Engineering the mine of the future, today

Mining operations crew advancing safety and innovation in small Ontario town.

“Our goal from day one has been to improve efficiencies and reduce risk to mine employees, all while reducing our carbon footprint. Bell helps us do that.”
Patrice Corneau, Director of Engineering, Advanced Vehicles and Technology
MacLean Engineering

The mining industry is rapidly digitalizing and increasing its use of automation to boost productivity and improve worker safety. These innovations require persistent wireless connectivity, not only when they’re in use but also as they’re first being tested and developed. But that connectivity isn’t always easy to access when working deep underground.

That’s why MacLean Engineering established a new research and training site in a disused mine in Sudbury, Ontario. Here, the company will be able to design and validate new kinds of automated vehicles and other mining equipment faster – made possible by a powerful 5G/LTE private mobile network from Bell that provides seamless connectivity from the surface to the underground that Wi-Fi simply can’t match.

A less disruptive approach to mining R&D

Canada’s largest manufacturer of underground mining equipment, MacLean Engineering has spent the last 50 years establishing themselves as a leader in innovative solutions that improve mining safety and efficiency. Headquartered in Collingwood, Ontario, they employ more than 1,200 people worldwide who design and manufacture ancillary vehicles such as bolters, rock scalers, shotcrete sprayers, boom lifts and personnel carriers.

Patrice Corneau is the company’s Director of Engineering for Advanced Vehicles and Technology, and he’s seeing a growing interest among MacLean’s customers for autonomous vehicles. “As the industry goes deeper underground, danger increases, and manual processes become less efficient. The more automation you can bring, the better the results will be.”

Any new innovations developed by Corneau’s team need to be rigorously tested before mining companies will adopt them. What works on the surface might not work underground, so it’s important to do that testing in real-world mining conditions. That comes with challenges.

“As the industry goes deeper underground, danger increases, and manual processes become less efficient. The more automation you can bring, the better the results will be.”

Typically, testing a new vehicle would require asking a MacLean customer for space and time in a working mine. But testing can disrupt mining operations, with even one hour of downtime translating to significant losses in productivity and revenue potential. So, MacLean decided a new approach was needed.

At their Sudbury research and training site, a 5G-enabled LTE private network from Bell provides persistent, low-latency connectivity throughout the entire mine. That means MacLean can now test their autonomous or remotely operated vehicles in actual mining conditions, without burdening their customers – while also capturing data from those tests in real time. As a result, MacLean can design, develop and validate new solutions faster than before.

“This site provides a real alternative. We reduce the risk of failure and accelerate technology development because we don’t have to wait to test at a customer site,” explains Corneau. “We can iterate faster and offer solutions ready to market the moment we bring them to a customer. And our customers can be confident that our solutions are battle-tested in a real-world mining situation.”

Exploring new technologies for the mining sector

Bell’s private mobile network allows prototype vehicles and equipment to be monitored and tested remotely, from the garage on the surface all the way down to the face of the mine, with seamless handovers between the private and public networks. That connectivity allows MacLean to explore several new use cases and applications, like real-time data transfers.

Historically, vehicle performance (such as the number of bolts installed per hour) would be logged by a miner, then evaluated when they returned to the surface at the end of their shift. Consistent connectivity will allow live data to be sent by the bolter directly so every aspect of its performance can be measured in near real time – and adjustments to be made immediately to boost efficiency and productivity.

If more data is sent to the surface, that also means the vehicles themselves won’t need to be equipped with as much computing and processing hardware. Instead, that space could be used to house more advanced sensors and visual recognition systems, such as 4K cameras and lidar scanners, which will allow more tasks to be performed by robots – leaving human operators safe on the surface.

MacLean also plans to add even greater automation to their vehicles. That could, for example, mean mining companies will have to spend less time waiting for hazardous gases to clear after a blast before starting work. Plus, by removing the need for human drivers, the vehicles themselves could be made smaller. In turn, companies could bore smaller tunnels, which would cut operating costs significantly.

Why Bell was the right partner

Bell’s long history of providing networks for critical industries across Canada, including several mining companies, made them the ideal partner for MacLean. “Why wouldn't you work with the company that built and manages Canada’s largest and fastest LTE network?” asks Corneau.

At the Sudbury site, Bell provides fully managed services for the private 5G/LTE network, including 24/7 proactive monitoring to ensure any issues are addressed immediately. Both Bell and MacLean have access to a cloud-based dashboard where network performance can be monitored in real time. Bell is also handling all asset and configuration management, as well as capacity planning, so MacLean can focus on their operations rather than worrying about the radios, antennas and other equipment installed in the mine.

“Why wouldn't you work with the company that built and manages Canada largest and fastest LTE network?”

What’s next?

Corneau plans to expand MacLean’s relationship with Bell going forward, including leveraging the network to create a digital twin of the Sudbury site. This will allow new vehicle designs to be tested and validated virtually in a simulated underground environment, without having to build expensive prototypes. That way, his team can “fail fast” and make rapid adjustments so new products can be customer-ready sooner.

Artificial intelligence (AI) will also be explored. AI requires an incredible amount of data to provide effective insights. With Bell’s private 5G/LTE network, it will become possible to generate, collect and analyze all the data required to train the AI models that could help further enhance the company’s vehicles.

Together, Bell and MacLean are working to turn Sudbury into a centre of excellence for the mining industry – and to keep MacLean at the forefront of global mining innovation.