The world’s leading producer of diamonds, Debswana and China’s Huawei are embarking on the world’s first 5G-oriented smart diamond mine project.

A partnership between British mining company Anglo American and the Botswana government, Debswana operates four diamond mines in the east of the southern African country. The company is the world’s biggest producer of diamonds by volume, producing nearly a quarter of all diamonds mined in the world.

The Jwaneng mine is the world’s first 5G-oriented smart diamond mine. Hardware equipment such as base stations used in the mine’s digital transformation solution now support network upgrades to 5G. 5G features like high bandwidth and low latency can support the application of advanced technologies such as autonomous driving, enabling more advanced digital transformation of the mining industry in the future.

According to Debswana, the company plans to deploy the smart mining solution in its Orapa, Damtshaa, and Letlhakane mines in 2023.

Debswana’s Head of Information Management Molemisi Nelson Sechaba said that the Huawei-enabled smart mine solution has been deployed at Debswana’s Jwaneng open-pit diamond mine, and the project started operation in December 2021. Huawei’s 4G eLTE private network solution provides stable connectivity for the Jwaneng mine, connecting more than 260 pieces of equipment. This enables interconnection between the mine’s production, safety and security systems.

Sechaba said that it is important to deploy the eLTE solution to connect mining equipment more stably. There are two reasons for this. The first is efficiency. The ability to transfer data in real time makes equipment like mining vehicles more efficient, increasing yield and reducing long-term OPEX. Second, the solution helped improve safety. Real-time data collection, backhaul, and interaction make the system more sensitive and accurate to provide more reliable protection for staff and vehicles.

Thulagano M. Segokgo, Minister of Communications, Knowledge and Technology of Botswana, stated that, the Government of Botswana is pleased to see Debswana and Huawei’s joint efforts to drive digital transformation in the mining industry. Debswana is a leading mining company in Africa that, by working with Huawei, can take the efficiency, productivity and safety of mining to the next level. The Government of Botswana will continue to put in place facilitation measures to further support the digital transformation agenda across all sectors including the mining industry and welcomes international companies, such as Huawei, to participate in this agenda. Measures already underway including formulated digitalisation agenda, 5G road-map and other supporting policies.

Xu Jun, Chief Technology Officer of Huawei Mine Business Unit, said that Huawei is committed to using its strengths in ICT technologies like 5G, cloud, AI, and IoT to develop smart mine solutions for customers in the mining industry worldwide.

Liao Yong, Vice President of Huawei Sub-Saharan Africa Region, said 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.