The Australian company will supply a 9km surface antenna that will radiate signal to all underground development and longwall panels at BHP Billiton's Appin colliery, near Wollongong in New South Wales. Two hundred BeltPED receivers installed on miners' cap lamps will ensure that all underground mine personnel are contactable from the surface.

According to MST, this meant PED could be used as a general communication system for day-to-day operations, as well as an emergency warning system.

"The success of the PED system at BHP Billiton's nearby West Cliff mine assisted in Appin's justification," MST said. Three BHP Billiton underground coal mines - Appin, West Cliff and Crinum in Queensland - and the company's Cannington silver-lead mine in Queensland, use PED.

MST recently won its biggest ever PED deal, under which it is supplying PED systems to six underground coal mines in New South Wales owned by Powercoal. The company is also supplying new PED systems to two Enex Resources mines in the Hunter Valley, NSW. - MiningNews.net