Saving Lives Underground with 5G
SafeSight Exploration, a Northern Ontario based Mining Innovation company was announced as the winner of the Mining Technology Innovation Challenge sponsored by Rogers Communication, Dell, NORCAT and Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI).
SafeSight’s proposal, to transform mine rescue underground by leveraging their mine rescue technology and the 5G platform, was selected from 18 national competitors and four finalists. A panel of 10 judges chose from 4 finalists, evaluating their final pitches to find SafeSight as the most compelling and innovative application of 5G underground.
Chamirai Nyabeze, Vice-President of Business Development and Commercialization provided his perspective; “CEMI welcomes SafeSight to the MICA Network and congratulates them on winning the Innovation Challenge. MICA will provide SafeSight’s pioneering utilization of 5G technology for mine rescue with market penetration, industry connections, funding, and global navigation commercialization support services.”
Mike Campigotto, President of SafeSight stated, “Our team was humbled and excited to be chosen as the winner of this competition. Our passion for integration and our focus on mine rescue helped us put together a pragmatic, and boots on the ground, innovation that will transform the tool set we can put in the hands of responders underground.”
The 5G enabled platform will essentially allow for responders to reach farther and faster for search and rescue, and 5G will ensure that real time information is streamed to command centres and subject matter experts anywhere on the network.
Mike Campigotto added “Think of the situation room at the White House and the Navy SEAL incursion. Our situation room is the service command centre and our Navy SEALs are the brave responders, responding to underground emergencies and incidence. The 5G platform creates the capacity to stream critical data and information to commanders and two backup responder teams, waiting to rotate in to the emergency.
This creates a more effective main rescue response, which keeps responders safer and ultimately has the potential to save lives underground by bringing emergencies to close much faster.
This initiative is only possible through engaging with the world-class collaborative mining innovation ecosystem anchored by NORCAT. The project brings together Rogers Communications, SafeSight, NORCAT, Dell, and CEMI. A key enabler to support the product development and demonstration will be the NORCAT Underground Centre in the City of Greater Sudbury.
Don Duval, CEO of NORCAT cited “We first want to congratulate SafeSight on this accomplishment and their commitment to transform safety in the global mining industry. Furthermore, we are excited that our Underground Centre, a unique operating mine that enables companies from around the world to develop, test, and demonstrate emerging technologies, will serve as the ‘active laboratory’ to support SafeSight in their commercialization journey”.
The project is scheduled for a proof-of-concept demonstration in the simulated environment at NORCAT in the Fall. Our goal will be to stream the emergency over the network to the situation room on surface and allow experts from anywhere with access to connect and support the response.
