Large underground mine, Peru
Budget
What it costs to deploy MinePulse on a reference mine, and how well we know each number
Assumptions
A large mechanised underground polymetallic operation of the kind that exists in Peru: multiple portals, several orebodies, around three thousand people and a big mobile fleet. Sized on best case radio coverage, because this is a simulation.
Underground LoRaWAN reaches 180-245 m in a tunnel, not the kilometres it manages on surface. So the length of tunnel in daily use, not the sensor price, sets the size of the deployment. 12 km at 400 m spacing gives 30 underground gateways. On surface a gateway has line of sight, so the fifteen portals share eight rather than needing one each.
Bulk sublevel longhole stoping across several orebodies, mechanised, three shifts
Source: Endpoint counts reflect a real operation of this size. Coverage figures come from published 915 MHz path loss measurements in mine tunnels.
Total cost to Goal Praxis
$888,385
Range $768,110 - $1,008,661
Monthly
$3,975
36-month total $1,031,485
Per endpoint
$193
4604 nodes
IGV 16% + IPM 2% on CIF
$140,737
Recoverable as fiscal credit. Cash flow, not cost.
Not costed
$80,686
5 lines
How well we know it
- Invoiced $513,820From our own purchase order. Exact.
- Statutory $276Fixed by law or published tariff. Exact.
- Benchmarked $53,629Published reseller price with our measured dealer factor applied.
- Estimate $320,661Engineering estimate from a comparable item.
Bill of materials
| Item | Qty | Unit | Unit cost | Extended | How well we know it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KONA Micro Ethernet PoE, AU915 - underground tunnel coverage12 km of actively worked tunnel at 400 m spacing. Best case. If the rock and the layout are less kind, this line roughly doubles. | 30 | unit | $265 | $7,950 | Benchmarked±15% |
| KONA Micro Gen2T LTE, AU915 - portal groupsMIG2TLAU915Eight gateways for fifteen portals. On surface a gateway has line of sight, so portals within a few hundred metres share one. The main haulage portal carries two, because losing coverage where every shift change passes loses the roll call. | 8 | unit | $327 | $2,616 | Invoiced |
| KONA Micro - hot sparesMIG2TLAU915Roughly 7 percent of the underground fleet, held against RMA turnaround from Canada. | 4 | unit | $327 | $1,308 | Invoiced |
| KONA Macro, AU915 - surface mast coveragePlant, camp, truck shop, warehouse, ore yard, offices and the water plant. | 6 | unit | $1,040 | $6,240 | Benchmarked±15% |
| KONA Macro Ex - fuel bay and explosives magazinesClassified areas. A non-Ex gateway may not be installed here at any price. | 3 | unit | $2,900 | $8,700 | Estimate±35% |
| KONA Mobile - supervision and rescue vehiclesRoaming coverage on the declines between portals. | 6 | unit | $620 | $3,720 | Estimate±35% |
| Outdoor Ethernet surge protector, PoE 60WT0007197 | 9 | unit | $76 | $684 | Benchmarked±15% |
| Macro wall and pole mounting kitT0007721 | 9 | unit | $49 | $441 | Benchmarked±15% |
| Antenna mounting bracket kitKITT0004739 | 9 | unit | $36 | $324 | Benchmarked±15% |
| Outdoor omni antenna 8 dBi, 915 MHz | 9 | unit | $85 | $765 | Estimate±35% |
| Underground antenna 3 dBi with N-type cable assemblyLow gain and wide pattern beats high gain underground: the drift acts as a waveguide. | 45 | unit | $48 | $2,160 | Estimate±35% |
| Galvanised 6 m mast with guy kit and earthing | 6 | unit | $470 | $2,820 | Estimate±35% |
Landed cost
- Goods
- $764,572
- Freight, agent, insurance
- $17,300
- Ad valorem, HS 8517.620% under the Peru tariff schedule
- $0
- IGV 16% + IPM 2% on CIFRecoverable as fiscal credit. Cash flow, not cost.
- $140,737
- Services and regulatory
- $106,514
- Total cost to Goal Praxis
- $888,385
Margin by category, outright sale
| Margin | Price | Gross profit | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Radio and gateways | 35% | $58,044 | $20,315 |
| Field endpoints | 35% | $948,774 | $332,071 |
| Network and power | 30% | $64,457 | $19,337 |
| Servers and cloud | 30% | $15,886 | $4,766 |
| Control room | 28% | $23,472 | $6,572 |
| Mobility | 25% | $49,333 | $12,333 |
| Logistics and import | 10% | $19,222 | $1,922 |
| Regulatory, MTC | 0% | $2,256 | $0 |
| Services | 45% | $189,560 | $85,302 |
Price is cost divided by one minus the margin, not cost plus the margin.
Three ways to sell the same deployment
Same deployment, same cost. What changes is who carries the hardware and when the money arrives. Financing: 1.5% per month · 18 percent nominal annual, Peru SME equipment financing. Estimate.
Sold outright
- Up front
- $1,371,004
- Monthly
- $5,679
- 36-month revenue
- $1,575,433
- Our cash out firstHardware we buy before any revenue
- $764,572
- Gross profit
- $543,947 · 35%
Mine buys everything. Best margin per month of effort, and nothing on our balance sheet. Needs a capital budget approval, which in mining means a committee.
As a service
Most profit- Up front
- -
- Monthly
- $60,154
- 36-month revenue
- $2,165,536
- Our cash out firstHardware we buy before any revenue
- $888,385
- Gross profit
- $866,214 · 40%
We own the hardware, they pay monthly. Easiest signature because it clears an opex threshold instead of a capex one, but we fund the whole build before the first payment.
Hybrid
- Up front
- $1,110,534
- Monthly
- $15,807
- 36-month revenue
- $1,679,599
- Our cash out firstHardware we buy before any revenue
- $764,572
- Gross profit
- $648,114 · 39%
Hardware near cost to get in, real margin on the platform fee. Lowest entry price and it compounds, which is the model that usually closes in mining.
Lines that are not costed
These are excluded from every total on this page. Carrying an uncosted line inside a total is how a budget quietly becomes wrong.
- TEKTELIC KONA Core network server licence1 licenceAt 4,600 devices a per-device licence would be material. Worth knowing before it is a surprise.
- Gateway installation and commissioning64 gateway · indicative $21,760Subcontracted. Underground installs take about a shift each and need mine safety accreditation.
- Endpoint physical fitting4604 endpoint · indicative $29,926Subcontracted.
- Integration to mine systems, despacho, CMMS, ERP25 day · indicative $19,500Enterprise systems at this scale could be far larger than 25 days.
- Penetration test and security review1 engagement · indicative $9,500Not costed. It has to happen before a pilot carries real people, and it belongs here as a line rather than as an assumption. An independent firm, not us: a vendor testing its own system is not a test.