South Africa’s mining industry is moving digital transformation from abstract ambition to practical application. The sector’s priorities are clear: safer underground working environments, better visibility of people and assets, faster emergency response and more integrated mine management.

Information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure provider Huawei South Africa’s OpenLab, located inside the Huawei Innovation Centre at its Woodmead campus in Johannesburg, is helping bring that future closer to the local industry. Established as a practical environment for customers, partners, software developers and local technology companies, the OpenLab allows mining companies to experience, test, and co-create digital mining solutions before considering deployment in their own operations. 

Mine operators face many operational risks that are linked to visibility. Underground environments are complex, dynamic and difficult to monitor. Knowing where people are, how they move, where incidents occur and how different systems connect can make a meaningful difference to safety and efficiency.

One of the mining-focused solutions currently demonstrated in the OpenLab is an underground personnel positioning system, developed with South African partner MPI-Holdings. The solution combines MPI’s Bluetooth-based positioning technology with Huawei’s network, software platform and server infrastructure to provide visibility of personnel in underground tunnels and defined working areas.

Through the platform, mine operators can view worker locations in real time, check a person’s last known position, review movement history, receive emergency alerts, monitor device battery status, manage alarms and generate operational reports.

In an emergency, this type of visibility can support faster search and rescue efforts by helping teams identify where a worker was last seen. In daily operations, it can assist with contractor management, restricted-area control, shift supervision and incident investigation. It also speaks directly to the industry’s growing focus on missing-person locator capabilities for underground mines.

The value of the OpenLab is that customers can see these capabilities working in a live demonstration environment. Recently, representatives from South African manganese mining company Kalagadi visited the OpenLab to experience the underground positioning solution. MPI’s CEO introduced the system and demonstrated the software platform, including personnel locations in fixed areas and movement trails of selected individuals.

The demonstration showed how mines can move from manual checks and fragmented information towards a more visible and responsive model of safety management.

A second mining-focused demonstration in the OpenLab is Huawei’s MetaWorks digital twin platform. Mining customers can use MetaWorks as a digital foundation to build a visual, data-driven view of their mine operations. It can bring together information from different systems, equipment and locations, presenting it through maps, 3D models, dashboards and digital twin applications.

In a mining environment, this can support a unified view of mine layouts, equipment, workers, vehicles, alarms, production status, safety risks and environmental information. Instead of different systems operating in isolation, MetaWorks creates a foundation for linking data sources and building integrated applications for control rooms, operations centres and management teams.

The platform supports data integration, GIS-based visualisation, digital twin modelling, workflow orchestration, alarm linkage and low-code application development. This means mining scenarios can be adapted according to customer needs, whether the requirement is a unified dispatching view, an integrated control centre, a safety monitoring dashboard, a production overview or a digital mine map.

Over time, the same foundation could support further applications such as equipment monitoring, personnel and vehicle tracking, geological visualisation, energy management and decision support.

Huawei’s partner ecosystem is central to this model. Huawei provides the ICT foundation, including network connectivity, computing, storage, servers and digital platforms, while local partners bring mining applications, field experience, integration skills and industry knowledge. This means the OpenLab is not only a demonstration space but also a co-creation environment where solutions can be developed, tested and adapted to local mining conditions.

Huawei has already introduced the OpenLab environment and the MetaWorks platform capabilities to local industry partners, including Datacentrix and Business Connexion. These engagements aim to combine Huawei’s technology foundation with the delivery capabilities and industry expertise of local partners.

Together, the underground positioning solution and MetaWorks demonstrate the role Huawei South Africa envisions for the OpenLab in the mining sector. The first solution helps make underground people and movements more visible. The second provides a broader digital foundation for connecting mine data, systems and applications into a single operational view.

Mining companies also gain a lower-risk way to explore digital transformation. Customers can visit the facility, see working demonstrations, discuss their operational challenges with Huawei and its partners, and understand how similar solutions could be adapted to their own environments.

As South Africa’s mining sector continues to prioritise safety, operational visibility and productivity, platforms such as the Huawei OpenLab can help bridge the gap between digital ambition and practical implementation.

Working with local partners, application developers and mining customers, Huawei South Africa aims to support safer, more visible and more intelligent mining operations across South Africa and the wider region.