North Parkes is a gold and copper mine in Central West New South Wales, Australia, that’s been in operation since 1993. It consists of an underground block cave mine, a sub-level cave and an ore processing plant which produces copper concentrate for export.
North Parkes has been looking for a simple yet reliable method to monitor geotechnical instruments at site. Specifically, focussed upon a wireless system that would eliminate lead wire exposure and reduce the damage that often occurs with underground mining routines.
A structured trial of a combined MDT/Geomoby solution was discussed with site and key SMART MPBX instruments previously installed throughout the extraction level in high traffic areas were identified for the trial.
These SMART MPBX instruments are all directly connected to a compact Bluetooth device (SMART BLT) which is housed in a borehole immediately adjacent to the SMART MPBX, preventing cable exposure in the main drive.
These SMART BLT devices in turn connect to a network of battery-operated wireless mesh nodes provided by Geomoby. (Geomoby Bluetooth node), which relay sensor data back to a gateway with mine network connectivity and then up to surface for user access.
Deployment of both the Geomoby Bluetooth Nodes and SMART BLT devices was simple and done rapidly with a single button operation to power the devices, which in turn self-mesh with no configuration required.
We found during deployment good signal performance of both system components, with a 50 to 150m range between Geomoby Nodes, and 30 to 50m between a SMART BLT and Geomoby Node.
The MDT instrumentation and Geomoby Bluetooth wireless solution has operated as a site trial for over 6 months, providing the Geotechnical Engineering group near real time access to data on ground conditions.
This timely data is invaluable in assisting the Geotechnical Engineering and Technical Services departments to make informed operational decisions.
“We have been very happy with the Geomoby/MDT combo of instrumentation and wireless data communication used in our underground workings. The ease of installation and cable free infrastructure has afforded us a low maintenance and reliable system for continuous extensometer monitoring.”
Find out more about the MDT/Geomoby solution here.
“We have been very happy with the Geomoby/MDT combo of instrumentation and wireless data communication used in our underground workings. The ease of installation and cable free infrastructure has afforded us a low maintenance and reliable system for continuous extensometer monitoring.”
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