TECHNOLOGY
The Tharisa Mine deployment marks the first implementation of RADWIN’s FiberinMotion ® technology in Africa.
Gys Malan of Datacentrix.
Tharisa Minerals drives connected mining with adaptive wireless solution from Datacentrix Tharisa Minerals, an integrated resource group critical to the energy transition and decarbonisation of economies, has successfully transformed its South African open-pit mining operation into a highly connected, data-driven environment. This is the result of the deployment of an advanced wireless network solution – the first of its type in Africa – in partnership with leading hybrid ICT systems integrator and digital transformation partner, Datacentrix.
T harisa Minerals’ core asset is the Tharisa Mine, an open-pit platinum group metals (PGM) and chrome mining operation in the North West province of South Africa, situated in South Africa’s western limb of the Bushveld Complex, which is home to more than 70 percent of the world’s platinum and chrome resources. Tharisa’s Chief Information Officer, Paul Collins, approached Datacentrix to help solve a strategic challenge common to modern mining operations: enabling reliable, pit-wide wireless connectivity capable of keeping pace with the constantly shifting topology of an open-pit mine. The organisation had previously relied on standard 3G coverage, through SIM cards in certain fleet vehicles. However, this did not support Tharisa’s vision of ‘Connected Machines and Connected People’, where real-time data from mobile mining equipment, operational systems and field personnel is enabled to flow seamlessly across the site. This level of connectivity is critical for supporting fleet management, telemetry and safety systems across assets such as excavators, drill rigs and haul trucks. “From our perspective, the driver wasn’t the technology itself, but the operational use case,” says Collins. “We needed
to ensure that our maintenance teams in the pit could remain connected at all times. Without reliable connectivity, their mobility and efficiency were limited.” Overcoming the connectivity challenge In an open pit environment, conditions are constantly changing. Benches shift, haul roads move and line-of-sight conditions are continuously affected, creating dead spots. “The simplest way to describe it is that the hotspots are always moving,” Collins explains. “You don’t want to constantly rebuild your network infrastructure to accommodate this. It needs to adapt automatically as the operational environment evolves.” Traditional wireless approaches, including mesh networks and private LTE or 5G, were evaluated but ultimately did not meet Tharisa’s requirements due to cost, complexity and limited adaptability. “We did consider LTE and 5G, but the cost simply didn’t justify the value for our use case,” Collins notes. “We’re a low-cost producer, so we actively look for solutions that support this strategy.” “The key consideration was finding an alternative to LTE
34 MODERN MINING www.modernminingmagazine.co.za | JULY 2026
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker