VALE’S Australian Coal Mine is utilising a Mine Site Technologies digital system for communications & tracking.
The Integra Coal complex will use the ImPact Digital technologies for the site wide communications and tracking for both its open cut and underground mines.
Integra management says it wanted to streamline its access control procedures in ventilation zones by limiting the number of personnel and which is seen as advantageous from an Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) perspective.
The company claims it was also looking for a tracking system which would monitor and record the movements and position of equipment, particularly during longwall moves.
Furthermore, the mine says it wanted to improve communications by introducing a two-way mobile solution to complement the one-way paging functionality of their existing PED System.
ImPact Digital technology offers Wi-Fi access, active RFID tag reading and VoIP telephony capability.
Additionally, power distribution to the communication infrastructure is simplified by using composite power/fibre cable between access points. This custom designed cable contains up to four optic fibres and two power cores, allowing a single power supply to power a number of WNS units.
To allow tracking of the longwall components and development implements, each of these components has an active RFID tag attached, allowing its position to be recorded every time it passes either a WNS or a WAP. This ensures the process of location and identification for each component is greatly simplified.
To identify personnel the mine is upgrading its entire cap lamp fleet and has chosen to invest in 300 of MST’s lightweight ICCL’s (Integrated Communications Cap Lamps) with integrated RFID tag and PED text message receiver.
The ICCL solves both the problem of locating and communicating with underground personnel in one integrated unit, whilst the reduced weight of the Lithium Ion battery offers OH&S improvements by reducing each miner’s belt weight. People can be located quickly and easily with the tracking system and operational dispatch messages can be sent directly to the required person via the PED one way pager, ensuring efficient communication.
This tracking and communication cycle will be enhanced further once MST’s VoIP telephone handset is approved for use in coal mines, by allowing more complex two-way communication to occur when required. The Wi-Fi network has been set up to provide seamless VoIP coverage along the travel road from the surface to the longwall, as the ImPact WNS units provide continuous Wi-Fi coverage along the underground roadways.