In a deal worth R1,3 million, ATIO Telecommunications has installed a network infrastructure at two Samancor mines in the Hotazel area in the Northern Cape. As a result the two manganese mines, Wessels and Mamatwan, can communicate easily with the outside world and productivity has been increased significantly.
The mines use giant crushing machines to crush manganese ore and two sub-networks, one at each mine, have allowed the mines to run servers and, in the near future, workstations which monitor the volumes of manganese ore and production levels; in addition they are used for administration purposes, running stores and plant maintenance.
ATIO `s brief was to provide a flexible, reliable and scalable network to enable connectivity between workstations and servers at each mine.
"Everything has been installed and is up and running smoothly," say Fanie Kies, IT controller for Samancor`s manganese mines. "We will soon link SCADA and process control devices across the sites at the mines. We will connect the sub-networks to the existing network at Hotazel to allow for viewing of the production processes, such as crushers, conveyors and the sinter plant, from a central control point in Hotazel. The network will also enable e-mail and file- and data sharing across the three sites."
Local conditions at Mamatwan Mine, such as heavy vehicle traffic and future relocation of some of the sites made the use of fixed cabling between the sites impractical. For these reasons, ATIO used wireless LAN equipment from the BreezeNET product range.
The central structure, or network hub bearing the antennae, is linked to the sinter workshop, the loadout station, ore preparation, the substation and the lookout station.
A tall central structure functions as the hub of the network, and bears the various antennae, which are used to link to the sinter workshop, the loadout station, ore preparation, the substation and the lookout station.
Distances covered for these links range from 200m to 1,5km. A 10Mbit/s infrared link was used to span the 500m between the administration building and the central structure, using SkyNet equipment from PAV. This provides high-speed access for users in the administration building to the main network. Additionally, fibre optic cable was used to link the sinter plant office to the sinter workshop, and the administration building to the security control room. The radio, infrared and fibre optic links connect two Ethernet switches and seven hubs to provide 66 user points, distributed over the site.
"Each user point can be used to couple a workstation or other device to the network, which can communicate with the server at administration, or with any of the other user points in the network," says Kies.
Cisco Catalyst Ethernet switches and hubs were used throughout, in conjunction with Cisco Works network management software, to provide full monitoring and control of the network from a central point.
At Wessels Mine half of the network is underground and the balance on the surface. Distances of up to 2km were spanned between the various sites. 8km of fibre optic cabling was used to connect all sites, including an umbilical link between the surface and the engineering workshop underground.
"Work is under way with Telkom for the provision of microwave connections from Hotazel to Wessels and Mamatwan," adds Kies. "When these links are commissioned, we will be able to make our future connections, and run e-mail so as to enhance the general communication and productivity of the three sites."
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