U. S. gold mining company Newmont Corporation will abandon Wi-Fi in favor of 5G on its autonomous and remotely controlled machines at its main mining operations in Australia, Africa, Latin America and North America. The resolution comes after a 5G trial with Ericsson at its Cadia mine in New South Wales, Australia, and encouraged the company to deploy more autonomous machines at its “top-tier” mines, he said. he said, adding drilling rigs, graders and haul trucks. The company has 14 mines on four continents.
Newmont, the gold maker of the S-index
The tests with Telstra Purple and Ericsson at the Cadia mine predate Newmont’s acquisition of rival Newcrest for $16. 8 billion due last year; Newcrest is still listed as the owner of the site. The effects are described as “robust,” eclipsing previous tests with “unreliable” Wi-Fi. The task was also extended to surface-level communications at the Cadia site, large MIMOs (included in a “larger” 64/64 transmit/receive antenna configuration (64T64R), as well as beamforming and beam guidance, offering a ‘leap forward’ in the flows that can be had over the extended distances found in surface operations. “
Newmont has applied to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) for a local license to manage personal 5G on its own committed spectrum across all of its sites in Australia. The company also owns gold mines at Boddington in Western Australia and in the Tanami Desert. in the Northern Territory of Australia. Its other mines are in Argentina, Canada, Dominican Republic, Ghana, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Suriname and the United States. Private 5G has “extraordinary potential” for security and productivity, according to the statement. .
He said: “5G now has a strong position in Newmont’s communication methods for Cadia and its other leading underground and surface mines around the world. In the wake of the Australian Communications and Media Authority’s (ACMA) Cadia 5G trial, Newmont has now applied to the ACMA for area licences to expand and integrate the use of 5G generation through Newmont across its Australian operations. Newmont now plans to expand the use of 5G networks across its global network of top-tier underground gold and copper mines.
The company has indexed various types of autonomous and semi-autonomous mining apparatus that will connect to 5G, adding drilling rigs, mining drives, ore loaders, graders and haul trucks, as well as unspecified “mining machinery” and “mining systems”. He cited the “capacity and ability” of the 5G generation to “facilitate and streamline operational functions while deploying more protection systems, such as radars and collision avoidance devices, in overall mine protection systems. “
He explained the Wi-Fi comparison as follows: “Cadia was limited to download speeds of 20 to 30 Mbps by employing Wi-Fi to run autonomous appliances such as ore loaders and remotely controlled mining machines. Wi-Fi [was] unreliable and unpredictable under load, [with] inadequate capacity to run the required number of machines in a domain at the same time, especially with the number of video downloads involved. Automated safety shutdowns were routinely triggered incorrectly due to packet loss.
He continues: “Thanks to personal 5G, Newmont. . . achieved download speeds of approximately 90 Mbps along the access and decline units of the underground complex, and 150 Mbps download and 500 Mbps download on the larger pull units. Underground connections have proven to be persistent and highly reliable, solving the long-standing limitations found with Wi-Fi and offering the consistent functionality essential for remote control and autonomous mining systems.
Suzy Retallack, head of safety and sustainability at Newmont, said: “The test results show the overall prospects of 5G for safety, increasing the number of machines that can operate on a single network and increasing production power in underground mines. . These tests are part of the new technological frontier in mining: employing innovation to make our people safer and our mines more productive.
Manish Tiwari, Head of Private Cellular Networks at Ericsson, said: “5G is enabling an immediate global transformation of the industry, supporting digitalization and the move towards automated, more effective and secure operations across a range of sectors. Ericsson is proud to partner with Newmont and will demonstrate the prospects of 5G to the global mining industry.