Integra Coal has chosen Mine Site Technologies’ for site wide digital communications and tracking for both their open cut and underground mines. A description of the underground part of the installation follows.

Background
Located 8 km north of Singleton in the Hunter Valley, NSW, Brazilian mining giant Vale, operate the Integra Coal complex, with both an open cut and underground coal mine. These two mines produce a mixture of premium coking, semi-soft and thermal coals for the export market.

The Underground Requirement
The underground mine was looking for a tracking system that would monitor and record the movements and position of equipment, particularly during longwall moves. It can take several weeks to move a longwall and during this period there are a multitude of external factors and unforeseen delays which make it exceptionally difficult to keep track of stored item locations.

The mine also wanted to improve communications by introducing a two-way mobile solution to complement the one-way paging functionality of their existing PED System. This was required to streamline communications with maintenance and repair personnel whilst they are on the move underground. If there was a major equipment malfunction this would take priority and the closest maintenance staff would need to be identified and directed to remedy this immediately.

Additionally, from a safety perspective, Integra management wanted to streamline their access control procedures in ventilation zones, by limit the number of personnel to within the limits governed by available emergency breathing apparatus. Similarly, more accurate monitoring and controlling access of vehicles into ventilation zones was seen as advantageous from an Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) perspective.

The Solution
At the heart of the solution are:

• 20 of MST’s ImPact Wireless Network Switches (WNS), each with one or two Wi-Fi radio cards and a 4 port fibre switch.
• 17 ImPact Wireless Access Points (WAP), operating from PoE links to their nearest WNS unit.

This basic network infrastructure 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.

The Future
Apart from the introduction of the VoIP telephones following their approval, the installation will be extended into hazardous zones areas within 12 months after the Intrinsically Safe version of the Impact WNS units become available.

Mine-Phone
MST’s VoIP Telephone can can used with the ImPact Network

The ICCL cap lamp contains internal RFID Tag & PED electronics

Whitehaven Coal has purchased a suite of communication and tracking products for their new Narrabri North Coal Mine.To cover safety and day to day management requirements, Narrabri North is installing two main communication infrastructures to meet those requirements:

• The PED Emergency Mine Communication System, and
• The ImPact Underground Digital Network for two-way voice and tracking.

ICCL Cap Lamps, which are already in use at the mine, contain PED Text Receiver and Wi-Fi RFID Tag circuits to operate from each of the above infrastructures respectively.
The PED Transmission System consists of a 11 km surface antenna that has been designed to provide mine wide signal coverage to the current and future underground developments for the next several years. The PED will enable one-way paging to personnel wherever they are in the mine, providing a very useful day to day management tool as well as a vital emergency communication system should an emergency ever arise.
An underground Wi-Fi Network is also being rolled out to complement the PED System, thus providing a total mine communications solution. An initial 25 Wireless Network Switches/Wi-Fi Access Points will provide Wi-Fi coverage on the main travel roads at strategic points underground. This underground digital network will enable a number of 802.11b/g applications, key apps include:

• Tracking the location of personnel underground via RFID Tags within each miner’s cap lamp.
• Tracking vehicles as they move about the mine by self contained RFID tags attached to each vehicle.
• Two-way voice communications via VoIP Telephone handsets. The VoIP telephone system will be integrated into the mine’s general phone system at the PABX to allow a seamless connection between all phones types used on site.

Another important application is extending the use of the tracking system data to provide an automated traffic management system. This automated traffic control will operate for transport vehicles travelling in the drift (slope) into the mine. MST appreciates the support of Whitehaven for our technology suite to provide the majority of their underground communication requirements. This single sourcing for their communication and tracking systems will ensure optimal support from MST, being the vendor and OEM of all the technologies..

Personnel have RFID Tags incorporated into their cap lamps

RFID Tags are attached to vehicles to help manage the underground fleet

Crinum East Coal Mine is owned by BMA a partnership between BHP Billiton and Mitsubishi Development Pty Ltd and is located in the Bowen Coal Basin of central Queensland, Australia.The Requirement
The mine wanted to install a tracking system that could monitor and control the movement of personnel and machines into the longwall panels. Access to these areas needs to be controlled for two main reasons.
- Firstly because each longwall panel has a limited number of Self Contained Self Rescuers (SCSRs) in their caches which restricts the safe number of personnel permitted in the area.
- Secondly because the available ventilation quantity governs how much diesel equipment can operate at any one time.By using the Access Control features in the ImPact Tracking System, the software can be set up to count personnel and machines entering an area and can automatically trigger stop signs at the longwall entrance should the numbers exceed the allowable limit.Additionally, the mine also wanted to be able to better manage the general movement of machines, implements and personnel to better manage their undergrounds activities, particularly during the longwall moves

The Solution
After considering various solutions the mine chose Mine Site Technologies’ ImPact Tracking solution. The initial system comprises of 12 strategically placed ImPact Wireless Access Points (WAP’s) connected via the dedicated composite fibre and power cable, 140 vehicle tags and 140 Integrated Communications Cap Lamp (ICCL) tags, combined with AeroScout’s MobileView software.The mine has a number of existing ICCL’s and has been using the PED for several years as their primary emergency communication system. Given the unique ability to integrate the active RFID tags in to the mine’s existing ICCL units, as well as the new ICCL’s, streamlined the installation requirements. The other main factor was the flexibility and ease of use of the tracking software. Client specific customization, little need for IT intervention and web browser capabilities where all major factors in the mines choice of MST’s solution

The Future.
The initial installation will rolled out in to non-hazardous areas and will be extended in to the Intrinsically Safe (IS) sections of the mine within 12 months. Additional Access Points will also be deployed to increase signal coverage underground to allow the use of MST’s VoIP phone for two-way voice communications when intrinsic safe approvals are completed.MST look forward to working with the Crinum engineers in implementing this system and thank them and BMA for the support of our latest digital communication technologies.

Cap Lamps have a RFID Tag & PED Receiver integrated within them to enhance personal safety

Zone Display Units interface to the tracking system to control access into mining areas

Austar Coal Mine, owned by the Chinese Yancoal group operates a top coal caving longwall coal mine near Cessnock, NSW, Australia. Austar has expanded the initial fleet of ICCL cap lamps by 136 units, bringing the total to 238 cap lamps.The ICCL’s come equipped with RFID Tag and PED pager as the system is designed to provide key functionality to Austar’s safety systems, particular emergency preparedness.The PED System forms part of the mine’s emergency warning system, allowing miners to be alerted by text message wherever they located in the mine in the case of an emergency situation arising. The PED can then also direct or update people as they evacuate. The underground tracking system will allow management to know where every miner is underground should an emergency situation arise, as well as assist in monitoring people as
they withdraw from the mine if an evacuation was necessary. Self Contained RFID Tags will also be fitted to underground vehicles to provide day to day management of these assets, thus increasing their utilization. The PED and Tracking system consists of:
- PED Transmission System with two Headends powering two underground antennas.
- 236 ICCL lightweight cap lamps with integrated RFID Tag and PED Pager receiver
- 13 TRACKER Read Beacons
- 25 Self Contained Tags for mounting on vehicles.
- 4 Zone Display Units to provide Access Control into mining areas.The combination of PED and Tracking gives Austar a powerful safety and management tool that will contribute to both the productivity and emergency preparedness of the mine. MST is very appreciative of this support for our communication technologies, from both Yancoal corporate level and mine site management at Austar.