Talk in a tech-savvy world

Mark Gelsomini has developed a three-way unified IT communications system for Dundee Precious Metals

Mark Gelsomini is fully suited up and equipped—and ready to head down into an underground mine site. — photo courtesy Mark Gelsomini

Mark Gelsomini, the global corporate manager of IT for Dundee Precious Metals, is a computer engineer and chip manufacturer by trade. In 2008, Gelsomini entered the mining world and brought his wealth of knowledge and expertise to spearhead and simplify corporate-wide collaboration and communication at Dundee Precious Metals. Gelsomini started the process by positioning IT as the foundation of the organization and moved its four domains into one base domain that enabled a full end-to-end Microsoft solution. Acrodex, a provider of strategic IT services, was brought on to assist Dundee Precious Metals with the management of the Microsoft Enterprise agreement.

Through this overhaul, employees are able to reach one other in real time using mobile phones and instant messaging in the company’s four locations: Toronto, Bulgaria, Armenia and Namibia. Dundee Precious Metals is currently the only mining company to use non-proprietary Wi-Fi, VoIP, instant messaging and video from within an underground mine.

“I am very technical,” said Gelsomini. “In a nutshell, staff are able to pick up a phone in Toronto and call someone in Bulgaria, free of charge, and work anywhere in the organization regardless of what office you are in . . . When my boss travels from Toronto to Namibia, his emails are on his BlackBerry . . . He is able to make phone calls from his BlackBerry off of his computer and it is as if he is out of the office in Toronto.”

A man-tracking system

Another of Gelsomini’s core objectives was to allow underground miners the ability to use IP/telephony 450 metres underground. Simply put, workers are now able to use Cisco Wi-Fi computers and laptops to communicate when they go underground. In addition, Dundee Precious Metals is in the process of unveiling another technology called AeroScouts, which Gelsomini called a man-tracking technology.

“Workers get a tag and it emits a radio frequency signal,” said Gelsomini. “It can tell us where you are in the underground or above ground at any given time, fully utilizing the complete Wi-Fi-covered environment within the mine. They have what are called exciters that are placed in vehicles so we can tell how many people are on the truck and how many people have gotten off that truck.

"The next phase is the implementation of the software on the mine operations side. They will get real-time monitoring off of this technology. If a loader or caterpillar is on its way out with a half-load, they can reroute the machine in real time and tell the worker to go pick up another load (from somewhere else) and then come out. It is also a safety issue. If something happens in the underground, we know where everyone is at any given time within the system.”