GroundProbe’s Slope Stability Radar (SSR), a world leading mine slope stability monitoring system, has reached an impressive two million hours of operation – with 120 mines around the world contributing to the milestone. These SSRs safeguard mine assets by giving advanced warning of rock wall instability, allowing time to safely remove people and equipment from harm’s way.
GroundProbe describes its SSR as “the international standard for open pit risk management. It is used by many of the world’s large miners. Since the first unit started monitoring to provide precise pit wall stability data, more than 120 SSRs have been deployed.
GroundProbe’s global marketing manager, Lorraine Elsmore, said the large global community of SSR users chose the technology because of its proven reliability and technical robustness, and the calibre of support provided by GroundProbe. “The rate at which SSR monitoring hours are accumulating is ever increasing as more mines adopt this best practice in slope monitoring,” she said.
“In the first half of 2010 alone, we sold 17 new radars in addition to supporting our customers with geotechnical and subsurface mapping expertise.”
The list of GroundProbe SSR owners has expanded to include PT Adaro and PT Bayan’s Wahana mine in Indonesia, the Lihir gold mine in Papua New Guinea, Shenhua’s Zhungeer coal mine in China, as well as Diavik (diamonds) and Mont-Wright (iron ore) in Canada; and Ranger (uranium), Rolleston (coal), BMA CQO (coal), Newman and Area C (iron ore) in Australia.
Some sites, such as Konkola Copper’s Nchanga mine in Zambia, have bought and comissioned a second radar. Moreover, additional SSRs have also been bought by Kumba Iron Ore’s Sishen and Thabazimbi mines as well as the African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) and Norilsk Nickel 50% joint venture in Nkomati nickel mine in South Africa, Jwaneng (diamonds) in Botswana; and Rossing (uranium) in Namibia.
Meanwhile in Chile, Anglo-American (Mantos Blancos and Mantoverde) and Kinross (La Coipa) have added GroundProbe SSRs, and copper giant Codelco has ordered a fifth unit for the Chuquicamata mine.
“The accumulated knowledge and experience from operating these radars for most of the world’s leading mining companies, in locations all over the globe, is unparalleled and it is a value-add we provide to our customers through service, support and product development.”
GroundProbeclaims “rugged construction for enhanced durability and extended operation in harsh environments, and a unique design to military specifications, ensure [its] provide the highest uptime of any mine radar monitoring system in the world.”
The use of an integrated camera with the SSR has also proven to be of value to users, bringing data “to life” and adding to the technology’s geo-referencing capability.
“GroundProbe’s SSR technology has already achieved outstanding success in the global mining industry, having detected numerous wall collapses with sufficient warning to evacuate people and equipment,” Elsmore said. “This milestone of two million operating hours reinforces GroundProbe as the benchmark in this field.”