In 2019, Nokia and Sandvik mining company created a new partnership to begin testing private LTE networks in the mining industry. Together, they aimed to quicken internet connection and boost local computing power. Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions has always used automation at the center of its work. The two companies agreed on a need for higher capacity and lower latency, resulting in Sandvik partnering with Nokia’s 5G LTE solutions.
A case study made by Nokia highlighted that private LTE “enables fast, reliable and secure voice, data and video communications in a mining setting, which presents highly challenging deployment conditions”. One of the main benefits of Private 5G technology is its ability to bring together all facets of technology under one umbrella – that of the private network. In a mine, there are more connected devices than one may think. Monitors for the entire premises, maintenance, management, not to mention Sandvik’s focus on automation.
Andreas Simoncic is the automation business line manager for Northern Europe for Sandvik. He said that the main reasons they are partnering with Nokia are because of the new rapidly involving environment around mining. He said that, “mining digitalization and automation are highly dependenton a predictable communication infrastructure. We need reliable data and analytics for telemetry, autonomy and optimization. Without a stable, fast and resilient network none of these would be possible. This is one of the reasons why connectivity is such a big topic for Sandvik.”
They are testing the systems already at a test mine for its Private 5G in Tampere, Finland. Many of Sandvik’s tech has already been run on Nokia’s 4.9G LTE private networks. The introduction of 5G offers even greater operability and versatility. Nokia notes that initial results are promising with quick speeds being achieved at the test mine site. To learn more, visit Nokia’s site here, where you can read more about the test mine, or return to locallte.com to continue learning more about 5G industries.
