Technology & equipment
Le Busque agrees that this local buy-in is crucial and says policy is now keeping pace with innovation, with governments providing incentives for system integrators and solution providers to invest in the technology. He cites 5G innovation grants in Singapore and the allocation of private 5G spectrum in Australia, Germany, the UK and Japan as examples of how governments, regulators and industry are working together.
Support has been particularly strong in Australia, a key market for Verizon and a global mining powerhouse. “The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is facilitating a variety of licence types in the 26GHz and 28GHz bands (mmWave) for the deployment of 5G technology,” says Le Busque. “The regulator also plans to include area-wide apparatus licences (AWLs), class licences for low-power devices and spectrum licensing in the 26GHz band to cater to the deployment of dense networks in areas that are highly populated.” It’s envisaged mmWave in the 26GHz and 28GHz bands will support a wide range of 5G uses across the transport, health and education sectors in addition to advanced manufacturing and mining. It will also be used for wireless broadband, satellite communications and the internet of things.
Current adoption Since October 2020, Verizon has been working on an international private 5G business platform for Europe and Asia-Pacific. The launch project – in partnership with Nokia – promised businesses a private industrial grade dedicated 5G network capability on their own premises. Each private network would be self- contained and house its own components – including micro-towers and small cells – on site. It would connect to a local area network (LAN) and other
World Mining Frontiers /
www.nsenergybusiness.com
applications. It’s this type of setup that miners are looking to exploit. Currently testing is being done on 4G LTE hardware and networks. “How that will differ from the final 5G infrastructure is not yet finalised and this is something that is evolving as the testing progresses,” says Rody.
While trials have been under way at various sites worldwide for a number of years, the actual pace of change has been slow. “This is normal in the mining industry – fast adoption of any new technology is not what the mining industry is known for,” Rody says. “We see the main push coming from global players that have high ambitions for mining automation and have already trialled automation solutions for a decade or longer. In the past two years, interest in 5G technology has increased and there are more trials planned in 2021 and 2022. I think a wider uptake will be in direct connection to a mine’s autonomous ambitions.” However, hurdles to the large-scale integration of 5G remain. Rody says that in addition to winning backing from telecoms operators at a national level, there’s a need to build up the right competencies in terms of using and understanding the technology. “Although there are some similarities between a Wi-Fi network and a cellular network, there are still a great deal of new configurations available and here there is a clear knowledge gap,” he says. “Getting telecoms operators and mines talking together in the ‘same language’ is also an issue we face and here a lot of patience is required on both sides. “A great deal of this is still new territory, but together we are taking huge steps forward towards a joint 5G future, which will help deliver safer mining sites with large scale autonomous fleets producing more ore than ever before.” ●
The main benefit that 5G offers the mining industry is its potential to enable full automation of on-site operations.
1 million
Devices can be supported by 5G per square kilometre.
Verizon 29
Evgeny_V/
Shutterstock.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53
