De Beers Marine South Africa, a division of diamond giant De Beers, and Orange Business Services, a network-native digital services company, have jointly installed and tested a customised Internet of Things (IoT) solution to provide geofencing to maintain safe working distances for crew around the heavy machinery involved in marine diamond mining operations.
The new solution was successfully piloted on board the MV Mafuta, currently the world’s largest offshore diamond mining vessel owned and operated by Debmarine Namibia and operating up to 150km off the coast of Namibia, in southern Africa.
Diamond mining vessels bring crew and heavy machinery into relatively close proximity. In the pilot, 10 crew members were equipped with wrist sensors that alerted the ship’s bridge if one of the crew breached a predetermined geofenced area onboard the vessel.
Caption: Owned and operated by Debmarine Namibia, the MV Mafuta is currently the world’s largest offshore diamond mining vessel. (Photo: Business Wire)