The Elvey Group, part of the Hudaco Group of Companies, addresses several needs within the mining sector with numerous integrated and holistic solutions from various divisions within the group.

GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS

Our service offering is focused on a broad range of wireless and military-grade communications systems. We are represented in more than 40 African countries ensuring that all your solutions design, engineering, installation, and support requirements are covered.

Revolutionising high-end mission-critical network at large open pit platinum mine

Prior to 2009 a platinum mine within a large mining group relied on a VHF analogue solution that catered for basic voice communications. Due to the pit’s increasing size and depth, more employees and contractors were added to the team but the existing network lacked the capacity, coverage, features, and penetration to cater for the larger staff complement and the growing mine.

The decision was made to upgrade to a Terrestrial Trunked Radio Network (TETRA), which makes use of the digital technology of Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) rather than Frequency Division. This provides the mine with a world-class mission-critical solution that allows much better use of frequencies, resulting in more terminals being registered on the network, and more simultaneous calls, with the added benefit of conducting full duplex calls on the network while concurrently reducing congestion.

Global Communications was approached to design and install a Rohill Networks Tetra network.

A demo unit was deployed to the mine, using the expertise and experience of our integration team to do a POC (proof of concept), and test the coverage and penetration into the pits.

The client achieved one of the world’s most advanced mission-critical radio networks, with an uptime of over 99,9%. The improved use of frequencies, better coverage, and high quality of communications, resulted in more reliable communications, improved safety, and increased productivity.

Radios built to last in mining

Global Communication’s announcement in 2020 that it was offering a five-year warranty on specific models in the Nexedge range of two-way radios was unprecedented. The mining and construction sectors, where the radios are extremely popular, are probably the toughest working conditions that any technology can be exposed to.

As part of the development process, KENWOOD radios must prove they can survive the most grueling conditions. They are dropped, soaked, splashed, and subjected to extreme temperatures. Also, the buttons are operated tens of thousands of times to ensure they can withstand heavy use over a period of several years.

There are four pillars that underpin the reliability and robustness of these Kenwood radio models based on the MIL-STD and IP environmental standards:

• Exposure to extreme temperatures

• Dust and water resistance

• Meant Time Between Failures (MTBF)

• Push to Talk (PTT) activations.

One of these radios was pushed to its claimed limits recently when it fell 1100 metres down a mine shaft. The radio was retrieved by mine personnel, dusted off and all its features were extensively tested. The radio was found to be in 100% working order. This is solid evidence that these radios are not only manufactured in accordance with the highest quality standards, but they are also designed around rugged durability and longevity.