Lihir Gold Mine, Papua New Guinea

The Customer

Lihir Mine is an open cast gold mine in Papua New Guinea, operated by Rio Tinto, one of the world's leading mining companies.

Lihir opened in 1996 and is expected to become one of the 15 largest gold mines in the world.

The Challenge

Located a couple of degrees south of the Equator the mine is in one of the harshest environments for radio equipment, which is subject to extreme levels of heat, humidity, moisture and dust.

Since opening, the mine has relied on Tait products to communicate throughout the mine and process plant.

Initially Tait supplied the mine with a Tait MPT 1327 trunked radio system. As the mine's coverage requirements grew, system enhancements became necessary.

The Solution

The first system was installed at Kapit Ridge - a solar site accessible only by helicopter and covering the entire mine's operational area.

Increasing development of the mine put pressure on the solar communications system so mains power was introduced. A couple of years later Kapit Ridge was re-engineered as a single site system.

The node, housing 10 VHF high-band channels is located in the mine's PABX room and is linked to the RF site by a 2 by 2Mbit bearer. The node has four PABX, PSTN cards and much of the calling is between the Tait radios and PABX extensions or the outside telephone network.

Today about 400 radios operate on the robust trunked system and are used by mine personnel, contractors and local villagers.