New Opportunities for Safety and Environmental Protection

While the mining industry has historically been very safety conscious, mainly in the mechanical and geological aspects, more attention needs to be given to instrumentation that can contribute to safety as well as environmental awareness and protection.

This is the view of John Immelman, Managing Director of Endress+Hauser, Australia, who said safety should not only be defined in the context of human lives, but also in terms of environmental control, where correctly applied technology generally has a positive effect on safety.

"There is cost-effective measuring equipment currently available to monitor environmental  and hazardous aspects more reliably and extensively, such as the overspill of dangerous chemicals, methane and ozone monitoring, air temperature and quality"  he said.  "For example, the monitoring of level, pressures and percentage concentration in an acid plant can ensure the safety of lives, for if a vessel explodes, then people can be hurt: as well as protection of the environment, where spillage of highly concentrated acid can contaminate the groundwater and poison flora and fauna.  Automation also reduces the possibility of human error or negligence, thereby improving safety."

Endress+Hauser has a basket of products that directly or indirectly assist in improving safety, such as the Liquiphant level switch   to prevent overspill, the Cerabar pressure transmitter   to monitor pressures in vessels, Liquisys pH and conductivity to monitor effluent quality, Prosonic flow to measure the rate of  flowof dangerous liquids  and the Omnigrad  temperature sensor to ensure chemical reactions do not get out of control.

"We believe that the Endress+Hauser Liquiphant vibrating level overspill switch with no moving parts has helped to prevent a number of possible pollution crises by controlling the pumps and supply of hazardous liquids normally associated with mines"  said Immelman. "?In certain respects, mining is an imprecise science, especially as we explore new limits with experiments at new depths, higher temperatures and higher humidity that are testing the robustness and reliability of the environmental instrumentation.  We would like to offer our technical expertise in this field to work with the ?pioneers? and really test the products and their suitability before risking lives due to inexperience."

According to Immelman, the application of technology can result in reduced employment and there is some reluctance to apply these modernisation strategies.

"“But to compete in the global market, industry must reduce cost of production and increase quality and consistency of quality.  All these aspects require increased automation and control, and the application of technology, which while it may appear to have the effect of reducing workforces, it is not the primary driving force”" he said.  "What is really causing reduced workforces is the demand for reduced costs and increased productivity, and technology is the tool that can be used to achieve these efficiencies."

"The application of technology for safety in mines is still in its infancy.   Soon these technologies will be more reliable and monitoring and control instruments will be able to communicate with the necessary authorities over the Internet, and without human intervention.  This means that predictive maintenance will improve safety records and that the possibility of a dangerous situation will be advised electronically to the maintenance and safety teams to take the necessary counter action, reducing the risk of fatalities."

"Before the acceptance of the mining industry into the global marketplace, and the subsequent mergers and acquisitions, it was felt that there was over-regulation on most aspects of safety except pollution, but more recently there is concern that investment in safety precaution is dropping dangerously low.  We propose that mining managements form partnerships with instrumentation and safety equipment suppliers to work together to offer the best solution while taking extreme care not to cut corners", he concluded.

Enquiries:  John Immelman

Displayed: 31.01.2002