Modern Mining October 2019

HEALTH AND SAFETY IN MINING

years now, the goal of zero harm to workers has been the highest priority for mines so we’ve never really had to work too hard to con- vince them of the benefits our systems provide. From the time we first started up, they’ve been receptive to the concept of a PDS. But there’s no doubt that the new regulations have pro- vided a ‘tail wind’ for sales and allowed us to continue growing our business, even during periods when the mining industry in South Africa has been depressed,” he says. One major trend in

the PDS market that Lourens identifies is a move towards common standards. “When we first estab- lished Booyco, the industry was a free for all, with no standards in place to guide either developers such as ourselves, the manufacturers of TMMs, whose machines have to be able to respond to PDS inter- ventions, or indeed the mining companies when putting out tenders or inquiries for proximity detec- tion systems,” he states. “This has now changed, due in major part to the efforts of the Earth Moving Equipment Safety Round Table (EMESRT), an industry forum first established in Australia in 2006 by a number of global mining houses, which has developed a set of specifications which details the key elements of vehicle interaction systems and the functionality which proximity detec- tion systems need to have. There is still work to be done but we are finally seeing some order being

brought to what was previously a chaotic field.” Lourens says that Booyco has fully embraced the work of EMESRT, whose guidelines have been adopted as ‘best practice’ in South Africa by the Minerals Council South Africa. Looking ahead, Lourens sees further strong growth for Booyco. “The legislative requirements should result in the South African PDS market remain- ing buoyant but beyond this there is huge scope for growth in the rest of Africa, where the take-up of proximity detection systems has been slow, mainly due to the lack of appropriate legislation, and also in overseas markets, which have also, for the most part, lagged South Africa. We are a world leader in the PDS field and believe we are well placed to take advantage of the opportunities opening up as PDS becomes the norm in all mines worldwide. Photos courtesy of Booyco Electronics

Booyco Electronics’ GPS surface offering is compatible with underground vehicles.

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October 2019  MODERN MINING  37