Insight | Case study: Mining major
Enterprise
A major mining company with a global exploration footprint faced a number of connectivity and communications challenges in the hunt for profitable deposits. With the majority of its exploration operations undertaken in remote and often inhospitable environments, its teams were unable to regularly access reliable cellular networks.
The lack of reliable connectivity proved to be a significant barrier to efficient exploration operations, because teams were often unable to transfer data from drill cores, mineral results and soil samples back from base camp for analysis in a timely manner. The team often had to resort to sending a member of staff back to the office or a location with basic connectivity with a USB stick or hard drive containing the data, a very slow process that added significant operational costs and risk from travelling in remote areas.
This delay in analysing crucial data meant that teams risked spending unnecessary time and considerable resources exploring unprofitable sites. In some instances satellite connectivity was procured through local operators. However, with the mining company’s exploration teams regularly moving from country to country, multiple suppliers with different contracts Mining were initiated, leading to spiralling complexity.
This approach led to wasted time setting up new accounts with new service providers, with the mining company also struggling to get support if there was a technical issue or fault. It was a time-consuming and complex process to organise, increasing the costs of accessing the necessary connectivity and distracting staff from their core focus of exploration. The mining company needed a solution that could provide them with reliable connectivity wherever they were located, regardless of how remote or in which country they were operating.
Inmarsat has provided the mining company with delivering the benefits of Inmarsat’s high-speed Land Xpress (LX) service as a managed service. The managed service approach means that Inmarsat manages the hardware delivery, training, installation, licensing and regulatory approvals, as well as guaranteeing the uptime of the solution.
Operating in the resilient and high-speed Ka-band, Inmarsat’s LX service offers powerful, reliable and highly secure connectivity anytime, anywhere, with download speeds of up to 16Mbps. This means the team can stay connected at all times, no matter how remote they might be.
Joe Carr, Director of Mining Innovation at Inmarsat, commented: “We are providing a comprehensive managed connectivity service to the mining company for their global exploration teams. With our high-speed LX service in field, staff can access reliable connectivity regardless of where they are. The solution is fully mobile and takes advantage of Inmarsat’s global connectivity, so that when the teams move across borders and into new environments they can continue to use a single service.
“LX is a managed service, which means that for a fixed monthly fee, the global exploration teams can avoid the hassle of sorting out new connectivity solutions in every country they operate in.”
