InSig Technologies says it and its partner company, RUC Cementation Mining, have successfully installed and commissioned its Smart Gas monitoring solution at the Mount Morgans underground operation in Western Australia.

This solution incorporates several fixed gas monitoring stations situated strategically throughout the underground mine, with these stations providing real-time gas level readouts to the control room located on the surface, it said.

It follows on the heels of InSig Technologies installing an underground Wi-Fi network at the mine in the March quarter, which it and RUC said could then lead to a ventilation on demand solution with the ability to monitor air quality from the surface.

The Smart Gas monitoring solution provides RUC, which provides full underground services to the mine, with another level of comfort and safety knowing personnel are not operating in a hazardous environment throughout the shift, InSig says. “It also allows for quicker re-entry times and staged re-entry to the underground mine workings by eliminating the requirement for personnel to physically check each level is clear before opening the workings.”

While it is early days for the system, re-entry times have already come down by 10%, according to InSig.

Mount Morgans, owned by Dacian Gold, consists of the Jupiter Mine Area open pit and the Westralia underground mine. The latter mined 200,775 t at 2.9 g/t Au for 18,409 oz contained during the March quarter.