Mining
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Mining Objectives
The primary business objectives or drivers for deploying a private wireless network in mining organizations are largely focused on network reliability, operational productivity, and product quality.
The most common objective (for 82% of mining respondents) is “enhanced network reliability and performance", followed by “increased process / production line productivity” (48%) and “enhanced product / service quality” (39%). “Improved worker safety” was also an objective for 39% of mining organizations. Among those respondents seeking “increased process / production line productivity”, 90% have already achieved improvements of more than 10% (including 73% achieving improvements of more than 20%). “Enhanced network reliability and performance” was cited by 56% as the “greatest benefit so far”.
Mining organizations prioritized several mining-specific metrics as part of their primary objectives for private wireless. For example, 33% were prioritizing “increased equipment utilization and haulage efficiency”, and 21% had the objective of achieving “improved safety and situational awareness underground (real-time location, gas sensors)”. Among those looking to private wireless, in part, for “increased equipment utilization and haulage efficiency”, 100% achieved improvements of more than 10% (with more than half of those achieving improvements of more than 20%).
Top 10 primary business objectives for deploying private wireless
Enhanced network reliability and performance
Increased process / production line productivity
Enhanced product / service quality
Enable / improve mission-critical communications
Improved worker safety
Increased equipment utilization and haulage efficiency
Improved, real-time data for better decision-making
Reduced unplanned production downtime
Improved cybersecurity
Increased employee satisfaction
Qualitative Insights
In interviews, mining leaders emphasized private wireless for reliable coverage and continuous visibility across remote, large-footprint sites. These needs were tied to core operations — enabling centralized control, reducing manual rounds and travel, lowering safety exposure, and improving throughput, uptime, and maintenance performance.
Quantitative Insights
Top 10 desired benefits achieved
When asked in which areas they have achieved measurable benefits after deploying private wireless, 100% of mining organizations cited at least one. When comparing desired benefits (as chosen by respondents as objectives / drivers for deploying private wireless), against measurable benefits achieved, the survey shows that measurable benefits from “compliance with regulation” was achieved by 100% of organizations that prioritized it, as was “improved cybersecurity”.
Other areas in which desired benefits were measurably achieved by more than 80% of mining organizations that prioritized them include “enable / improve mission-critical communications”, “improved worker safety”, “increased equipment utilization and haulage efficiency”, and “increased process / production line productivity”.
Compliance with regulation
Improved cybersecurity
Enable / improve mission-critical communications
Improved worker safety
Increased equipment utilization and haulage efficiency
Increased process / production line efficiency
Enhanced network reliability and performance
Improved safety and situational awareness underground (real-time location gas sensors)
Operational efficiencies (e.g. automating complex tasks)
Increased employee satisfaction
Top 5 unexpected benefits
Mining organizations also achieved benefits in areas which they did not expect. This chart reflects the percentage of organizations that did NOT select each benefit as an objective / driver for private wireless which achieved that benefit, nonetheless.
For example, 70% were surprised by the “enhanced product / service quality” resulting from their deployment of private wireless, because it was not one of their stated objectives. Similarly, “improved cybersecurity” was a benefit for 54% of those organizations which had not prioritized it. While 45% of organizations that did not list it as an objective achieved “increased equipment utilization and haulage efficiency”.
Enhanced product / service quality
Enhanced network reliability and performance
Increased equipment utilization and haulage efficiency
Improved cybersecurity
Improved real-time data for better decision-making
Total benefits expected
Respondents were also asked about the extent of improvement they expect to achieve from each benefit resulting from their private wireless deployment. This includes the level of improvement achieved so far, combined with further benefits expected, ranging from 1 to 5% total benefit improvement at the low end, to more than 30% at the high end.
While “enhanced network reliability and performance” and “increased process / production line productivity” are expected to provide benefits to more mining organizations than any other benefit, a more than 30% improvement is expected by many mining organizations in several areas, including 100% of those achieving benefits in “improved safety and situational awareness underground (real-time location gas sensors)” and “operational efficiencies (e.g. automating complex tasks)”.
Note: the list of benefits is ranked by the number of respondents achieving each measurable benefit.
“Private wireless is what let us connect the field systems that matter — pressure, flow, temperature, and vibration instrumentation on ore, tailings, and water pumping, plus tablets for work notifications and a push‑to‑talk app — so operators can monitor and run pits remotely from 20–30 miles away instead of driving across the mine.”
Mining Use Cases: Deployed & Planned
Among mining organizations that have deployed private wireless, “cameras for security / worker safety purposes” is the use case most commonly deployed already (55%). “Industrial automation / robotics” is among the top two use cases planned for deployment within two years (56%), while “AR / VR” is next, with 49% of organizations with private wireless networks planning to deploy them within that time period.
For use cases either deployed already or planned for deployment within two years, 91% cited “cameras for security / worker safety purposes”, “edge compute”, and “industrial automation / robotics”.
