Mining heavyweight Newmont (NYSE:NEM) is rolling out a private 5G network at its Cadia Copper-Gold Mine in New South Wales to increase the efficiency of its dozer fleet and safety of its workers.
Newmont has deployed Ericsson’s (NASDAQ:ERIC) Private 5G solution for the first use of the technology for teleremote (remote control) dozing at its surface operations.
The implementation of the new network was to overcome the limitations of the existing onsite Wi-Fi, which was unable to connect more than two machines at distances of no more than 100m before the network and machines became unusable.
Ericsson says the Wi-Fi was unstable and unpredictable and could lead to downtime for half a 12-hour shift at a time or more for troubleshooting and efforts to restabilise connectivity.
Manish Tiwari, Head of Enterprise 5G, Enterprise Wireless Solutions for Ericsson, says the company’s 5G technology can reduce the amount of infrastructure that needs to be deployed and operated to cover an industrial site or area.
“This also allows enterprises to use private 5G networks they own to achieve high levels of performance for advanced video-based control and computer vision initiatives without large amounts of spectrum,” Tiwari says.
“This is especially valuable to organisations that are operating in spectrum-constrained markets.”
Newmont can now connect its full dozer fleet across the width of its tailings works construction area – up to 2.5km – from a single 5G radio, while achieving up to 175 megabits per second uplink throughput.
That is sufficient to operate up to 12 dozers if required and allows Newmont’s workers to push more earth per shift than was previously possible.
Chris Twaddle, Newmont’s Director of Process Control, Networks and Operational Cellular, says Ericsson’s Private 5G network gives the company a scalable and high-performing solution that provides the coverage needed and keeps workers safe.
“It’s also enabling our long-term digital transformation vision to use 5G for smart mining at our tier one surface and underground mines globally,” Twaddle says.
Write to Angela East at Mining.com.au
Images: Newmont
