Beyond line of sight: How private 5G powers remote mining at scale

Beyond the Line of Sight: Private 5G Spearheads Remote Mining at Scale

The global mining industry stands at a critical juncture, continuously pushing the boundaries of discovery into more remote and geologically complex regions. This pursuit of increasingly challenging mineral deposits presents a dual imperative: ensuring the utmost safety for personnel while simultaneously maintaining and enhancing operational productivity. Remote equipment operations have emerged as a powerful technological pathway to achieve this balance, allowing the removal of human operators from hazardous zones while securing consistent output. However, the efficacy of these advanced systems hinges entirely on one foundational requirement: reliable, high-performance connectivity that can span vast, rugged, and often formidable mining landscapes.

This evolving landscape has brought private 5G networks to the forefront of mining innovation, a development underscored by the enduring partnership between Ericsson, a global leader in telecommunications, and Newmont, the world’s leading gold company. This strategic collaboration, which commenced in 2019, aims to meet the stringent connectivity demands of Newmont’s global portfolio of Tier One mines. As of April 13, 2026, the insights gleaned from these deployments are charting a clear course for the future of automated and remotely controlled mining operations.

The Persistent Tradeoff: Safety Versus Productivity in Conventional Mining

For decades, conventional mining operations have grappled with an inherent tension between worker safety and operational efficiency. Traditional connectivity solutions, such as Wi-Fi, while present in numerous mines for certain applications like autonomous haulage, were not architected for the sheer scale, complexity, and dynamic nature of modern mining environments. The expansive distances involved, coupled with the proliferation of numerous interconnected critical systems, demand a singular, robust, and omnipresent network that Wi-Fi often struggles to provide seamlessly.

This limitation becomes particularly acute in high-risk operational areas. For instance, activities related to tailings dam construction, remediation, or expansion are inherently fraught with safety hazards due to unstable terrain, geological complexities, and the sheer volume of material being managed. In such environments, deploying and consistently maintaining Wi-Fi coverage proves exceptionally difficult. The consequence is often a difficult dilemma for mining operators, who are compelled to make uncomfortable tradeoffs that can compromise either the safety of their workforce or the efficiency of their operations. Downtime due to connectivity failures in these critical areas directly impacts schedules, costs, and ultimately, safety protocols.

The urgency for a superior solution became unequivocally clear at Newmont’s Cadia Valley site in Australia. During remote dozing operations, vital for large-scale material movement, Wi-Fi limitations were starkly apparent. The occurrence of dead zones and disruptions to critical video feeds frequently triggered emergency safety shutdowns. Furthermore, the reliance on mobile network trailers necessitated constant repositioning, a labor-intensive task that could consume up to half a shift merely to reestablish connectivity, leaving valuable heavy equipment idly awaiting network restoration. This experience served as a compelling signal that more resilient and scalable networking solutions were essential for the sector’s progression.

Newmont’s Tier One Vision: A Foundation for Advanced Connectivity

Newmont’s commitment to adopting cutting-edge technology like private 5G is primarily focused on its portfolio of Tier One mines. These exceptional assets represent the pinnacle of mining operations globally. By definition, a Tier One mine produces over 500,000 gold-equivalent ounces annually, operates with enviably low cash costs, possesses a mine life exceeding 10 years, and is situated within politically and economically stable regions. Given that only an estimated 5% to 10% of global mines attain this elite status, these multi-billion-dollar assets are utterly critical to Newmont’s long-term strategy and profitability. For such high-stakes operations, connectivity failure is simply not an option, making the investment in robust, reliable networking paramount.

The partnership with Ericsson, initiated in 2019, has been instrumental in addressing these complex connectivity requirements. Early implementations across Newmont’s global operations provided invaluable insights into the practical performance benefits and optimal deployment strategies for private cellular networks. These initial successes created a solid foundation of operational experience, crucial for enabling increasingly advanced automation and sophisticated remote-control applications across the company’s vast mining footprint.

Private 5G: Architected for the Rigors of Remote Mining Operations

Private 5G technology is specifically designed to meet the unique and demanding requirements of remote mining. It delivers critical capabilities that traditional networks often struggle with: expansive wide-area coverage, ultra-low latency for real-time control, and the immense high throughput capacity necessary for continuous data streaming from multiple concurrent systems. These attributes are precisely what is needed to enable safe, highly efficient operations today, while simultaneously laying the groundwork for the widespread adoption of completely autonomous technologies that will define the “smart mines” of tomorrow.

Learning from Global Deployments: The Path to Advanced Remote Operations

Newmont’s decisive move to deploy private 5G for the challenging remote dozing application at Cadia was not an impulsive decision but rather a strategic culmination of extensive cellular networking experience meticulously built across its global mining portfolio. Two key foundational implementations provided crucial insights and validated the technology's effectiveness, profoundly shaping Newmont’s approach to advanced remote-control applications.

The first significant deployment occurred at the Lihir Island site in Papua New Guinea. This mine presents a particularly challenging environment due to its geothermally active nature and remote location, inherently posing significant safety hazards for personnel. The successful implementation of cellular networking at Lihir allowed Newmont to strategically relocate critical networking equipment and, importantly, technical staff away from the most hazardous mine pit areas. This innovation drastically reduced worker exposure to extreme temperatures and other risks while demonstrably maintaining reliable operational connectivity. This experience served as a powerful testament to how cellular technology could concurrently address both critical safety objectives and complex operational challenges.

The second pivotal deployment was at Peñasquito in Mexico, recognized as one of the world’s largest open-pit silver mines. Here, Newmont confronted significant infrastructure complexity and sought to vastly improve operational efficiency across an expansive site. The transformation achieved with cellular technology was remarkable: the mine replaced dozens of cumbersome and constantly relocatable Wi-Fi trailers with just six strategically positioned cellular radio towers. This streamlined approach ensured not only exceptional reliability and high availability of connectivity across the vast expanse of the mine site but also completely eliminated the substantial operational burden and associated costs of continuously repositioning mobile infrastructure. This drastic reduction in mobile infrastructure requirements translated directly into lower operational expenditure and improved network stability.

These foundational deployments at Lihir and Peñasquito conclusively validated several critical capabilities that would prove indispensable for applications like remote dozing at Cadia. The findings demonstrated that cellular networks could:

• Deliver consistent and robust performance even in harsh, dynamic mining environments.
• Provide superior coverage and connectivity across vast areas with significantly fewer infrastructure points compared to traditional Wi-Fi.
• Profoundly enhance both worker safety and overall operational efficiency.

Armed with these well-proven insights and a deep understanding of cellular network performance, Newmont approached the remote dozing challenge at Cadia with solid confidence in their strategic cellular networking pathway.

Cadia Valley: The Test Case for Remote Dozing and Tailings Management

The implementation of private 5G at Newmont’s Cadia Valley site represents a significant leap forward in practical remote mining applications. This capability enabled operators to control heavy dozers and other crucial equipment from secure, remote locations, completely removing personnel from the immediate vicinity of high-risk operations without any compromise in performance. A prime example of this was the reinforcement of a 4-kilometer tailings dam embankment, a task demanding stringent safety compliance that precluded operators from being physically present in the cabs of the machines working directly on the embankment.

The immediate operational benefits of this private 5G deployment were dramatic. By virtually eliminating connectivity-related downtime that plagued prior Wi-Fi setups, Newmont instantaneously increased its dozing capacity by an impressive 50 percent, consistently exceeding daily material movement targets. This efficiency gain underlines the critical role of uninterrupted, high-performance connectivity in maximizing asset utilization.

Furthermore, the inherent massive capacity of the private 5G network readily supports an expanding fleet of remote equipment. While the previous Wi-Fi infrastructure struggled to reliably support even two remote dozers simultaneously, the new private 5G network is robust enough to support Newmont’s planned expansion to a fleet of seven remote dozers. Beyond this, the network is designed to accommodate a diverse array of other critical equipment types, including drills, haulers, and excavators, all controlled remotely. This scalability is vital for the long-term strategic evolution towards fully autonomous mine sites.

Strategic Implementation and the Future Outlook

Newmont’s approach to network deployment also reflects a pragmatic understanding of its core business. As Chris Twaddle, Newmont’s Director of Process Control, Networks and Operational Cellular, succinctly put it, “We’re a mining company, not a network operator, so we need to keep things as simple as possible.” This philosophy emphasizes simplicity and efficiency in network management. The source highlights that a single installer was able to successfully deploy and configure the Ericsson system, bringing 5G-connected equipment online rapidly. This ease of deployment minimizes the operational overhead traditionally associated with complex IT infrastructure, allowing Newmont to focus on its primary objective of mineral extraction.

The success witnessed at Lihir, Peñasquito, and particularly Cadia, offers a compelling blueprint for the wider mining industry. The reliable, wide-area coverage, low latency, and high throughput of private 5G are not just incremental improvements; they are foundational enablers for the next generation of mining operations. The ability to remove personnel from extremely hazardous areas, such as active pit floors, unstable slopes, or beneath high walls, while simultaneously boosting productivity, represents a paradigm shift in how mining is conducted.

The future outlook for private 5G in mining is exceptionally promising. It provides the robust digital backbone necessary for:

• Enhanced Safety: Minimizing human exposure to risk by enabling more remote and autonomous operations.
• Increased Efficiency: Maximizing equipment uptime, improving data analytics for predictive maintenance, and optimizing operational workflows.
• Scalability: Supporting the seamless integration of larger fleets of diverse autonomous and remotely controlled equipment.
• Environmental Stewardship: Better monitoring and management of environmental parameters through widespread sensor deployment.

The partnership between Newmont and Ericsson exemplifies how strategic technological adoption can overcome persistent industry challenges, setting new benchmarks for safety, productivity, and innovation in the global mining sector.