How Viasat’s new connectivity service enables smart mining and on-site safety

Managing mining operations, particularly in remote and challenging environments across Africa, demands constant, reliable visibility into assets, personnel, and infrastructure.

This visibility is fundamental to ensuring efficiency, upholding safety, and securing profitability. Without robust satellite connectivity, real-time situational awareness remains elusive, leading to operational blind spots and escalating risks.

Introducing Viasat’s latest connectivity service, IoT Nano – a next-generation satellite connectivity service engineered to transform how mining operators manage critical assets and personnel. It unlocks new levels of automation, enhances visibility, and empowers informed decision-making.

Considering that 83% of mining operators reported having or actively developing an IoT strategy in 2024, Viasat’s IoT Nano promises to deliver the connectivity essential for smart and safe mining operations.

The connectivity conundrum in mining

The vast and remote nature of many mine sites, especially across sub-Saharan Africa, presents a formidable hurdle to consistent data transmission. These operational zones often lie beyond traditional terrestrial networks, making reliable communication a persistent challenge.

Our field research shows one in three mining operators (33%) identify lack of consistent connectivity as a major barrier to comprehensive IoT adoption. This connectivity gap directly impedes mining profitability, causing costly machinery downtime and inefficient logistics due to poor visibility. Crucially, it also compromises safety. Without reliable data, tracking personnel, monitoring dynamic conditions, or responding swiftly to incidents is severely hampered.

Data, however, when reliably collected, powerfully enables greater transparency, protecting workers in remote areas by providing real-time insights into their location and immediate safety. Historically, while satellite tracking offered operational advantages, its cost often proved prohibitive for very widespread deployment.

How Viasat’s IoT Nano delivers reliable, cost-effective situation awareness

Viasat’s IoT Nano directly addresses these challenges, providing a foundational layer for the mining sector’s digital evolution. It empowers mining organisations to monitor and manage industrial assets remotely, significantly enhancing operational efficiency and bolstering personnel safety.

This is particularly pertinent as the industry rapidly moves towards greater automation; projections indicate that by 2040, up to 40% of mining equipment in Africa will be self-driving, with several prominent mining operations anticipated to be close to fully automated.

IoT Nano operates on Viasat’s highly reliable, weather-resilient L-band satellite network, guaranteeing 99.5% uptime and global coverage, even in extreme conditions.

Optimised for low-data, low-power applications, IoT Nano’s non-IP, two-way messaging service provides efficiency and cost-effectiveness for event-driven monitoring and precise control. This capability is amplified by ORBCOMM’s next-generation satellite IoT service, enabling faster message delivery, larger message sizes, and new hardware options.

This powerful combination unlocks near real-time visibility and situational awareness with actionable data for mining operations regardless of their remote locations.

From machinery to movement – the diverse mining applications of IoT Nano

Viasat’s IoT Nano enables critical applications that drive smart mining and enhance safety across the entire operation.

It facilitates real-time machinery monitoring and telemetry, providing continuous insight into the performance and health of heavy mining equipment, including pumps, lights, and conveyor belts. This data flow enables predictive maintenance, optimises asset utilisation, and reduces costly downtime by allowing operators to anticipate and address potential issues.

Furthermore, IoT Nano supports enhanced vehicle tracking and logistics. It delivers precise location and movement data for vehicles across the mine site, improving logistics planning, optimising routes, and strengthening safety protocols, especially in challenging terrain. This real-time visibility proves crucial for efficient fleet management and rapid emergency response.

The service also empowers remote asset management and control. It provides the capability to monitor, and control fixed and mobile assets from a distance, improving operational efficiency and reducing the need for manual checks in hazardous or inaccessible areas. This extends to remote control of critical infrastructure, minimising human exposure to risk.

Finally, IoT Nano plays a vital role in boosting on-site safety and compliance. It’s near real-time visibility and actionable data contribute directly to a safer working environment, enabling quicker responses to incidents, ensuring better adherence to regulatory requirements, and fostering a more secure workforce through continuous oversight of personnel and dynamic environmental conditions.

Looking ahead

Reliable, cost-effective connectivity stands as a fundamental requirement for the modern mining industry, essential for driving efficiency, safety, and sustainability.

The industry’s clear commitment to this digital evolution is evident in the projected increase in IoT spending from mining companies, expected to rise to $8.2 billion in 2027, representing a robust Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 17.3% till 2027.

Viasat’s IoT Nano emerges as a key enabler in this transformation, lowering the barriers to entry for advanced IoT solutions and accelerating the digital transformation of mining operations worldwide.

Ultimately, as the mining industry navigates its evolution towards greater automation and data-driven operations, the pervasive and affordable connectivity provided by solutions like IoT Nano will prove indispensable for achieving the operational transparency and advanced capabilities vital for its future.