This week, I had the honour of attending the Swedish Business Reception at Government House in Sydney, in the presence of Their Royal Highnesses the Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel of Sweden, and Swedish Minister for International Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade, Mr Johan Forssell.
The focus of their visit to Australia has been to strengthen the longstanding relationships between Australian and Swedish companies, whilst bringing to light key themes around the United Nations Agenda 2030 and sustainability. With Australia and Sweden both global leaders in mining, we had particularly interesting discussions around how Ericsson will support mining, and industry in general - moves towards a sustainable future.
Safer, smarter and more sustainable mines
At Ericsson, we see sustainability as fundamental to the way we do business and what we enable for our downstream customers. We were given the great pleasure of presenting at this week's Swedish-Australian Sustainable Mining Summit in Sydney to highlight our collaboration with Newcrest Mining at their Lihir and Cadia mines.
Our recent journey with Newcrest Mining and Telstra Purple, showcases just how digitalisation and connectivity in the mining sector is helping to develop smart, safer and more sustainable mines. This collaboration will see Newcrest deploy a trial of advanced private 4G LTE and 5G networks in its underground operations at Cadia Valley in coming months, augmenting their production surface private LTE network.
Automation is one of the most important emerging mining technologies, moving workers out of harm’s way and reducing operational emissions to drive a safer and more sustainable industry. With 4G and 5G mobile technologies offering better performance and capabilities than Wi-Fi, this trial will allow Newcrest to evaluate the benefit of 4G and 5G’s enabling capabilities to deliver more pervasive connectivity, capacity and functionality for underground automation, and use of teleremote-controlled machinery.
We’re delighted to be working with Newcrest and Telstra Purple to trial Ericsson’s 4G LTE and 5G solutions and enable Newcrest to develop know-how on how to best deploy them underground. It’s a truly exciting time for Australia’s mining industry, and this partnership is a great example of how Australia's largest industry can leverage the country’s position as a global 5G leader to drive its digitalisation.
Continued commitment to collaboration
As both the Swedish Minister International Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade, Mr Johan Forssell, and the Australian Assistant Minister for Trade and Manufacturing, Senator the Hon Tim Ayers noted, Australia and Sweden have been engaged in a strong and ongoing economic collaboration for many years. This partnership has been a significant contributor to the growth and development of both countries and has helped to enhance their global competitiveness.
We here at Ericsson are proud to say 2023 marks 133 years of Ericsson in Australia. Throughout the decades, we’ve been instrumental in helping shape connectivity in Australia, partnering with local telcos on innovative firsts and ground-breaking technology that have revolutionised the way people communicate. It’s thanks to the strong and continued ties between Sweden and Australia that we’ve been able to help Australia become a global leader in 5G connectivity.
With a shared commitment to innovation, sustainability, and growth, Australia and Sweden have much to gain from continuing their collaboration in the years to come.
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130 years in Australia and counting