Today, at MWC Barcelona 2023, Botswana’s
Debswana and Huawei jointly announced the world’s first 5G-oriented smart
diamond mine project.
Debswana’s Head of Information Management Molemisi Nelson Sechaba said that
the Huawei-enabled smart mine solution has been deployed at Debswana’s Jwaneng
open-pit diamond mine, and the project started operation in December 2021.
Huawei’s 4G eLTE private network solution provides stable connectivity for the
Jwaneng mine, connecting more than 260 pieces of equipment, including drilling
rigs, excavators, heavy trucks, and pickup trucks. This enables interconnection
between the mine’s production, safety and security systems.
Before this solution was adopted, the previous solution has two limitations. First, it
has limited coverage. Second, it uses public wireless frequencies and has less robust
anti-interference capabilities. As a result, the mine’s different types of data could not
be transferred stably in real time.
Sechaba said that it is important to deploy the eLTE solution to connect mining
equipment more stably. There are two reasons for this. The first is efficiency. The
ability to transfer data in real time makes equipment like mining vehicles more
efficient, increasing yield and reducing long-term OPEX. Second, the solution helped
improve safety. Real-time data collection, backhaul, and interaction make the
system more sensitive and accurate to provide more reliable protection for staff and
vehicles.
The Jwaneng mine is the world’s first 5G-oriented smart diamond mine. This means
the hardware equipment such as base stations used in the mine’s digital
transformation solution support network upgrades to 5G. 5G features like high
bandwidth and low latency can support the application of cutting-edge technologies
like autonomous driving, enabling more intelligent digital transformation of the
mining industry in the future.
Hon. Thulagano M. Segokgo, Minister of Communications, Knowledge andPress Release
13:39 Huawei Confidential
Technology of Botswana, stated that, the Government of Botswana is pleased to see
Debswana and Huawei’s joint efforts to drive digital transformation in the mining
industry. Debswana is a leading mining company in Africa that, by working with
Huawei, can take the efficiency, productivity and safety of mining to the next level.
The Government of Botswana will continue to put in place facilitation measures to
further support the digital transformation agenda across all sectors including the
mining industry and welcomes international companies, such as Huawei, to
participate in this agenda. Measures already underway including formulated
digitalization agenda, 5G roadmap and other supporting policies.
Xu Jun, Chief Technology Officer of Huawei Mine BU, said that Huawei is committed
to using its strengths in ICT technologies like 5G, cloud, AI, and IoT to develop smart
mine solutions that are based on an industrial Internet architecture for customers in
the mining industry worldwide. These solutions make mine production safer, more
efficient, and more intelligent. In China, Huawei has jointly developed a number of
intelligent applications with leading mining enterprises. For example, Huawei has
commercially deployed the AI mining model in projects with Jinneng Holding Group
and Shandong Energy Group. Huawei has also delivered mining digital
transformation projects in regions like Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Africa.
Huawei’s collaboration with Debswana is an example of such successful projects.
Liao Yong, Vice President of Huawei Sub-Saharan Africa Region, said that mining is
the economic backbone for many Sub-Saharan African countries and plays an
important role in the economy of Africa as a whole. Over the past five years, Huawei
has provided services to mining enterprises in a number of countries in the region,
including South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Namibia, and Ghana. Looking to the
future, Huawei will work with more local partners to accelerate mining digital
transformation and create more value in Africa.
According to Debswana, building on the success of the project in the Jwaneng mine
deployed together with Huawei and Botswana local companies, in line with
Botswana’s citizen economic empowerment program, the company plans to also
deploy the smart mining solution in its Orapa, Damtshaa, and Letlhakane mines inPress Release
13:39 Huawei Confidential
About Huawei
Huawei is a leading global provider of information and communications technology (ICT)
infrastructure and smart devices. With integrated solutions across four key domains –
telecom networks, IT, smart devices, and cloud services – we are committed to bringing
digital to every person, home and organization for a fully connected, intelligent world.
Huawei’s end-to-end portfolio of products, solutions and services are both competitive and
secure. Through open collaboration with ecosystem partners, we create lasting value for our
customers, working to empower people, enrich home life, and inspire innovation in
organizations of all shapes and sizes.
At Huawei, innovation focuses on customer needs. We invest heavily in basic research,
concentrating on technological breakthroughs that drive the world forward. We have more
than 180,000 employees, and we operate in more than 170 countries and regions. Founded
in 1987, Huawei is a private company fully owned by its employees.
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