Ekati Diamond Mine

Latest Inifinity Series Line Amp

BeltPED Personal Receiver

BlastPED has now been Introduced as Underground Mining Expands

UNDERGROUND COMMUNICATION PACKAGE

MINE: EKATI DIAMOND
OWNER: BHP BILLITON
TYPE: DIAMOND
LOCATION: CANADA, NWT

BACKGROUND

BHPB’s Ekati Diamond Mine required an underground communication system to ensure the efficient and safe operation. By using the comlementary systems of PED and VDV Leaky Feeder ensured a good overall communication package would be provided for the underground mine.

COMPOSITION

The communication system consists of two key elements:

• A PED System for communication to all miners underground through the use of the 120 personal BeltPED pagers and one AutoPED vehicle receiver. The system use was expanded in mid-2004 to provide remote blasting capability through the use of six remote BlastPED Receiver/Initiators.
• 4 Channel VDV Leaky Feeder Headend with 4 km of leaky coax antenna.

DESCRIPTION

The PED System used a small surface antenna around the Koala North open Pit (1.2 km in length) for the first 2 years. In early 2004 this was extended to 4 km to emcompass Panada Pit, as undergroudn minign was about to commence under Panada. This now provides complete signal coverage to whole underground operation for the next several years, before an extension would be required. The VDV Headend is located in a surface hut and then runs 4 km undeground, utilizing 10 line amplifiers to maintain high quality two-way communications along the entire length of coax antenna. Surface coverage is provided by an interface to a surface antenna mast at the headend.

JUSTIFICATION

The transition from surface to underground mining always presents the need for new approaches to maintain high levels of safety and productivity. BHPB wanted Ekati diamond mine to be a world class operation in all phases. With experience using PED at a number of their other operations (in Australia and the USA) made the justification easier, as the benefits were already defined at these other operations. With experince also in the use of BlastPED, the mine has switched to remote blast initiation from the surface by using the BlastPED System. Six BlastPED Receiver/Initiators are used for this remote blasting operation. The VDV system was chosen because of its technical performance and the fact MST was able to provide the complete package (i.e. PED & Leaky Feeder).