CONNECTED, SAFE AND PRODUCTIVE UNDERGROUND

A PRIVATE LTE 4G) NETWORK BY VOCUS IS SUPPORTING THE TRANSFORMATION OF SAFETY AND EFFICIENCY AT ONE OF AUSTRALIA’S ICONIC GOLD MINES.

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When Gold Fields engaged Vocus to deploy a private LTE (4G) mobile network at its Granny Smith underground gold mine in Western Australia, it was a technological stepchange that brought the iconic operation into the 21st century.

“Underground miners have been working in the dark for a long time, not being able to get visibility of where people are, where assets are, where the opportunities are,” Gold Fields Granny Smith general manager Mark Glazebrook said.

That all changed when Vocus deployed the private LTE network throughout the many kilometres of tunnels at Granny Smith, which reach as deep as 1.4km below the surface.

Lifting the lid of the mine

“We wanted to ‘lift the lid of the mine’ – to be able to see into operations clearly so we could provide a safer workplace and optimise production,” Glazebrook said.

“Vocus installed the private LTE network, and we connected all our haulage fleet and mining telemetry to it. We also used it as backhaul for underground Wi-Fi hotspots in vehicles to connect W-Fi-only apps.

“It allowed us to gather all the data we needed from our staff, trucks, loaders, and telemetry into one platform so we could make decisions quickly and in a coordinated way.”