Sibanye-Stillwater invests in OptiMine® collision avoidance system (CAS) to enhance safety of workers
USD$17M investment in OptiMine®next-generation technology to reduce accidents, injuries, and fatalities at Sibanye-Stillwater’s US PGM operations in Montana, US
Newtrax and Sibanye-Stillwater have been working together since 2017 on various digitalization projects to improve safety and productivity at its Stillwater PGM underground mining operations in Montana.
OptiMine® increases safety and optimized underground mining operations which aligns with Sibanye-Stillwater’s CARES values of commitment to safety, accountability, respect, and sustainability. These values support safe operations, allow growth, underpin business strategy, and promote competitiveness and success.
2022 is the beginning of a new chapter with the mine-wide implementation of the new OptiMine® Collision Avoidance System that links intelligent cap lamps to a warning system inside the cab of underground mobile equipment.
The system provides the vehicle operator with a virtual view of any pedestrians in the immediate area of the machine, along with an escalating warning system for both as the distance between them become smaller.
This escalation transitions from a warning to vehicle intervention, where the vehicle automatically reduces speed and comes to a controlled stop, should the system recognize the presence of any pedestrian wearing an intelligent cap lamp in the high-risk zone.
The same technology is also designed to improve the safety of vehicle-to-vehicle as well as vehicle to locomotive interactions and will be used as the digitalization platform for real-time operations management.
“Newtrax provides us with a safe, proactive and integrable solution to our operational needs. The OptiMine® system integrates all the telemetry, tracking and proximity detection technology we need to run our operations safely, transparently and efficiently.
And they are humble enough to leverage the global experience we’ve had with other collision avoidance systems globally, to make their system even better.” said Jacques van Rensburg, Vice President and Group Head of Engineering, Sibanye-Stillwater.”
“Sibanye-Stillwater is a key customer for Newtrax,” said Jean-Phillip Bouchard, Vice President – Americas, Newtrax. We are pleased to expand their current system and take on the challenge of developing and delivering OEM-agnostic intervention controllers to enable slow-to-stop control of all their equipment.”
Source: International Mining
