father’s and grandfather’s footsteps.
He started in the mining industry at
the turn of the century. Since then,
much has changed underground.
“When I started in the industry in
2000, they were still using page
phones. These are still used today,
just copper-wire page phones,”
Adkins explained. “But it’s really
branched [since then], over these
past 16 yrs.” So now, as well as the
ʼold faithful‘, Wi-Fi, leaky feeder
systems and fibre optics have all
been introduced to underground
mining.
Sago mine disaster:
driving technological
development
Much of technological development
in underground mine technology – at
least in the US – was driven by the
Sago mine disaster of 2006. In
response, the US government passed
the Mine Improvement and New
Emergency Response (MINER) Act,
which included a provision that
mandated wireless two-way
communication and electronic
tracking be installed in underground
mines within three years.
“Initially some mines were
proactive in installing intrinsically
safe (IS), post-accident
communications and tracking
systems,” said Adkins. “But once the
mandate came out from the
government for the MINER Act,
people really started looking into
it.”
Modern underground mine
communications can be broken down
into two areas: voice communication
and text-based communication. Voice
communication is more for your
day-to-day production, but not all
employees need it, as Adkins
explained. Here, leaky feeder
communication has been a significant
development.
Text-based communication comes
into its own in an emergency
situation and is what Strata
Worldwide specialises in. “Our
company’s system is a proprietary
mesh network that you can text back
and forth on,” Adkins said. But why
a text-based system?
“You know what you’re sending,”
said Adkins. “You receive it exactly
as it is sent out. One of the challenges
we experienced with voice
communication was misinterpreting
messages. Voice communications
post-accident present a number of
challenges. Firstly, they may have to
communicate when it’s not an
advantageous time to do so and
secondly, they are wearing SCSR
units and have to talk through the
mouth-piece.”
This is avoided with text-based
systems: “Text is clear and miners can
read and respond when they are ready
and able, just like phone texting
today,” concluded Adkins. “Since
leaky-feeder has been prevalent in
mines for years, there are less
text‑based systems utilised in
day‑to‑day operations around the
world. However, text‑based systems
are becoming more popular over time,
as text messaging is becoming more
popular just in general life.”
To that basic text-based mesh
system, Strata Worldwide has
started to add options that take it
beyond the mine emergency into
production processes. “We’ve added
wireless monitoring to it,” explained
Adkins. “So Strata has the only truly
wireless atmospheric and CO
monitoring system underground.
That’s a big move for the industry.
And we’ve added wireless belt
monitoring, as well as bringing data
off of our proximity detection
system, HazardAvert
®
.”
“So not only are we using it for
communications, we are finding
other ways to help the mining
companies from a production
standpoint,” continued Adkins.
“Strata also offers Wi-Fi systems,
which include VoIP calling and
high-speed data access. The Strata
Wi-Fi access points create ’hotspots’
underground – much like what we
have on the surface. These are
compatible with any standard
IEEE 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi enabled
device. Strata’s Wi-Fi system is
non-IS.”
Despite this technological
development, the challenges remain
the same as encountered by those
early telephone-based systems.
“From an equipment side, reliability
is probably the toughest thing
because it’s such a corrosive
atmosphere.”
Beyond that, there is the
challenge of ensuring that
communication reaches everywhere.
This was a key part of the MINER
Act: to make sure each person
underground is able to communicate
with the outside.
“Did you ever go down the road
and drop a call?” Adkins asked.
“This cannot happen underground.
The standard for communications
underground is that it has got to be
consistent. We have better
communications underground than
we do with our cell towers on the
road.”
A global adventure
Strata Worldwide – as its name
indicates – is not just active in the
US, however. Indeed, Adkins has
been to some remote parts of the
world in his career. “We’ve got
systems installed worldwide. We
installed a system in Svalbard in
Spitsburgen.” That is the world’s
most northerly mine, located within
the Arctic Circle and famous for its
polar bears.
Adkins was part of the team that
installed the system – a job that
allowed him to see the Northern
Lights. “That was probably the most
remote system that we put in.”
But Strata also has systems in
more traditional mining locations.
“We’ve installed systems in
South Africa and we're currently
bidding for some jobs in Russia as
well.” And of course the US, where
Strata had about a hundred systems
in coal mines at the peak of the
industry a few years ago – although it
has fallen since the downturn began.
The coal downturn has coincided
with an upturn in interest from the
hard rock mining sector, however.
“Hard rock mines are starting to pick
up a lot more interest into better
communication and tracking, data
retrieval. So we’re seeing a lot more
interest shift over to the hard rock
side as well,” concluded Adkins.
44
|
World Coal
|
June 2016
