Mark Chestnut

Mining businesses in the world’s most remote areas face a long list of unique challenges. For many operators,  maintaining reliable voice and data connections is at the top of that list. After all, many of the most productive field sites lie beyond the reach of traditional and cellular communications networks.

Reliable and open channels of communication from remote sites to the head office don’t just drive productivity and deliver bottom-line results—they help ensure the safety of lone workers. That’s why innovators such as Canadian mining company Taseko choose Globalstar for both devices and connectivity.

“Satellite communications are a critical part of our day-to-day operations, ensuring our site teams can be productive and connected,” says Mark Chestnut, Systems Planner at Taseko.

Chestnut works at Taseko’s Gibraltar mine, the second largest open-pit copper-molybdenum mine in Canada and the largest employer in the country’s intermontane Cariboo region. Though geographically remote, Gibraltar can’t afford to compromise on modern telecommunications. Workers need reliable mobile connectivity to perform critical parts of day-to-day business operations.

The Gibraltar offices regularly deploy environmental teams to the outlying areas of the mine site to take water samples as required by provincial regulators. Tailings operators require mobile connectivity to report back to head office when conducting checksand remote and lone workers need to regularly check in to report on their location and status.

From regulatory compliance to worker safety, a wide range of critical operational needs demand reliable connectivity via voice and data solutions and all of these communications must happen beyond the reach of cellular and traditional GSM network coverage. Clearly, Taseko needed to deploy mobile satellite-based services at the Gibraltar Mine.

Taseko chose a provider that didn’t just deliver reliability, but affordability as well. Taseko workers at remote sites now use Globalstar devices, including the latest GSP-1700 Mobile Satellite Phone that operate on Globalstar’s second-generation satellite constellation.  

The company also deployed easy-to-use and affordable SPOT Satellite GPS Messengers for check-in procedures and location reporting. The devices’ off-the-grid messaging, emergency alerts and GPS tracking features help to improve overall worker safety and security.

Together, these tools ensure reliable, real-time communications for workers at remote sites, maximizing efficiencies and productivity. With convenient devices and the world’s most modern satellite network, Taseko faces its communications and operational challenges head on.

When it comes to productivity and worker safety, remotely operating businesses like Taseko aren’t willing to compromise. And now, they don’t need to. The new generation of affordable and dependable satellite solutions has become an integral part of business operations, delivering bottom-line results in the most rugged conditions.