Focus Minerals

Mining Comms Solutions was contracted by its long-term partner, Ever Nimble, to provide a comprehensive, end-to-end communications network for a 100-room mining camp in Coolgardie (Western Australia) for its client, Focus Minerals.

Works included installing:

• The communications rack in the comms room

• Fibre network from the communications room to accommodation rooms to support Wi-Fi

• Install Wireless Access Points (WAPs) in the rooms and common areas

• External communications boxes and internal racks

• TV antennas

• All hardware including switches, fobots, patch panels, and TV splitters.

The Challenges

Due to its remote location, weather conditions, and multiple project delivery contractors, this project proved challenging.

Coolgardie is over 550kms from Perth. To transport the range of equipment needed to comprehensively support the design and planning phase of the project required significant coordination and planning.

As several other trades were required on site during the construction phase of the camp, Mining Comms Solutions worked collaboratively to ensure streamlined project delivery.

Further, winter in the Goldfields area can be cold, wet, and windy which can make working conditions unpleasant and required the team to think “out of the box” to work around it.

The Solution

Mining Comms Solutions worked closely with Ever Nimble to design a tailored, fit-forpurpose fibre network which would deliver the outcomes that Focus Minerals was seeking.

We considered future functionality requirements (such as the addition of CCTV) in our designs to reduce the need for rework and ensure cost effective upgrades would be possible in the future. This saw the Mining Comms Solutions team install fibre optic cabling to each building and use similar TV antennas to the camp next door for free to air TV47 to keep costs down.

As part of our commitment to deliver quality outcomes and reduce the need for rework, we ensured all hardware and cabling in the communication boxes and racks was neat and tidy, and all fibre cabling was spliced and tested before installing any hardware.

The Results

As a result of our meticulous, collaborative, and future-focussed design, planning, and implementation, the project was delivered on time and on budget. The result was a quality installation of a full communications network to support Focus Mineral’s 100-room mining camp. The client was delighted with the outcome.

We’ve received great feedback from both Ever Nimble and Focus Minerals for our efforts and we look forward to working on many more projects together.