Modern Mining May 2022

COVER STORY

Building the future of mining through In light of the current economic climate and recent events surrounding the global political landscape, the mining sector is emerging as an important point of focus. This is in relation to how it can be key to remedying the domestic production power of countries around the world.

N ever has it been more necessary for our country to have a competitive and sustain able mining industry. South Africa is ranked fifth in the world in terms of mining contribu tion to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and it will only be possible to maintain, and improve, this output if technology plays a key role in shifting the cost and efficiency spheres of this sector. Most, if not all, mines in South Africa presently connect through Wi-Fi and there is a pressing need to move them to Mobile Private Networks. Mobile Private Networks (MPNs) are the next generation of connectivity and yield better speeds and strength than Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi cannot be scaled to run an operation, whereas an MPN is dedicated to each business through Service Level Agreements (SLAs), security, etc. Many businesses are changing the way they operate through automation of processes and the intelligent allocation of people, technology, and even workspaces.

Right: Our solutions are aimed at assisting mines to be more sustainable in their day-to-day activities. Below: Vodacom has targeted mining for integrated IoT, Edge, and analytics solutions.

Vodacom has targeted mining for integrated IoT, Edge, and analytics solutions evidenced in its flagging of a ‘next-generation’ private network

8  MODERN MINING  May 2022