Miner Proximity Detection

Many accidents happen in the mining industry due to impaired visibility or poor communications with miners on foot and miners in massive mining machines. As most mining machines are tracked by GPS on the surface, a NAViSEER-tracked miner can trigger alarms if he walks into an unsafe area or moves too close to a dangerous part of a mining machine.

In the event of a cave-in, a NAViSEER-equipped miner can be tracked to within 2% of distance traveled from the last calibration point - as long as radio communications are available.  At a minimum, the last known good point before radio communications were lost would be known, allowing rescue and extraction efforts to be much more precise than current tracking implementations.

Miner Act of 2006 Electronic Tracking Requirements

Excerpt from PROGRAM POLICY LETTER NO. P09-V-01 from Kenneth Strickland Administrator for Coal Mine Safety and Health and Mark Skiles

Performance

While the required capabilities of a particular tracking system will depend on mine-specific circumstances, an effective electronic tracking system generally should be capable of:

• Determining the location of miners on a working section to within 200 feet.
• Determining the location of miners in escapeways at intervals not exceeding 2000 feet.
• Determining the location of miners within 200 feet of strategic areas. Strategic areas are those locations where miners are normally required to work or likely congregate in an emergency and can include belt drives and transfer points, power centers, loading points, SCSR caches and other areas identified by the District Manager (example: A reader is placed 200 feet or less from each strategic location).
• Determining direction of travel at key junctions in escapeways.
• Determining the identity of miners within 200 feet of refuge alternatives.

Scanning rate - In order to provide timely and relevant information, the tracking system generally should be capable of updating (refreshing) location data at least every 60 seconds.

NAViSEER can update position up to 4 times a second. NAViSEER when integrated with inside tunnel communication systems can comply with Miner Act Requirements.