CAS & FATIGUE
Sandvik is working with some of its largest customers which also happen to be some of the world’ s top miners with some of the largest and most challenging operations from a CAS point of view:“ We know that if we get it right with these customers, the offering will meet the rest of the market needs as well.” Proving the performance in South African mines is also a part of this;“ it remains an attractive market because it’ s legislated, but it is also challenging for many reasons – large numbers of people underground, each with unique behaviours and training requirements, and quite diverse equipment fleets.”
Zarum also referenced CAS as just one of Sandvik’ s safety platform solutions, from real time tracking and telemetry to its Mining Data Platform for centralised data aggregation. But also autonomy and AutoMine itself – as ultimately both will be needed to achieve more flexible mixed autonomous and non-autonomous fleets..
Strata’ s CPS integrations for a mine-wide ecosystem
We also caught up with Gert Venter, GM at Strata Products Worldwide, to discuss the company’ s evolution beyond standalone safety products to a fully unified operational platform. While renowned for its HazardAVERT collision prevention system
( CPS), Strata says its key advancement is the seamless integration of CPS with its personnel tracking and communication technologies to create a comprehensive mine-wide safety ecosystem.
“ The real safety and productivity gains are achieved when your CPS, your tracking system, and your communications network speak the same language and operate on a single, unified platform,” Venter told IM.
This integrated approach is designed for flexibility and can start with any core Strata product be it communications, tracking, or CPS based on a mine’ s immediate needs and budget. The architecture is built to scale seamlessly, allowing other systems to be added over time to form a complete ecosystem.
The synergy between systems is where the true value is realised, argued Venter. Strata’ s Personnel and Vehicle Tracking Systems provide the critical real-time location data for every person and asset underground. This data, when integrated with the HazardAVERT CPS, enables a more intelligent, situation-aware layer of protection, moving the operation from simple awareness to automated prevention.
Furthermore, this integrated platform provides a direct solution for compliance with the new MHSA Regulation 16.7, which mandates a Missing Person Locator System for all underground mines. Strata’ s tracking system is specifically designed to meet this critical safety requirement. In an emergency, the system provides management and rescue teams with instantaneous data on exactly who is underground and their precise lastknown location, drastically reducing search time and enhancing rescue efficacy.“ This functionality isn’ t a separate addon; it is a core feature of the existing integrated safety ecosystem, demonstrating how Strata’ s technology provides both preventative and reactive safety solutions.”
This deep integration also simplifies compliance and operational management.“ Customers have one platform instead of three separate systems. The data from tracking, communications, and CPS is correlated in a single interface. This makes monitoring system health, generating compliance reports, and conducting incident investigations vastly more efficient. You can see the complete picture: what was communicated, where everyone was, and what commands were sent to the machines, all on one timeline.”
On the ongoing challenges of CPS implementation, Venter noted that a unified platform simplifies the process.“ Because we provide the integrated data architecture, we are often in a better position to facilitate the integration of third-party machine interfaces. We understand the data flow from end-toend.”
Finally, Venter highlighted the global application of this integrated philosophy.“ Whether it’ s in our core South African coal market or in new hard rock mines in South Africa, Ghana, Australia, Botswana, and the Americas, we are providing a connected safety ecosystem. It’ s this ability to offer a comprehensive, interoperable solution from tracking to active collision prevention that defines our advancement and provides our customers with a complete, future-proofed safety framework.”
Hexagon – safety insights through system integration
In July 2025, Hexagon, the global leader in measurement technologies in mining, announced the launch of Hexagon Operator Alertness System( OAS) 7.5, which it said was a significant advancement in mining safety technology that“ sets a new global benchmark.”
OAS 7.5 integrates operator alertness monitoring with Hexagon’ s market-leading Collision Avoidance System( CAS 10), which Hexagon says delivers unparalleled insights into vehicle interactions and operator behaviour.
The release featured numerous enhancements expanding upon the existing capabilities of OAS, and the integration with CAS 10 enables automatic capture and display of predicted collision event videos, giving safety personnel a real-time window into critical events and operator performance.
A successful field deployment of OAS 7.5 at Whitehaven Coal’ s Tarrawonga operations in New South Wales, Australia demonstrated the robustness and efficiency of the system. The trial spanned an entire fleet and ran for more than a cumulative 10,000 operating hours. The integration worked with exceptional processing efficiency- averaging just 5.8 seconds for event videos to be remotely available for 76 International Mining | JANUARY 2026