Kirkland Lake Gold is teaming up with Rogers to close the cell phone gap between Cochrane and the Detour Lake Mine.
There is no service at the mine site right now. Rogers VP of Advanced Services Tess Van Thielen says that will be remedied by sometime this summer.
“We’re really excited to be building the eight towers,” she states. “It’s going to cover about 180 km between Cochrane and Detour Lake along Hwy. 652.”
Seven of the eight towers will be off the grid, powered by wind and solar energy. Anyone travelling along Hwy. 652 will be able to use the service.
The mine site itself will have a private, dedicated 5G network. That will allow employees a connection to home, and the company to expand into automation and other advancements. It’s the first Canadian mine site to have the service.
“The very best level of service that you can possibly get, “ says Van Thielen, “because it’s dedicated to the mine, so it’s always on, it’s always available and they’re not sharing that capacity or network with anyone else.”