Speedcast will work with Kinross subsidiary Chukotka Mining and Geological on an expanded very small aperture terminal (VSAT) network supporting the development of the Udinsk Gold open-pit mine to two new license areas.

Speedcast will provide a fully managed wide-area network (WAN) connectivity service for the Kayenmyvaam and Kavralyanskaya early-stage gold prospecting sites - it has installed dedicated WAN connections over VSAT at each site to establish a corporate virtual private network (VPN).

"Kayenmyvaam and Kavralyanskaya sites required a compact Ku-band VSAT terminal which needed to be flown in by helicopter due to their extremely remote locations. Providing this type of critical communications solution at the most challenging and remote sites is our business," said James Trevelyan, Senior Vice President of Enterprise and Emerging Markets at Speedcast.

In February, Speedcast launched a high-capacity VSAT service for Udinsk Gold, another subsidiary of Kinross Gold.

That corporate networking solution connects a regional office in Magadan, Russia, with the company's open-pit mining development project, Chulbatkan, located in the Far East.