At Newmont’s Boddington gold mine in Western Australia, Ericsson Enterprise Wireless Solutions is helping redefine large-scale mining through private 5G. The site’s autonomous Pit Viper drill fleet depends on fast, stable connectivity to operate safely and efficiently—something earlier wireless systems couldn’t reliably deliver. As Ian Ross of Ericsson Enterprise Wireless Solutions explains, 5G provides the consistent performance, responsiveness, and capacity required to support machines that generate significant data while executing precision automated tasks.
Beyond automating heavy equipment, Ericsson Enterprise Wireless Solutions is enabling Newmont to modernize daily operational workflows. Connected workers using handheld devices, digital workflows, and lone-worker safety tools are emerging as part of the mine’s digital shift. Meanwhile, cameras powered by computer vision and AI can support smarter situational awareness, and sensors embedded across processing plants feed data into digital twins, helping teams anticipate maintenance needs and improve safety.
Looking ahead, the possibilities unlocked by private 5G continue to grow. Ericsson Enterprise Wireless Solutions is exploring innovations such as smart rock bolts in underground mines—wireless sensors that measure stress and transmit real-time structural data. With thousands of devices producing large volumes of data, 5G offers the scalability and speed needed to support advanced monitoring and automation. As Ross notes, the mining industry is only beginning to tap the potential of this technology.
Steve Saunders:
This is Boddington in Western Australia, and it's home to one of the largest gold mines in the Southern Hemisphere. And it's also a leader in innovative mining technology.
So Ian, this is one of the amazing sort of Thunderbirds kind of machines they have here in Boddington. It's a Pit Viper.
Ian Ross:
Yup.
Steve Saunders:
Which is used for digging holes and then dropping explosives in to break up the ground. And this is one of the devices that you're helping to run autonomously over a private 5G network. Is that right?
Ian Ross:
Yeah, absolutely. I think the key reason 5G is being deployed here is to support a fleet of these autonomous drills being used as part of the mining operation.
Steve Saunders:
Yeah. And I mean, 5G is designed for this kind of application. What was the big problem which it solved for Newmont here?
Ian Ross:
Yeah, I think when you look at machines like this, large scale automated machines, they need stable connectivity to the network. They need a level of performance that ensures that the automation could be safe and robust. And what they saw with Wi-Fi is, similar to the trucking fleet, simply to deliver the performance they needed where they needed it. So 5G provided that ability to provide that stable connection, that level of performance, to support the huge traffic that comes off these sorts of machines with a level of responsiveness that an automatic control system really required.
Steve Saunders:
So obviously Newmont's using 5G throughout this mining facility, but I get a sense that there are other things that it could use 5G for in the future other than just remotely controlling or automating these giant Thunderbirds machines. Can you give us a sense of what might be coming down the pike in the future for Newmont?
Ian Ross:
Yeah, Steve, it's not just about heavy equipment. We're seeing all the little things as well. So it's improving and innovating the way that mines and other industries can operate. So for example, at Newmont, we see the future looking at connected workers, so workers with handheld devices, with their digital workflows, lone worker safety applications. We're looking at cameras being used combined with computer vision and AI to provide smarter sensoring around the mine. We're looking at sensors on anything that moves in processing plants or on conveyor belts that feed data into digital twins that drive entire preventative maintenance regimes.
The benefit of 5G and being able to connect anything and everything at scale, we haven't even started to tap the potential of this yet. And yes, big machines, but also little innocuous things. In underground mining, for example, even rock bolts, they're smart. They detect the stress and strain and allow a Geotech engineer to view the safety of the mine from the safety of their desk on the surface without going underground.
Steve Saunders:
And that's still over 5G.
Ian Ross:
That is still over 5G because all these rock bolts, there could be thousands of them. They need to be connected via wireless because you're not going to connect with wires, but they also generate a massive amount of data that has to be transmitted super fast into the network. 5G is the technology that can do that.
Steve Saunders:
So we're really at the beginning of the revolution.
Ian Ross:
We are. We haven't even scratched the surface of the potential of this technology yet.