Recent News from Resolute Mining Limited was very well received as the Syama gold mine project reached yet another important milestone. Spidersat Communications is proud to be involved in the Syama project and congratulates Resolute Mining on beginning the commissioning of this mega-project, and on the first gold production from the concentrator circuit.

In March 2009 Resolute Mining announced that the company has begun commissioning of the Syama gold mine project and that the construction phase of the project is near completion. On the week-end of June 13 th , gold was poured from the sulphide ore processing circuit for the first time, setting a landmark milestone in the development of the Syama gold mine towards full production. Spidersat Communications has been a proud participant in the Syama project since the early stages when Resolute Mining naturally turned to Spidersat for the design, implementation, and commissioning of their communications system.

Resolute had previous experience with Spidersat which was already providing communications for its Golden Pride mine, Mabangu exploration project, and Dar Es Salam office in Tanzania. “Resolute chose Spidersat because they had previous positive experience with them at their operations in Tanzania, and their proposed solution was cost competitive whilst providing state of the art technology”, says Richard Bray, Resolute IT Manager.

Communications for extreme conditions
- Photo by Marcelle Watson

“Designing and implementing a solution that would meet Resolute’s requirements at the Syama Gold Project in Mali was quite challenging” comments Mike Hennessey, Technical Director of Spidersat Communications. “We had to design a system that would allow Resolute’s ERP software to effectively run over a satellite link back to Perth, integrate a Voice over IP solution, and provide coverage to various plant and accommodation buildings spread out over a 2.25 square km footprint. In addition to these technical challenges, we had to take into consideration environmental issues such as extremely hot temperatures (up to 50°C) and severe lightning activity which, if ignored, could have impacted the performance of the proposed solution.” Meeting these challenges required a combination of Point to Point VSAT connections between Syama and the Resolute head office in Perth, and of wireless backhaul and WiFi technologies across the site.

Richard Bray adds: “Solving these challenges was difficult. However, Spidersat have always been responsive and quick to assist when problems arise and Resolute is very satisfied with the installation, which has proved to be extremely reliable.” The continent of Africa has many of the world’s undeveloped mineral resources and also many of the challenges. Spidersat Communications is positioned to meet those challenges and to help companies like Resolute Mining achieve their goals. Congratulations to Resolute Mining and all involved in the Syama gold mine project.