Mining 4.0 comes of age with private wireless

Underground mining environments create a difficult environment for connecting miners and machines, but private wireless is addressing this for various operators globally. CREDIT: NOKIA

By Calin Miculescu

Industries as diverse as medical care and manufacturing are being digitally transformed by Industry 4.0 technologies – and mining is no exception.

‘Mining 4.0’ makes use of technologies such as edge computing, artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) and IoT sensing as well as high bandwidth, low latency wireless networks to power a list of use cases that automate critical processes, improve worker safety and increase productivity and efficiency. While some of these use cases would have seemed wildly futuristic, even a decade ago, others are small but crucial enhancements to well-known operations practices.

Either way, both surface and underground mines provide challenges for the application of these technologies. One of the most demanding, but also most critical areas involves wireless communications. Reliably connecting IoT sensors, handheld devices, workers, vehicles and equipment wirelessly is difficult for traditional IT communication technologies like Wi-Fi, which aren’t suitable for underground and weren’t designed for large open areas. Perhaps because of these challenges, the mining industry was an early innovator in using private wireless networks based on 4G/LTE. Nearly a decade ago, Rio Tinto began experimenting with running autonomous haul trucks in Australia’s Pilbara region. They originally used Wi-Fi but ultimately abandoned the technology because the network performance was too unpredictable, causing additional operational expense and technician headaches due to constant network drops.

The predictable wireless connectivity 4G/LTE provided, however, solved Rio Tinto’s issues and autonomous haulage has since become commonplace in the Pilbara – and many other open pit mines worldwide. Using private wireless for other applications was relatively simple as long as they operated on the surface. The next frontier for private wireless was going underground.

Underground communications

Because underground mining environments are characterized by confined spaces and continuously increasing networks of drifts and galleries, there are a wide variety of harsh production areas – in spiral ramps, vertical shafts, horizontal and narrow drifts with massive rock walls. This creates an understandably difficult environment for connecting miners and machines, because propagating radio waves through solid rock isn’t simple, and there is a lot of potential for blind spots.

Fortunately, the mobile communications industry solved many of these radio propagation issues over the last two decades as they sought to bring 3G, 4G/LTE, and soon 5G services to subway commuters and provide high bandwidth coverage within the labyrinth of underground walkways and parking lots in dense urban centres.

As a result, cellular wireless systems now have the capability to be deployed, with the proper planning, in almost any underground environment using a combination of radio technologies such as small cells, micro remote radio heads (RRH), distributed antenna arrays (DAS) and radiating cables (also known as leaky feeders). Taken a step further, this technology has been ruggedized, so it can also reliably operate in harsh underground mining environments.

This kind of innovation ensures that private wireless is now the most suitable communications technology to support teleremote operations and automation applications in underground mines, while the same network infrastructure and services can be deployed above ground to support telemetry applications, autonomous vehicles and critical voice and video communications across entire mine sites.

Private networks

A growing number of global mining companies, including BHP, Vale and Teck, have announced Mining 4.0 projects based on private 4G/LTE connectivity, and some of them, like Codelco in Chile, have started running 5G pilots.

One of the organizations that is actively exploring the possible use cases for Mining 4.0 technologies, is Norcat, which has its Underground Centre in Sudbury, Ont. In 2020, Norcat partnered with Nokia and CENGN (the Centre of Excellence in Next Generation Networks) to install a private 4G/LTE underground network at the facility. The network is fully operational and is used by Norcat’s ecosystem partners to develop, test and showcase cutting-edge products and services.

Sandvik, a global supplier of automation and digitalization for underground mining, has also implemented a private 5G standalone (SA) network in its test-mine facility in Tampere, Finland. The network will enable the company to showcase an entirely new range of game-changing products and capabilities, with the ability to run several different applications over the network. With 5G, Sandvik will be able to reserve a certain capacity from the bandwidth for specific applications – resulting in predictable performance and improved reliability.

Having a single wireless network for nearly every possible use case unleashes the potential of Mining 4.0. The more data that can be shared, the greater the possibility of finding correlations using analytics and AI/ML to identify inefficiencies in individual applications or system-wide processes.

The high bandwidth of 4G/LTE and 5G also supports most video applications used in the teleremote operations of drill rigs, bolters and LHD loaders. It can also support video from drones and CCTV cameras used for operations monitoring and security surveillance – and can even be used for augmented reality (AR) applications, such as heads-up displays used by repair crews with remote assistance from experts.

Private wireless also supports the specific communications capabilities of large sensor networks, which can be used to gather data on structural integrity, temperature, humidity, water leaks, gas levels, dust, noise and vibration. This data can then be analyzed by AI/ML algorithms and used to improve ventilation systems, trigger geo-fencing alerts to nearby workers, or flag the need for safety inspections of critical infrastructure.

Additionally, private wireless can be used for worker safety by connecting smart personal protective equipment (PPE) for monitoring heart rate, oxygen levels or the presence of local health hazards.

The digital transformation of mining is picking up steam as mine operators around the world embrace the power of Mining 4.0. The number of use cases that can leverage private wireless technologies is potentially unlimited. In practice, this means that the question of which connectivity technology to use has finally become a non-issue. This is resulting in a big reduction in operating costs and a huge increase in possible operational gains – both above and below ground.

Calin Miculescu is Nokia’s director, Canadian Mining.