The appeal of vehicle collision avoidance systems (CAS) to operators of large mines is growing as mine safety pressures increase, more inexperienced operators get behind the wheels of very large (and very expensive) equipment, and mine owners seek to maintain hectic production schedules.

The CAS technologies, ranging from video camera/radio to satellite-based, are also advancing with the help of fresh investment funding in the case of smaller companies and greater focus from larger players.

Leading mining equipment manufacturers, including Caterpillar, are investing in the development of collision avoidance technologies and there is a view that mines will have a raft of commercial options to choose from over the next two years where only one or two field proven systems are in use today.

Industrea unit Advanced Mining Technologies confirmed a major deal in February this year to supply BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance coal mines in central Queensland with its CAS-CAM collision avoidance technology.

The deal followed a successful roll-out of CAS-CAM at the Anglo American-operated (and 44% owned) Collahuasi copper mine in Chile and installation of trial equipment at mine sites in Australia, Indonesia and South America with “a number of major multi-national mining companies”, according to Industrea.

Anglo is said to be in the midst of a group-wide review of available CAS technologies, as are companies such as Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc (including a focus within newly acquired Phelps Dodge), Newmont Mining, Rio Tinto and Barrick Gold Corp.

Industrea, an ASX-listed Brisbane-based company that has grown annual revenues to more than $A70 million from about $3.5 million in the past two years on the back of a string of mining-supply sector acquisitions, bought Advanced Mining Technologies in December 2005 for $10 million. The AMT business revolves around its directional drill guidance technology and, increasingly, the CAS-CAM product.

“There is a well documented issue with mine site collisions involving large mining vehicles, primarily resulting from poor visibility,” said Tricom Securities in a research note on Industrea.

“CAS-CAM aims to reduce the incidence of collisions. The system enhances driver visibility using cameras, but takes this one step further by using an automated detection system to identify high risk areas and potential problems.”

CAS-CAM uses colour video cameras with high-resolution LCD display units and radio frequency (RF) transceivers to provide operators with an automatic object detection warning and classification system. All of a mine’s heavy vehicles, light vehicles, personnel and stationary objects are fitted with RF transceiver tags, such that large dump trucks and other machinery continually receives and sends signals and operators receive warnings about any “at risk” objects.

Tricom had predicted late last year that AMT could contribute $12 million of fiscal 2006-07 revenue and $4.5 million EBITDA to Industrea on the basis of 12 drill guidance tool sales and service, and $5 million of CAS-CAM orders. “In terms of potential (CAS-CAM) revenue per mine, we would suggest between $1-3 million, with the range dependent on the number of vehicles/objects requiring protection,” the broker said.

Industrea didn’t assign a dollar value to the BMA deal, which involves six large surface coal mines in the Bowen Basin.

Perth-based International Mining Technologies is another Australian company with sights on a slice of the global mine collision avoidance system market. It claims to be rolling out its CAS (Collision Avoidance System) product in the US and Australia after a seven-year development effort.

However, further funding is needed to advance the technology to meet the needs of potential users such as Phelps Dodge, Newmont and Alcoa, and the strong appetite of Australian investors for mining supply stories has apparently matched this need to a pool of funds.

Yesterday’s announcement that ASX-listed investment vehicle Morning Star Holdings (Australia) Ltd would inject $9.65 million into IMT (and change its name to IMT in July) for 100% of the business will, subject to the transaction being completed, deliver a second locally-developed CAS technology into a public vehicle and open up a door to further funding of the product.

Phelps Dodge has been working with IMT on advancing CAS and completed a field trial at its Bagdad copper mine in Arizona last year. It describes the IMT system as a radio (radio frequency identification type) system with multiple sensors that use a software program to “triangulate” relative position between two or more trucks and forecast the path or trajectory of the vehicles quickly. If a collision is imminent an alarm is raised.

Freeport/Phelps wants to increase the signal bandwidth of the system from 2.4GHz to 5.8GHz but is not yet convinced this can be achieved.

The focus on higher transmission capacity is central to any long-term roll-out of the IMT technology at Freeport copper and molybdenum operations in the US, South America, Indonesia and Africa.

The mining group is pursuing a combination of advanced radio location technology and a Work Area Visibility System (WAVS) for its mining fleets, and is concentrating on immediate short-range sensing technologies because this is where it believes more than 90% of collision incidents have their origin. All of this to enhance current standard operating procedures for equipment operators, which Freeport says “will remain a critical component of collision avoidance as it is today”

* Richard Roberts is editor of www.highgrade.net