China Mobile and Huawei implements 5G in an underground gold mine

Recently, China Mobile and Huawei successfully deployed the first batch of 5G base stations. In addition, both companies has applied 5G network in the Shandong Gold Mining (Laixi) Co., Ltd. The 5G coverage covers the entire 500m underground mine and it controlled the unmanned electric successfully. This is the first time that 5G is deployed for an underground mine operation in China. This indicates that 5G enables smart mining to take the key step.

China Mobile and Huawei will continue to deepen cooperation and promote the construction of 5G smart mines. Since 2019, Shandong Golden Laixi Gold Mine, Shandong Mobile (Shandong branch of China Mobile) and Huawei have begun to explore the industrial application prospects of 5G in mining production and management.

Field test data shows that the downlink rate is stable at more than 800 megahertz. In addition, the uplink rate is stable at more than 100 megahertz while the end-to-end delay is less than 20 milliseconds. This actually exceeds customer expectations.

However, in the future, Shandong Golden Laixi Gold Mine plans to combine the 5G, edge computing, unmanned motor, cloud platform and other new-generation information technologies to gradually realize remote control and automatic driving of downhole motor vehicles, scrapers, and rock drilling rigs. This will eliminate the need for underground personnel and equipment positioning.