• Huawei and Debswana have jointly announced the world’s first 5G-oriented smart diamond mine project at MWC 23 this week.
• The project is located at Debwana’s Jwaneng open-pit in Botswana.
• Debswana plans to also deploy the smart mining solution in its Orapa, Damtshaa, and Letlhakane mines in 2023.

This week Mobile World Congress 2023 (MWC 23) is on the go in Barcelona, and while much of the attention is on new devices, there are also interesting announcements that have been made too. One of these involve Huawei, which has jointly launched the world’s first 5G-oriented smart diamond mine project with Debswana.

The mining company has deployed the Huawei-enabled smart mining solution at its Jwaneng open-pit in Botswana. It is also the latest in a series of similar announcements made by the company in the African mining sector, having also launched a project at a platinum mine in Limpopo last year.

“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 such as 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,” highlights Huawei of the project’s capabilities in a press release sent to Hypertext.

“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,” added Liao Yong (pictured above), VP of Huawei Sub-Saharan Africa Region, regarding the company’s involvement with the continent’s mining sector.

Speaking about how the new solution has improved operations at the diamond mine, Debswana’s Head of Information Management, Molemisi Nelson Sechaba, says it connects 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 had two limitations. First, it had limited coverage. Second, it used public wireless frequencies and had less robust anti-interference capabilities. As a result, the mine’s different types of data could not be transferred stably in real time,” he pointed out.

Following the launch of the Jwaneng mine project, Debswana plans to also deploy the smart mining solution at its Orapa, Damtshaa, and Letlhakane mines during the remainder of 2023.

[Images – Provided]