5G’s glittering engagement with gems
Jwaneng, the world’s richest diamond mine, is embracing hi-tech to improve safety and streamline operations
Most people associate 5G mobile with social media and watching YouTube faster.
But the super-fast technology also has significant benefits for business and industry, with private 5G networks forming the cornerstone of the fourth industrial revolution. Digital automation requires fast wireless with low latency (delay) for such applications as monitoring surveillance cameras and processing the huge amount of data they generate.
One of the new uses of these 5G networks is in mining, where it is streamlining operations and improving the safety of mineworkers.
In Botswana, Debswana introduced this hi-tech solution for the challenges of an ancient industry at its Jwaneng openpit diamond mine in December 2021.
The network was set up by Huawei, which has extensive experience with similar installations in Chinese mines. It connects a variety of hi-tech and low-tech components, combining several wireless networks into one system.
“We are a technology company that is doing mining,” Debswana’s head of information management, Molemisi Sechaba, tells the FM. He says the mine contributes 30% of Botswana’s GDP, 32% of government revenue and more than 70% of foreign earnings.
“We have to make sure this asset is sustainable,” he says.
Sechaba describes the upgrades at Jwaneng as a “digital transformation project, using technology at its core”.
Debswana sent staff to “Australia, to Mongolia, to touch and feel a connectivity solution that meets our requirement”, and chose Huawei, says Sechaba. “We are convinced we did not make a mistake.” Debswana will install similar smart-mining systems at its Orapa, Damtshaa and Letlhakane mines later this year.
Xu Jun, chief technology officer for Huawei’s intelligent mining division, tells the FM the Jwaneng mine is the “world’s first 5G-orientated smart diamond mine”. He says the tech firm built a mining technology group after many Chinese mines asked how Huawei could apply its enterprise offerings to the industry. In the past five years it has provided these services in South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Namibia and Ghana.
However, Xu says the “mining industry is behind in digital transformation” compared with other sectors.
Part of the problem for mining firms is the high number of networks they use for communication and tele
matics. “It’s not easy. There are so many networks for video, for emergencies, for production. How do you consolidate all of these and have a unified network?”
Another concern, he says, is that most mining houses don’t have adequate IT staff. To address this, Huawei has developed a low- or no-code platform for mines. This allows them to drag and drop processes or instructions to create a new way of automating an operation, or a series of them.
For Sechaba, the most important result has been a reduction in accidents. Debswana has seen safety improve “because of the technology we have employed, including collision avoidance systems”.
He says data has grown in importance for Debswana, and “if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it”.
Botswana has mostly openpit mines, which are safer than deep underground mines. Huawei has implemented its wireless systems in many deep coal mines in China, Xu says. Streaming high-definition video cameras monitor the automated drilling equipment that reduces the need for humans at the relatively dangerous coalface.
There are additional benefits for Botswana, says the minister of transport & communications, Thulagano Segokgo. Speaking at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last month, he said the mine’s upgrade process provided an opportunity to drive other connectivity projects.
Botswana runs a connectivity project for villages with over 500 people receiving free super-fast connectivity of 100MB/s. Health facilities and all public schools are also connected