irrigation rate in heap leach
Inria Chile and the company Livn, answered in September 2016 the IoT Challenge in Mining proposed by Telefónica I + D, a contest they won with the proposal "The Drop Watcher: count of drops by infrared pulse". The objective of the project was to resolve deficiencies in the information on the distribution of irrigation of heap leach so as to prevent events that may force the production to stop, such as a flooded bed (due to over-irrigation of the heap) or collapse due to non-uniform distribution of the irrigation.
The technical challenge of this project was to develop a low-cost device (less than $ 100) for measuring the rate of acid entering the battery, including LoRaWAN connectivity and battery life of at least 6 months. This device was developed and field tested in early July 201, obtaining successful results in terms of the device's communication capabilities.
