Mine Site Technologies is a solutions provider, specializing in the development and supply of technology, and services, to the mining industry. Our particular areas of expertise include underground communications, remote blasting systems, mine tagging & WiFi tracking systems and cap lamps; as well as high data wireless mesh systems for open pit and surface communications.

Mines Seleine Upgrade

ICCL cap lamps installed at Mines Seleine. ICCL’s are one third the weight of previous lead-acid battery packs, and still contain PED Receivers

Morton Salt’s Mines Seleine Mine has upgraded their cap lamps and personal PED Receiver units to the latest ICCL version.

Mine Seleine has been using the PED System since 1995 and was one of the first mines in Canada to install BeltPED Receivers on all personnel to use the PED as the primary emergency warning system. Mines Seleine also commenced using the BlastPED System to remotely initiate their blasts underground. This was relatively simple as the PED transmission system in place for personal paging only required a software upgrade to be able to introduce the BlastPED Receiver/Exploders into use. Mines Seleine completed the upgrade earlier this year, justifying the upgrade on ergonomic and economic grounds. The light weight ICCL lamps are one third the weight of the lead-acid batteries formerly in use, plus the sealed housing ensures long term reliability and significantly lower maintenance cost for the internal PED electronics.

With the Integrated Communication Cap Lamps now is use at both mines the option to add RFID Tag electronics into the ICCL’s for implementing a general tracking system is available, if wanted in the future.

MST acknowledge the long term support from Mines Seleine and look forward to supporting their PED, BlastPED and other communication technologies well into the future.

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Pugwash Salt

ICCL’s are one third the weight of the older NiMH batteries that were in use

Winsor Salt’s Pugwash Mine, having upgraded their cap lamps and personal PED Receiver units to the latest ICCL version.

Pugwash has been using the PED System since 2006, with BeltPED Receivers on all personnel to use the PED as the primary emergency warning system. Pugwash also use the BlastPED System to remotely initiate their blasts underground. This was relatively simple as the PED transmission system in place for personal paging only required a software upgrade to be able to introduce the BlastPED Receiver/Exploders into use. Pugwash justified the upgrade on ergonomic and economic grounds. The light weight ICCL lamps are one third the weight of the lead-acid batteries formerly in use, plus the sealed housing ensures long term reliability and significantly lower maintenance cost for the internal PED electronics.

Also, by replacing the older style NiMH cap lamp batteries at Pugwash maintenance costs have been reduced, and personnel now carry a much lighter battery and PED unit.

With the Integrated Communication Cap Lamps in use the option to add RFID Tag electronics into the ICCL’s for implementing a general tracking system is available, if wanted in the future.

BlastPED - The Pugwash engineers assessed the safety and productivity benefits of using BlastPED to initiate their blasts remotely. This provided the cost justification for the purchase of the BlastPED remote units.

The PED System now consists of:

  • 1 PED Transmission Headend powering a 2,000 m (6,600 ft) antenna for mine wide signal coverage (already in place).
  • 10 BlastPED Receiver/Exploder remote units.
  • 100 Personal Pagers interfaced to cap lamps (already in place).

We thank the Pugwash personnel for their continued support, and are pleased they are gaining even further benefits from their original investment in our PED technology.

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Bulyanhulu Tanzania

ControlPED Receiver will be used for remote switching of fans

Barrick is installing a PED System at their Bulyanhulu Gold Mine in Tanzania. Engineers at Buyanhulu have been evaluating the PED and BlastPED System for some time to improve the efficiency of their blasting operations. As part of this review the use of the PED Transmission System to provide remote switching of fans via ControlPEDs was also assessed.

Hence it has turned out that the initial installation is based on using ControlPEDs for fan control. The resultant energy savings give the mine a payback in a matter of months. The initial system consists of:

  • A single PED Transmission Headend.
  • 2,800 m (9,000 ft) underground antenna to provide complete signal coverage throughout this very large mine.
  • 55 ControlPED Receivers to interface to fans throughout the underground levels.

Due to the high cost of electricity the ability to remotely control fans was identified as having major cost saving potential. Analysis of various remote control methods then identified ControlPEDs as the most cost effective method to reliably achieve the required remote control.

Additionally, with the PED transmission infrastructure installed for the ControlPEDs, the extension into remote blast initiation using BlastPED is simply and matter of adding BlastPED Receiver/Exploders to the system over time. The option for personal communications via the PED receivers, to complement other personal communication systems already in use at the mine, is also available as required.

A similar use of the PED System at a number of other Barrick operations gave addtional confidence in the proposed solution. An example being Barrick’s Eskay Creek Gold Mine in Canada, where both BlastPEDs and ControlPEDs have been in use for the last three years.

Once again we are appreciative to Barrick for their continued support of our underground communication solutions, and are confident of the cost and safety benefits they will continue to receive from their implementation of MST technologies.

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Rosebery

BlastPED/Radio Interface Unit

Remote Initiators at Rosebery

ROSEBERY INSTALL FIRST UHF VERSION OF BLASTPED LF

MINE: ROSEBERY
OWNER: ZINIFEX
TYPE: TIN
LOCATION: ROSEBERY, TAS, AUSTRALIA

BACKGROUND

Rosebery mine began looking for an alternative to their cable based mains (remote) firing network to improve reliability in their overall blasting system. A range of technologies were assessed before choosing BlastPED LF (Leaky Feeder) Version.

COMPOSITION

Rosebery had an extensive UHF leaky feeder radio system, and chose the LF Version of BlastPED to operate off that system with nine remote blast initiator units.

DESCRIPTION

The BlastPED LF operates off the mine’s existing UHF leaky feeder system. Nine remote initiator units are used to fire up to nine different places at blast time. The BlastPED Software/Signal Radio System interface is located on the surface to form the link between the proprietary BlastPED software and coding system and the mine’s UHF radio system.

JUSTIFICATION

The UHF leaky feeder system provided good signal coverage and was well maintained, so it was a logical choice by the engineers to use as the transmission medium for the BlastPED coded signals.

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East Boulder

EAST BOULDER MINE FOLLOW STILLWATER MINE WITH BLASTPED

MINE: EAST BOULDER
OWNER: STILLWATER MINING
TYPE: PLATINUM/PALLADIUM
LOCATION: USA, MT

BACKGROUND

East Boulder management had identified significant cost benefits in installing a remote, centralized blasting system. After reviewing the various options, basically hard wire cabling or radio remote blasting, BlastPED was chosen. The success of the BlastPED System at Stillwater’s other operation nearby was instrumental in BlastPED being installed.

COMPOSITION

PED Transmission System using a 2,600 m (8,500 ft) underground antenna to provide mine wide signal coverage. 26 BlastPED remote receiver/exploder units.

DESCRIPTION

The main difference between the East Boulder system and the Stillwater Mine system is that the East Boulder system operates from the PED transmission system, rather than using the existing leaky feeder system. It was assessed that the East Boulder leaky feeder system signal coverage and quality would limit the use of BlastPED, something that the main Stillwater Mine has had to accept and work around. So rather than limit the system, East Boulder installed a PED Transmission System that operates from an underground antenna approximately 8,500 feet in length. The relatively high number of remote blasting units was required as the desseminated ore body meant that over 20 places ofetn require to be initiated at any one blast time.

JUSTIFICATION

The primary reason was cost benefit gained in implementing a remote firing system. As mentioned, the justification was simplfied with the cost benefit alreday proven at their ‘sister’ mine, Stillwater.

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Plutonic

BlastPED Remote Initiator

PED Transmiitter Powers Surface Antenna

BLASTPED SYSTEM CHOSEN OVER OTHER REMOTE BLASTING METHODS

MINE: PLUTONIC
OWNER: BARRICK GOLD
TYPE: UNDERGROUND GOLD
LOCATION: WA, AUSTRALIA

BACKGROUND

Plutonic engineers identified considerable savings could be made by implementing a remote, centralized blasting system. Engineers undertook an extensive review of remote initiation methods and concluded a

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Darlot

DARLOT GOLD MINE VDV LEAKY FEEDER SYSTEM FOR PRODUCTIVITY & BLASTING

MINE: DARLOT
OWNER: HOMESTAKE GOLD
TYPE: UNDERGROUND GOLD
LOCATION: LEONORA, WA, AUSTRALIA

BACKGROUND

With the discovery of further ore deposits and subsequent mine life extension, Darlot required the existing surface UHF system to be complemented with an underground communication system. VDV was chosen because we were able to interface to the existing UHF surface system and provide the technical back up for the VDV to be used for telemetry and remote blasting, as well as standard voice communications.

COMPOSITION

Transmission System with 5km of leaky coax cable underground. 4 channel VDV Headend complete with Eclipse repeaters. 12 x Line Amps 3 x BlastPED LF Receiver/Exploders (to be converted to PED version when PED System installed) Telemetry Modules for fans and vent doors.

DESCRIPTION

The system consists of 5kms of leaky coax. A four channel headend is located near the portal transmitting to u/g and 15 km around the surface. The only part of the existing system that was not replaced was the leaky coax cable and some passive branch units.

JUSTIFICATION

Justification was based on the need to better manage the personnel and equipment as the mine expands. The multi-channel VDV system provides voice and data channels for person to person communications, telemetry control of fans and vent doors, as well as communication for a BlastPED System.

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Stillwater

BlastPED Remotes are signalled via the leaky feeder system

STILLWATER MINE USE THE LARGEST BLASTPED SYSTEM

MINE: STILLWATER
OWNER: STILLWATER MINING
TYPE: PLATINUM/PALLADIUM
LOCATION: USA, MT

BACKGROUND

Stillwater identified significant productivity improvements could be made by the introduction of a remote blasting system. After reviewing several options, Stillwater decided the most cost effective method to achieve remote, centralized blasting was using a radio based firing system, that would operate from their existing leaky feeder system.

COMPOSITION

The system consists of 65 BlastPED Receiver/Exploders (making it the largest system installed to date). These are controlled from the surface, using the mine’s leaky feeder radio system for communication.

DESCRIPTION

The chosen System is the BlastPED LF Version (leaky feeder version). Being dependent on the leaky feeder radio system does restrict the BlastPED operation to close proximity to the leaky coax antenna system (as opposed to the PED version that basically can operate anywhere in the mine). To take this restriction into account, and to ensure high reliability is maintained, fixed blasting stations were set up at each area of the mine where blasting takes place. Due to the disseminated nature of the ore body, there are many small working areas where blasting occurs. Each blasting station has been set up to allow up to five nearby faces to be wired into the BlastPED Exploder (i.e. each BlastPED initiates up to five faces depending on the requirements of that shift). A blasting board was designed to allow the simple wiring of a number of faces into the BlastPED, to simplify the set up and ensure that each face was in series with the others, as BlastPED initiate series circuits only.

JUSTIFICATION

Increased productivity and safety were the prime justification for the remote system. Safety was through the removal of personnel from the vicinity of the blast. Productivity has been improved by increasing working time at the end of shifts because later clearance of zones is possible. With the previous hand firing in the blast areas people had to clear areas earlier, to allow time to leave, before fumes from other blast areas entered their ventilation zones.

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Hilton / George Fisher Mine

BeltPED Receiver

AutoPED

USE PED FOR EMERGENCY WARNING & REMOTE BLASTING

MINE: HILTON/GEORGE FISHER MINE
OWNER: MT ISA MINES
TYPE: SILVER-LEAD-ZINC
LOCATION: MT ISA, QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA

BACKGROUND

Hilton Mine has undergone expansion with the development of the George Fisher ore body to the north. As part of this expansion, it was identified that the existing communication systems did not meet all the mine’s requirements. In particular: – Communication to all personnel needed to be achieved to enhance the mine’s management and safety systems. – The blasting system required upgrading to maintain reliable, safe blasting throughout the mine. The existing mains firing system was seen to have some shortcomings, so the BlastPED System was chosen for remote, cen-tralised, blast initiation. As PED provides signal coverage to the whole mine, via its “through-the-earth” transmission characteristics, it was chosen to meet the above requirements.

COMPOSITION

Transmission System with 2.9km underground loop antenna at Hilton with a 4km extension to cover the George Fisher area. 250 BeltPED Personal Receivers 25 AutoPED Vehicle Mounted Receivers. 10 Modified AutoPED for Mounting at all Emergency Refuge Bays to trigger sirens. 10 BlastPED Receiver/Exploders

DESCRIPTION

An underground antenna of 2.9km (10,000 ft)provides coverage to Hilton mine. A 4km extension runs, via an u/g de-cline, to George Fisher to provide signal coverage in this new development area. Thus, the whole mine complex is covered with a single transmitter located at the Shift Boss” office at 10 L Hilton. The computer for inputting messages in located at the Hilton Surface Control Room. The PC and Transmitter are linked via the mine”s optic fibre network.

JUSTIFICATION

PED was chosen because of its success at other MIM mines, both metal and coal. The BlastPED System was installed for the cost and safety benefits to be gained from eliminating the need to install and maintain mains firing cables.

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Cannington Mine

ControlPED

AutoPED

BlastPED Receiver/Exploder

BlastPED Receiver Integrated with Cap Lamp Battery

BLASTING,FAN CONTROL & PERSONAL PAGING – ALL WITH PED

MINE: CANNINGTON MINE
OWNER: BHP BILLITON
TYPE: LEAD/SILVER DEPOSIT
LOCATION: 200KM SE OF MT ISA, QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA

BACKGROUND

BHPB’s Cannington mine installed a PED System initially for remote blasting, personal communication and emergency warning. ControlPEDs have now been installed to remotely operate the fans from the existing PED Transmission system. This means Cannington are now using the full range of PED system receivers, and hence are receiving even better cost benefits then their original justification was based on.

COMPOSITION

Transmission System with 3km surface loop antenna 305 BeltPED Personal Receivers 30 AutoPED Vehicle Receivers 6 BlastPED Remote Blasting Receivers 9 ControlPEDs for fans

DESCRIPTION

A surface antenna with a diameter of 475 meters provides coverage to the whole underground development. Depth of the mine is 575 meters (1900ft). The transmitter is located at the winding shaft and is connected to the main computer via a radio link. PED complements the leaky feeder radio system and provides a total solution to the mines requirements.

JUSTIFICATION

BHP Billiton originally justified the system on the improved safety benefits of remote blasting and also on the PEDs inherent ability to be used as a reliable mine wide warning system. The combination of BeltPEDs and AutoPEDs ensure ALL personnel are contactable, at ALL times. The BlastPED system removed the need for the mine to install a mains firing system (with all its inherent problems). And now the use of ControlPEDs offer an economic means of controlling fans prior to, and after, blasting.

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Minesite Technologies: 25 27 Whiting St Artarmon NSW 2064 AUSTRALIA Phone: +61 2 9437 4399 Fax: +61 2 9437 5688 Email: mst@minesite.com.au