Mining & resources · Bowen Basin · QLD
When the site stops, everything stops.
Mining and resources runs on uptime, remote connectivity and crews that change every roster. Frontrow keeps the systems behind the operation running, the data locked down for SOCI, and senior people reachable from offices in Mackay and Townsville.
Your world
The technology has to survive the conditions the operation does.
A city MSP can email you a plan. It rarely accounts for a site on satellite backhaul, a crew that rotates fortnightly, and a processing line where an hour of downtime is real money. Here is what changes when Frontrow runs it.
When a processing line or a comms link drops at a remote site, the cost is counted in production hours, not help-desk tickets.
Frontrow designs for resilience first across every site — redundant connectivity, tested failover and monitoring that catches a fault before the shift does.
Faults get caught before the crew feels them, with a fixed monthly cost and no surprise bill after an outage.
Managed IT for mining→Sites running on cellular or satellite backhaul break the assumptions most office IT is built on.
Frontrow configures Microsoft 365, SharePoint and Microsoft Intune for offline-then-sync use and devices that spend their life off the corporate network.
The technology is built for the place it actually runs, so connectivity drops stop becoming work stoppages.
Microsoft 365 for remote sites→Rotating FIFO crews and shared devices do not fit a 9-to-5 office identity model, so access is wrong on day one or lingers after a contractor rolls off.
Frontrow builds Conditional Access, device compliance and joiner-mover-leaver processes around the roster, not a desk.
Access is right the morning a crew starts and gone the day they leave, with an audit trail you can show an assessor.
Identity built for FIFO→One compromised office mailbox should not be able to reach the operational network that runs the site — and under SOCI you have to prove it cannot.
Frontrow separates corporate and operational IT, lifts you toward Essential Eight Maturity Level 2, and produces the evidence an assessor asks for.
One program of work satisfies SOCI and your insurer, with a posture you can put in front of the board.
Cyber and SOCI→IT and OT
The office network and the network that runs the plant are not the same thing.
Most resources operators run a corporate environment alongside the operational technology on site — control systems, SCADA, and the equipment a vendor logs into remotely. When those two worlds share a flat network, a phishing email in the office becomes a path toward the plant. Frontrow keeps them separated and the boundary monitored.
A mapped boundary between corporate and operational networks
Frontrow documents where corporate IT ends and the control environment begins, then enforces that line so an office mailbox compromise has nowhere to travel toward the operational network.
Controlled, logged vendor remote access
OEM and integrator remote access is brokered through a single, monitored path with multi-factor authentication and time-bound approvals, rather than standing connections nobody reviews.
Patching that respects the production window
Operational systems cannot be patched on an office schedule. Frontrow plans updates around shutdowns and maintenance windows, so security work does not become an unplanned outage.
Monitoring and an incident path that meets the reporting clock
Detection covers both environments, and the incident process is documented against the SOCI reporting window, so a cyber incident at a site is something the business can report inside the time the obligation allows.
The compliance hook
SOCI is not a paperwork exercise. It is a posture.
The Security of Critical Infrastructure Act brings many resources operators into scope for a risk-management program and mandatory incident reporting. The obligation sits with the business, but it rests on technical foundations: knowing your critical systems, controlling access to them, detecting an incident, and being able to report it inside the required window.
Frontrow builds and operates those foundations and aligns them with the Essential Eight, so one program of work satisfies several obligations at once. A SOCI-focused engagement typically lands as:
- An asset register that identifies the systems critical to the operation and who can touch them
- Identity hardening — multi-factor authentication, Conditional Access and reduced standing admin
- IT/OT segmentation so a corporate compromise cannot reach the operational network
- Monitoring, tested backups and a documented incident path aligned to the reporting window
- An evidence pack written for an assessor, not a marketing deck
The work is run as defined sprints, each ending with a measurable control and a handover to whoever operates it next. Frontrow does not publish client maturity scores it has not been cleared to share.
When the shift is on
Production does not keep office hours, so neither does the cover.
A fault at 2am on a night shift cannot wait for a help-desk to open. Frontrow runs monitoring around the clock and an after-hours escalation path that reaches a senior engineer, not a voicemail, so a site issue out of hours is handled by someone who knows the environment. The response commitments are written into the managed-IT agreement and the credits behind them are real.
From a mining-services client
“Expert team, high service levels, competitive solutions, and real expertise with geographically distributed operations across Australia.”
Then add AI
Once the foundations are sound, the paperwork can run itself.
Reporting, compliance paperwork and shift handovers eat senior people's time on site. Once the environment is managed and the data is governed, Frontrow puts Microsoft 365 Copilot to work on that load, so the experienced people on site spend their hours on the operation rather than the admin.
Read the mining Copilot guide →On the ground
People near the basin, not a city tower.
Frontrow runs on-site work across the Bowen Basin and Central Queensland from the Mackay office at Suite 9, 92 Wood Street, and covers North Queensland from Townsville. Senior architects join from Brisbane when the scope calls for it.
FAQ — mining & resources
What resources operators ask Frontrow.
- What does SOCI mean for our IT?
- The Security of Critical Infrastructure Act brings many resources operators into scope for a risk-management program and incident reporting. In practice that means knowing your critical systems, controlling who can touch them, detecting incidents and being able to report them. Frontrow builds the security controls and evidence that obligation rests on, and works alongside your compliance team rather than replacing it.
- Do you have people near the mines, or is this run from a city?
- Both. Frontrow has offices in Mackay (Suite 9, 92 Wood Street) and Townsville (Level 2, 280 Flinders Street), so on-site work across the Bowen Basin and Central Queensland is run locally, with senior architects from Brisbane pulled in when scope needs them.
- Can you handle remote sites with poor connectivity?
- Yes. Frontrow designs Microsoft 365, device management and backup around cellular and satellite backhaul, offline-then-sync working, and the reality that connectivity drops. The plan is built for the place, not against it.
Book a mine-site IT assessment.
Frontrow will walk through your sites, your connectivity, your SOCI obligations and where the technology is exposed — then hand you a plain-English plan with cost and priority.