FIRST 5G-ORIENTED SMART DIAMOND MINE PROJECT

Botswana’s Debswana and Huawei have jointly announced the world’s first 5G-oriented smart diamond mine project. Deployed at Debswana’s Jwaneng open-pit diamond mine, Huawei’s 4G eLTE private network solution provides stable connectivity for the Jwaneng mine.

The solution connects more than 260 pieces of equipment, including drilling rigs, excavators, heavy trucks and pick-up trucks. This enables interconnection between the mine’s production, safety and security systems.

According to Debswana’s head of information management Molemisi Nelson Sechaba, the solution connects mining equipment in a more stable manner, increasing e iciency through the ability to transfer data in real time, thereby increasing yield and reducing long-term OPEX.

“Furthermore, it helps improve safety, as real-time data collection, backhaul and interaction make the system more sensitive and accurate, ensuring that it provides more reliable protection for sta and vehicles,” he says.

The Jwaneng mine is the world’s first 5G-oriented smart diamond mine. This means the hardware equipment such as base stations used in the mine’s digital transformation solution support network upgrades to 5G. 5G features such as high bandwidth and low latency can support the application of cutting-edge technologies like autonomous driving, enabling more intelligent digital transformation of the mining industry in the future.

The Government of Botswana has stated that it will continue to put in place facilitation measures to further support the digital transformation agenda across all sectors, including the mining industry, and welcomes international companies, such as Huawei, to participate in this agenda. Measures already under way include a formulated digitalisation agenda, a 5G roadmap, and other supporting policies.

Xu Jun, CTO of the Huawei Mine business unit, adds that Huawei is committed to using its strengths in ICT technologies such as 5G, cloud, artificial intelligence, and internet of things to develop smart mine solutions that will continue to make mine production safer, more e icient, and more intelligent.