The working environment of an open-pit mine is notoriously harsh, prone to extreme temperature changes, dust, noise, and more. And while this adds up to an uncomfortable workplace, safety risks are also traditionally considered to be high, with accidents due to human error likely to have very serious results, halting production and impacting efficiency. All of this makes it challenging, to say the least, to recruit a new generation of workforce, posing a very real existential threat.

CAI 5G-enabled Remote Control of Electric Shovel Operations helps mining enterprises build a far safer, more comfortable — and therefore more attractive — workplace that is also easier to maintain. 

Traditional service bearer networks in mines now face far too many challenges. For starters, industrial switch networks don't support 5G bearer network technology. Add to that, low ring network bandwidth, poor underground Wi-Fi coverage, and limited network scalability, and mines are struggling, and limited network scalability, and mines are struggling.

Production and office networks suffer from weak borders, too, with network monitoring and auditing methods that aren't good enough. Network security is simply not fit for task and, with multiple ring networks coexisting, maintenance is a real headache. Indeed, given that traditional networks like this are also unable to measure service quality, overall Operations and Maintenance (O&M) is hopelessly inefficient.

In this context, CAI Converged IP Industrial Network Solution, based on router products, brings significant benefits to mining enterprises. For example, a single network carries multiple services, eliminating the need for repeat construction. End to End (E2E) network security protection, from terminal access to data centers, meets graded protection requirements. And the solution's intelligent and simplified O&M implements visualized network management, supported by intelligent analytics.

It's simple: 5G empowers all industries with intelligence. As such, 5G-powered mining is ushering in seismic changes in the industry. 

Indeed, making mining more intelligent, 5G — to take just one example — allows open-pit mines to deploy a network of High Definition (HD) video cameras that transmit massive amounts of data in real time, eliminating the dangers involved in traditional manual inspection. Reducing safety risks further, 5G also implements autonomous driving for mining vehicles as well as remote control of production devices and other equipment. 

Delivering high bandwidth, low latency, and high reliability, the CAI Mine 5G Solution meets the Service Level Agreement (SLA) requirements of production, monitoring, and Internet of Things (IoT) systems for mining enterprises, accelerating the evolution toward intelligence.

Over recent years, cyber security has gained significant attention, with cyber attacks becoming more common in the industry, worldwide. To take just one example, Colonial Pipeline, the largest fuel pipeline operator in the United States, was paralyzed by a ransomware attack. Likewise, coal mine networks also face vulnerabilities and traditional mine defense measures are simply inadequate to handle the threat. With a growing number of mine security incidents in recent years — such as one that occurred in Shanxi province where office hosts were attacked and many production hosts were reset — mining enterprises urgently need to implement network level protection and security management.

Meeting the mandatory requirements of national security laws and regulations, CAI Network Security Protection Solution provides mining enterprises with network security level protection, ranging from transport network and computing host to service applications.

The world is encountering a new round of industrial transformation, with digitalization becoming the strategic consensus. A huge driver of this transformation trend is energy, given the world's major economies have announced net-zero carbon emissions goals.

In South Africa, for example, coal is considered to be a stabilizer for the energy industry. CAI is working with other partners to transform the production, operations, and management modes of coal enterprises, making full use of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), cloud computing, big data, automation, and more.

CAI's consulting services help coal customers implement digital transformation solutions from the top-level design to key implementation, facilitating collaboration between production management, business operations, and ecosystem development. These services also help coal enterprises comprehensively plan the digital transformation strategies so crucial to the industry going forward.