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October 2016
MODERN MINING
37
SAFETY IN MINING
feature
Trackless mobile machinery – what the regulations say
The amendments to the Mine Health and Safety Act that came
into force last year state that “All electrically or battery pow-
ered trackless mobile machines, excluding shovels, bucket
wheel excavators and overburden drills, must be provided with
means to automatically detect the presence of any pedestrian
within its vicinity. Upon detecting the presence of a pedestrian,
the operator of the trackless mobile machine and the pedes-
trian must be warned of each other’s presence by means of
an effective warning. In the event where no action is taken to
prevent potential collision, further means must be provided to
retard the trackless mobile machine to a safe speed where after
the brakes of the trackless mobile machine are automatically
applied without human intervention.”
A similar clause governs ‘communication’between trackless
mobile machines with the regulations stating that “Every die-
sel powered trackless mobile machine must be provided with
means to automatically detect the presence of any other diesel
powered trackless mobile machine within its vicinity… .”
The regulations define a ‘trackless mobile machine’ as “any
self-propelled mobile machine that is used for the purpose of
performing mining, transport or associated operations under-
ground or on surface at a mine.”
Booyco’s PDS meets all
current legislation.
a single supplier. We at Booyco would like to
see a standard for PDS being defined and – to
this end – we are a vigorous participant in the
Earth Moving Equipment Safety Round Table
(EMESRT) forum whose objective is to advance
the standardisation and design of equipment to
improve safe operability and maintainability.”
Despite its rather broad name, EMESRT is
primarily a mining industry initiative involv-
ing major mining companies – such as Anglo
American, Barrick and Rio Tinto – and leading
OEMs. “One of the tasks it is working on is a
standard for PDS and we want this in place by
the end of this year,” says Lourens.
While PDS technology forms the core of
Booyco Electronics’ offering, the company does
offer several other products. These include
the Sentient, a handheld gas detection device
which is the first multi-gas instrument available
in South Africa that measures relative humidity
as a standard offering; a UPS system which is
intrinsically safe and suitable for underground
use; the Booyco biometric key unit, specifi-
cally developed to eliminate the borrowing of
vehicle keys or access cards to allow access
or operation of mining equipment; and the
Trapped Miner Locator.
The Trapped Miner Locator uses simi-
lar technology to the Booyco PDS, with VLF
tags being installed in miners’ cap lamps. In
the event of a rescue situation, the VLF loca-
tor and the antenna are taken underground
by the rescue team. This handheld locating
device is used to transmit a signal which is
then acknowledged by the tag in the miner’s
cap lamp. The system can operate through up
to 30 m of rock.
One of the most recent additions to the
Booyco Electronics range is its Asset Protection
System (APS). Designed for easy and effective
communication between vehicles operating on
surface, the APS transfers information between
users via a new, in-house designed and
developed human machine
interface. It incorporates a
high definition LED screen
and high-level controller
with massive computa-
tional power to operate
quickly at high speed.
The first APS proto-
types were completed
at the end of 2015
and the system is now
commercially available.
Says Lourens: “Our
APS complements our
PDS technology, which we
had already modified for use in
surface mining applications. The two
systems can be totally integrated and operated
from a single interface.”
Looking ahead, Lourens says that probably
the biggest single challenge facing Booyco is
customer education. “As I’ve said, many mines
are receptive to PDS technology in principle
but that does not always translate into a fit-for-
purpose solution that gains user acceptance
at the ‘mining face’. We need full buy in from
managers and workers and at the moment we
don’t necessarily get that. So we are putting a
great deal of effort into explaining to miners
what best practice technologies can reasonably
be expected to do and what their limitations
are, as well as how they can be implemented to
maximum advantage.
“Our goal is to create a culture where all
the workers at a mine embrace and fully com-
mit to PDS – not merely because it is a legal
requirement but because they themselves are
convinced that it can save lives. We’re well
on our way to achieving this objective and the
level of awareness of the benefits of PDS tech-
nology is certainly many times greater than it
was when the company was founded a decade
ago,” he concludes.