NETWORKS AND COMMUNICATIONS
Number of people underground over time and clearly highlights the gradual drop in numbers from 16:00 hours down to shift end at 20:00 hours
has also given the opportunity to better manage the operations in general to improve productivity. Based on this success, the mine has also expanded the tracking of production vehicles to better monitor and manage load-haul-dump cycles.”
MST is also releasing two new products at MINExpo, though one has been in use at mines for the last several months, with the other having just completed development and going into production. Denis Kent, Business Manager – International at MST states:” As a pioneer in the introduction of Wi-Fi and IP networks into
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underground mines, with our first deployment in Canada in 2005, MST continues to invest in the on-going development of the overall network infrastructure. The objective is to provide more pervasive access to the high bandwidth network, and hence enable more applications and benefits to be realised from such networks.”
The two new products are driven by the need to get high quality data from underground, and leverage the high bandwidth IP networks that are becoming more common in underground mines as they look to better manage their underground processes.
The Wireless Sensor Network( WSN) was developed to enable critical geotechnical data to be wirelessly accessed from a range of sensors in very dynamic areas of the mine. A specific example MST has been involved with is the development and implementation of a roof strain monitoring system at mines with Freeport and Newcrest. Underground block or panel caving operations are becoming the preferred underground mining method given the right orebody conditions. Inherent with the panel cave mining method is ensuring footprint stability through reliable production, and prediction of extraction level pillar performance.
There are many types of geotechnical instrumentation that will be used for monitoring the performance and response of the extraction level pillars. These sensors can measure many things including displacement, temperature, and induced stress. Each pillar in the extraction level will have three or more instruments installed into the host rock to monitor some or all of the above mentioned parameters.
Traditionally these instruments have their data manually downloaded or are hard wired and require a significant amount of permanent cabling that is susceptible to damage or theft. This type of communications network topology makes for a complicated implementation process and a heavy reliance on ongoing maintenance to keep the system operational and online.
104 International Mining | SEPTEMBER 2016