Five tips for using private wireless to digitalize mining operations

How mining demonstrates the positive impact of private wireless

Few industries showcase the benefits of a private wireless network more vividly than mining. This is a sector in which driverless 300-tonne trucks with wheels two meters wide can be operated from a control center hundreds of kilometers away.

Health and safety is a critical concern in an environment that features monster vehicles and giant machines – and frequent blasts inside a pit. Underground, the challenges are even more significant. There are thick rock walls, narrow corridors and a constantly changing route. It is simply not feasible to cover a whole site with a single antenna.

The importance of digital transformation in mining

There are four interconnected KPIs for any mining operator:

1. Safety
2. Sustainability
3. Productivity
4. Efficiency

The drive to meet these KPIs underpins most of the transformation projects in the mining industry. If there is a safety incident within a mine, production is halted. Stopping for just a few hours can mean the loss of hundreds of thousands of tonnes, which impacts on both productivity and the bottom line.

An illustration of the impact of private wireless on a mining operation

Let's look at the effect of the deployment of a private LTE-powered autonomous haulage system in an Australian mine. Its operator has more than 50 connected trucks working on collecting the ore that has been excavated.

Merely by installing the private LTE, the mine saved more than €10million through reducing the number of Wi-Fi points required. It also saw a productivity increase of about 75 hours per year per truck – which translated into 1.5 million tonnes more excavated each year. That in turn meant a top-line growth of €50million just from the improved connectivity.

The operator reported a 90 per cent drop in the number of unplanned stops. Because communication with each truck was improved, the amount of fuel consumed dropped too. There was a saving of up to 80,000 liters of diesel per truck per year.

As well as a huge cost benefit in an era of rising energy prices, this also had a big impact on the sustainability of the operation, to the tune of a carbon reduction of 236 tonnes.

How Nokia has pioneered private wireless in mining

Mining was one of the first verticals where Nokia demonstrated the viability of private wireless networks, more than ten years ago. Nokia's first project was rolled out in the Pilbara region of Australia, a major mining area.

Nokia now has more than 35 mining customers, including four out of the five biggest multi-national operators. Customers appreciate the benefits in terms of high bandwidth, low frequency, built-in security, quality of service and, most important of all, ultra-reliability.

Business continuity is crucial to mining, so a reliable network, combined with edge computing capabilities, is a winning mix. The installation of a single private wireless network can bring benefits in terms of mission-critical data applications, remotely operated machines, CCTV, video streaming, communications and a range of Internet of Things applications.

Having one single network infrastructure, which uses private wireless 4.9G or 5G technology, and that works both above the surface and underground, brings significant advantages. Underground is more challenging – radio planning and an appreciation of the tunnel structure are crucial – but ultimately the same network can be used.

Five tips for mining companies considering a digital transformation

1/ Start by consulting your operations teams. It is essential that your private wireless network solution helps to meet those key KPIs of safety, productivity and efficiency. Private wireless should not be technology for the sake of technology.

2/ Think end-to-end when you start deploying private wireless. You need to work with your whole ecosystem, not just the shovels, diggers and autonomous trucks.

3/ When you are looking at use cases, start with the low-hanging fruit. Do not try to boil the ocean from day one. There may be IoT data collection for analytics purposes, for instance, that can quickly demonstrate the value of private wireless solutions.

4/ It is essential to validate these solutions end-to-end. Make sure that the interoperability and the reliability of the entire process has been thoroughly tested before any solution is deployed in an actual mine.

5/ Look beyond the pit for digitalization opportunities. Private wireless networks bring benefits in many more verticals than just mining. Nokia also works in transportation, railways, roads, sports, shipyards and more. If you look across the whole value chain, it covers stockpiles, processing factories and transportation by rail and sea. Include all these different use cases in your business plan and you will see that private wireless makes more sense than ever.

Mining is a highly specialized industry with specific needs and challenges. However, it is also an essential activity for the world's economy and the transition to new forms of energy with the help of metals and minerals like copper and lithium. This is one reason why mining is now at the cutting edge of industrial transformation.

To learn more, please go to Nokia's private wireless podcast page.