06 May 2025
Newmont has officially deployed Ericsson’s Private 5G technology at the Cadia gold-copper mine, Australia’s largest underground mine and a premier Tier One asset. This implementation marks a groundbreaking advancement in the mining sector, enabling the first use of private 5G technology for teleremote (remote control) dozing operations.
By leveraging the robust capabilities of Ericsson Private 5G, Newmont has successfully addressed the challenges previously faced with Wi-Fi connectivity, such as limited coverage and stability issues. Prior to the implementation, Newmont struggled to connect more than two dozers at distances up to 100m due to unstable Wi-Fi, which often resulted in significant downtime — sometimes lasting half a 12-hour shift while troubleshooting connectivity problems.
With Ericsson’s Private 5G solution, Newmont can now connect its entire dozer fleet across a width of up to 2.5km from a single 5G radio, achieving uplink throughput of up to 175 Mbps. This impressive capacity enables the operation of multiple dozers without interruptions, enhancing productivity and safety. According to reports, this transition to 5G has led to increased earth-moving efficiency per shift compared to previous Wi-Fi operations.
“Ericsson’s Private 5G network gives us a scalable and high-performing solution that provides the coverage needed and keeps our people safe. It’s also enabling our long-term digital transformation vision to use 5G for smart mining at our Tier One surface and underground mines globally,” said Chris Twaddle, Newmont’s Director of Process Control, Networks, and Operational Cellular.
Newmont employs Ericsson’s 5G Antenna Integrated Radio along with Ericsson Massive MIMO (Multiple Input/Multiple Output) technology to facilitate high uplink connectivity required for teleremote dozing. The use of Massive MIMO allows the company to maximize network capacity over extended distances using mid-band spectrum, thus enhancing uplink throughput compared to traditional radio technologies. Additionally, the Ericsson Uplink Booster feature, enabled by advanced microprocessors within the radios, can amplify uplink signal strength by tenfold, further optimizing performance.
“The deployment with Newmont at Cadia demonstrates the power of 5G for industry, where Ericsson’s industry-leading radio portfolio can reduce the amount of infrastructure that needs to be deployed and operated to cover an industrial site or area. This also allows enterprises to use private 5G networks they own to achieve high levels of performance for advanced video-based control and computer vision initiatives without large amounts of spectrum. This is especially valuable to organizations that are operating in spectrum-constrained markets,” said Manish Tiwari, Head of Enterprise 5G at Ericsson.
