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.

Baijigou Coal

Baijigou Coal Mine is the first coal mine in China to order our new ICCL cap lamp with both PED and Tagging electronics included. This will enable communication to personnel underground via the PED paging system, as well as tracking their location using the TRACKER tagging system.

Baijigou is operated by the Ning Xia Coal Group and is located in the Helan Mountains bordering Inner Mongolia. Though an extremely rugged landscape (see picture below), the engineers at Baijigou are planning to install the PED antenna on the surface by hanging it on poles, rather than the more typical method of trenching into the ground.

The PED System will use an 8 km (25,000 ft) surface antenna and start with 80 ICCL personal cap lamps. The TRACKER System will incorporate 20 Read Beacons at strategic points underground.

Baijigou Coal Mine is a very interesting mine, as it extracts all of a 20 m (66 ft) thick coal seam. This is achieved by using top coal caving longwall methods in two passes. The first pass uses the shearer to extract 3 m (10 ft) of coal above the middle of the seam, with the top 7 m (23 ft) of coal won by top coal caving. Then a second longwall pass is done in the bottom half of the seam, again by shearing 3 m and top coal caving the remaining 7 m.

Hence, it is a most impressive operation and we are very appreciative of their support for our communication technologies. We also look forward to our first installation in this Province of China.

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Dahongshan Copper

MST is very excited to announce the largest installation of our ImPact Underground Digital Communication system to date, at Dahongshan Copper Mine. With the demand for copper so strong within their domestic Chinese market, the engineers at Dahongshan set out to upgrade the mine with the latest technology to increase productivity to much higher levels. Their detailed review highlighted the need to establish a high quality, high bandwidth, communication highway within the mine to optimize their investment in mining machinery and their workforce.

Dahongshan Copper Mine is part of Yunnan Copper Group which is the 2nd largest producer of copper in China. With an annual production of 3 million tons in 2006 and production planned to increase to 6 million tons in 2008, it is one of the largest individual copper mines in China.

Dahongshan engineers reviewed a range of communication technologies before deciding that digital, 802.11 based Wi-Fi offered the greatest scope for the meeting the mine’s requirements now and for future expansion. They approached MST after reviewing our ImPact Underground Communication System and assessing its use at mining operations in Canada, USA, Mexico and Australia.

The initial ImPact Digital Mine system consists of:

  • 76 ImPact Access Point/Fibre Switches
  • 24km of MST’s composite fibre/power cable
  • 100 VoIP Phones
  • 200 AeroScout 802.11 RFID Tags
  • 65 IP Video Cameras

Key reasons for choosing MST’s ImPact System instead of the more traditional leaky feeder type underground radio systems, included:

  • ImPact provides the platform / infrastructure for having VoIP, IP Video, Tracking and a lot more in one system – something leaky feeder and other communication systems cannot match, plus it has much more capacity for expansion.
  • The engineers wanted to implement cutting edge communication technology to their underground mining environment.
  • Mine Site’s extensive experience in implementing such system around the world .

We are extremely honoured to be chosen by Dahongshan Mine after such extensive investigations and it is a real credit to our Manager for China, Francis Kan, to work with Dahongshan in addressing their technical requirements in such detail.

We look forward to working with the Dahonghshan group to bring the benefits of digital communications to their mining operations. As one person said to Francis, “While others are talking about installing digital communication and messaging systems, MST is actually doing it, and that is what we need”.

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Pei Gou

PEI GOU COAL MINE INSTALL FIRST TRACKER SYSTEM IN CHINA

MINE: PEI GOU COAL MINE
OWNER: ZHENG ZHOU
TYPE: COAL
LOCATION: CHINA

BACKGROUND

Pei Gou mine management wanted to introduce a tagging system to improve safety at their coal mine He Nan Province.

Pei Gou choose our tagging technology based on its success in the initial Australian installations, and technical confidence in the product because of PED’s success at a number of mines in China.

COMPOSITION

The system consists of:

  • Base station and TRACKER software (Chinese version)
  • 20 Read Beacons
  • 200 Tags (Self Contained Version)

DESCRIPTION

The Read Beacon are located at all entrances to the mine, and then at strategic locations throughout the mine (such as every 1,000 m on main travel roads and the entrances to all working sections).

JUSTIFICATION

The system was justified on the safety benefits in knowing the location of personnel underground in real time. Also, the productivity benefits of knowing where key personnel (such as electrical or mechanics) are and diesel equipment management, contributed to Pei Gou’s decision to install a tagging system.

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Datong Coal

BlastPED Receiver Integrated with Cap Lamp Battery

INSTALL PED FOR PRODUCTIVITY & SAFETY

MINE: MEIYUKOU, WANGCUN AND YANZISHAN MINES
OWNER: DATONG COAL
TYPE: COAL
LOCATION: DATONG, CHINA

BACKGROUND

Datong Coal aims to be amongst the most efficient coal produces in China. Their commitment to improved productivity and safety highlighted the critical nature of communications to achieving their goals. PED was seen as the optimum system to complement their existing telephone system and meet their requirements.

COMPOSITION

The transmission system at each of the three mines consists of a single transmitter powering a 8km (5 mile) underground loop antenna. Each mine has 100 BeltPED Personal Receivers (with Chinese liquid crystal display).

DESCRIPTION

The single underground antenna at each mine is installed in the main travel road on two seams. the main track. The signal radiates off the loop antenna into all areas of the mine. The BeltPEDs are primarily used by maintenance personnel and supervisors.

JUSTIFICATION

The three Datong mines justified the system on the improvements to be gained in safety and productivity from a genuine mine wide communication system.

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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