The system was installed at the mine after extensive testing in real time conditions and positive reviews by Metropolitan manager of electrical engineering John Weaver.

“It was impressive to see the performance enhancements during recent longwall moves and the safety improvements for mine emergency preparations are significant,” Baker said.

Becker managing director Tony Napier said during the recent longwall move the benefits of real-time voice communications greatly simplified the overall task at hand.

“Staff could communicate throughout the mine and coordinate the move with ease,” he said.

“The same benefits are achieved when undertaking evacuations or safety drills, in that the workforce can communicate effectively and immediately via the radio system.”

In late 2009, Metropolitan became the first coal mine in Australia to trial Becker’s Intrinsically Safe UHF Leaky Feeder System.

Metropolitan chose to install a 1km section of Leaky Feeder infrastructure and acquired six IS.

UHF Radios to see how the system would perform under real conditions.

Napier said site management were confident of success and the system has proven highly reliable and, importantly, simple to use, install and maintain.

The Southern Coalfields of NSW have been strong supporters of the Becker products, he said.

“We have large systems at Metropolitan and Dendrobium , and currently the largest system in Australian coal is being installed at Appin. We’re also in discussions with other operators in NSW,” he said.

“We have just received the ANZex certification for our previously IECex certified radio, so now we can actively approach Queensland-based operators.”