To date, seven detection systems by safety technology developer and Alliance subsidiary Matrix Design Group have been installed at five underground mines.

 

Matrix’s current technology, the Matrix Mine Monitor (M3), is a mine-duty system that trains operators to stay away from red zone hazard areas via warnings and machine shut-down.

 

Alliance noted that Matrix recently inked a partnership with Joy Mining Machinery to offer the systems on a range of the OEM’s continuous mining units.

 

The system is currently undergoing field tests and should be available to the US market in early 2011.

 

"Alliance is committed to serving as a leader at the forefront of mine safety technology," president Joseph Craft III said.

 

"Our operating companies share this commitment and are working diligently to complete installations of the Matrix proximity detection system on their entire fleet of continuous miners."

 

Just last month, the producer announced that Matrix had completed installations of the METS 2.1 communications and tracking system at all of its underground coal operations.

 

The installations are fully in compliance with the outlines of the Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response (MINER) Act, enacted in 2006.

 

"We developed our METS system to provide underground mining operations with the safety technology needed to comply with the [act’s] tracking and communications requirements," Matrix president Aric Pryor said in June.

 

"Our systems provide operators with both a vital safety tool in the event of a mine emergency and a valuable production tool that allows for efficient communications between surface and underground mining personnel."

 

Craft pointed out that the operating companies under the Alliance umbrella were among the first in the industry to adopt tracking and communications safety technology.

 

"With installation of the METS 2.1 systems now completed on all mining sections, Alliance operators are proud to be the first underground mining companies to fully install the post-accident communication and electronic tracking devices envisioned by the MINER Act."