03 April 2025

Endeavour Mining is a major gold mine company operating in Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, and Senegal in West Africa.

While expanding their mining area, Endeavour Mining identified a problem with the communication equipment which was worsening over time to the extent that some facilities had no equipment for communication at all. Radio coverage access is required across the whole mining site for their 940 employees. The lack of reliable communications infrastructure challenged the operational efficiency of the mine as the on-site command and dispatch centre could not function properly.

03 April 2025

Data mapping showing the remote operating geography of the customer mine and location of drowsiness warning events (red dots) transmitted from Optalert systems via radio network

Mining is inherently dangerous, with workers facing constant risk from cave-ins, explosions, and exposure to toxic materials. One of the critical challenges in many mines, particularly in remote areas of Africa, is the lack of reliable connectivity, without which workers are left vulnerable. Indeed, modern mines increasingly require robust critical communications systems to ensure worker safety, enabling real-time alerts, monitoring, and coordination in emergency situations.

One major mining company operating in Namibia approached Optalert to discuss trialling the Eagle Industrial early-warning drowsiness detection system, which detects the physiological warning signs of early onset drowsiness. A tiny LED is built into the lightweight frame of the glasses and measures the velocity of the user’s eyelid 500 times a second. From this measurement the level of user fatigue can be derived in real time using the Johns Drowsiness Score (JDS).