TORONTO — Rogers Business and Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd. announced today the launch of a 5G wireless private network (WPN) at the mining company’s Detour Lake Mine (pictured above) in northeastern Ontario.
Detour Lake is the second-largest gold producing mine in Canada, according to a press release, and the mine “is the first of its kind in Canada to be fully connected over a 5G Wireless Private Network, providing enhanced coverage, end-to-end reliability, full redundancy, and a low latency network across its 80-square-kilometre operation.”
The 5G WPN at Detour Lake Mine, which has been built with a full failover backup system across the site, provides better connectivity, communication and safety for mine workers today “while enabling a truly scalable network that will power thousands of new solutions,” the press release says.
Some of these include tele-remote operations, industrial IoT sensors providing real-time insight into operations, drones that can deliver supplies to the bottom of the mine, future autonomous haulage vehicles, and exploration work — all of which will be monitored and managed through a digital dashboard to improve efficiencies and productivity at the mine, according to the release.
“Bringing a 5G wireless private network to Detour Lake provides the stable and reliable service we need as we build the digital mine of the future,” said Tony Makuch, president and CEO of Kirkland Lake Gold, in the release.
“Not only does the new network provide an extra layer of connectivity for our employees, it also enables us to drive mining innovation and technology into the future by expanding tele-remote drill operations and research into potential autonomous haul trucks. Most importantly, having a 5G network available across Detour Lake Mine’s remote operations will help create a safer work environment for our employees and contractors,” Makuch said.
To enable a fully operational 5G WPN at the mine, Rogers has deployed five cellular network towers “with its full range of spectrum frequency bands to support a diverse set of use cases and applications throughout the mine site,” says the release.
Rogers Business is working with several infrastructure and technology partners to deliver its 5G WPN solution for Detour Lake Mine, including Cradlepoint, Dell Technologies, Ericsson and Expeto.
Kirkland Lake Gold also announced today, in collaboration with Rogers, it is building eight new wireless cell towers to cover more than 180 kilometres along Highway 652 between Cochrane, Ont., and Detour Lake. This wireless coverage will provide the local communities with improved service reliability and close connectivity gaps, the press release says.
“This public network is almost all off-grid, with seven of the eight towers primarily powered by wind and solar energy. The network is planned to be completed and fully-accessible by summer of 2022,” the release reads.
“We’re thrilled to deliver a first of its kind to Kirkland Lake Gold and the mining industry in Canada by providing a 5G Wireless Private Network to improve productivity and worker safety at its site, while building critical wireless connectivity along Highway 652 to improve safety, close connectivity gaps, and support local communities surrounding Detour Lake Mine,” said Ron McKenzie, president of Rogers Business.
“The wireless private network at Detour Lake Mine will enable mission-critical industrial applications to power the digital mine of the future and we’re proud to be at the forefront, helping to deliver new innovations to Canadian businesses first.”
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Photo borrowed from Rogers’s website.
