TELF AG explores the potential of 5G in the mining industry
The contribution of innovation to the development of the sector
The effects of innovation and technological progress have always brought concrete improvements in the various sectors in which they have been used, particularly regarding speeding up procedures, simplifying processes, automation, and safety. Soon, the mining sector could also benefit from the regular use of technologies such as 5G or artificial intelligence, allowing companies to save significant amounts of resources and optimize all processes, from extraction to final processing, but also through transportation and marketing.
As the global energy transition advances, the mining sector and its end products (strategic minerals and their industrial applications) will increasingly be the focus of international attention. Their demand is growing at considerable rates, so much so that for some of the most important resources for the green transition (such as copper), there is already talk of possible shortages for the coming decades. In this context, the latest technological developments could play a key role in increasing the efficiency of mining processes, making them less expensive and more intelligent, thus indirectly contributing to the completion of the planet’s sustainable development and decarbonization.
The connection between the Internet of Things and the mining industry
The key to future mining development may lie in the power of data. In different parts of the world, many mining companies have already had the opportunity to implement an intelligent approach linked to the Internet of Things, to the various operating procedures, obtaining valuable information (in the form of data) on the performance of the equipment, on the quality of the minerals extracted and of those stored in stocks, but also on environmental performance. These systems provide access to various spatial and geological data applicable to mining operations.
Other companies have successfully applied 5G technology, the fifth generation of cellular networks. Huawei, for example, recently partnered with Debswana on an innovative diamond mine project in Botswana. In this way, the thousands of pieces of equipment used in the mine are now interconnected, using a unified data system with a transmission capacity of up to 170 million data points daily. This mass of data can subsequently be used by industrial mining equipment and their digital models, making it possible to share them during all phases of mining operations. In 2022, a collaboration between Minetec Smart Mining, Huawei, and Phalanndwa Colliery made creating a 5G-connected coal mine possible.
Further development could be represented by combining 5G technologies and artificial intelligence, which are now finding concrete application spaces in numerous industries. In the mining sector, this combination could make it possible to transform archived data into more information in real-time, to regularly monitor the operation of conveyor belts or to activate real-time alarms if safety problems are detected. These technologies can make it possible to quickly identify potentially dangerous situations and organize evacuations in perfect order, even managing to stop mining equipment.
An important step forward in the direction of intelligent mining has certainly been made by Huawei, which introduced the use of an operating system that, through the unification of the languages of the various devices scattered throughout the mines, manages to significantly simplify all operations, also activating unsupervised inspections and facilitating interconnection and communication between different devices. In this way, it becomes possible to achieve a substantial improvement not only in the relationship between man and machine but also between the devices themselves.
