The advantage of using GPS Tracker for mining

GPS Tracking Device has proven a significant increasing in productivity and improved on-site safety in mining activities, e.g., mineral and aggregate extraction with especial incidence in iron ore and coal extraction and transport tasks. In open pit mining, accurate GPS and GNSS(Global Navigation Satellite System) is useful for tasks such as machine guidance, grading, dozing, drilling, collision avoidance, surveying, and fleet management. GPS can be used in open cut mining operations as long as the satellites can be viewed in a direct line of sight. Tests undertaken at two mines, under worst case conditions, show that GPS works well in most situations. Close to highwalls (within 3-4 metres) depending on the positioning of the satellites at any given time, the GPS system dropped back to two dimensional fixing, with only three satellites visible. GPS needs four satellites for a three dimensional fix. There are many areas where GPS technology can improve the productivity of coal mines. So the mining operations related with GPS are given below:

Blasthole Drilling: GPS based blasthole drill systems provide drill monitoring, control and guidance. The prime objective of GPS for drilling is to navigate the drill rig over the designed collar position, eliminating the need for manual survey.

Shovels,Loaders,Dozers and Graders: The planned design of the mines,ore blocks,pits and roads,is overlapped with the vehicle’s current position providing the operator with the assistance required to mine the pit and ore block to the intend mine design.The on-board display provides required assistance by providing visual cues to where are located the ore blocks and whether the current floor grade is below or above the design floor grade.

Vehicle Tracking and Dispatch: The dump trucks’ positions obtained are sent to the central control station,where it is carried the dumping scheduling management.This application determines which material is loaded and sends information and instructions to be followed by the truck drivers,in order to guarantee that the assignments are followed and the materials are correctly collected from the correct ore block and dumped in the correct dumping location.   

GPS surveying: The advantage of using Portable GPS Tracker  for surveying in open pit mining is that only a single surveyor is required,in opposition to the conventional methods. Monitor Drivers and Vehicles: The sensors in the vehicle provide monitoring information of equipment’s,like for instance air preassures.These systems also provide sensors sent to a central control station.This system will allow for rapid intervation in case of problems.

GPS Tracker Application in Mining:

Drill guidance, 

Control of bucket wheels and dozers, 

Roads grading and maintenance, 

Access and zone control for visiting vehicles, 

Detecting dangerous driver behavior and Collision avoidance applications. 

Surveying crews can be reduced,

Guidance and control for drill rigs and explosive trucks, 

Asset tracking, for instance, of lighting plant and mobile generators, 

Fleet management systems for haul trucks and other vehicles tracking and dispatch, 

Safety Applications: 

Surveying: Waterproof GPS Tracker considerably speeds up the surveying process and reduces the time surveyors are in the field often in vulnerable locations, eliminating the process of establishing field control points. 

High Precision Machine Control: This systems increase efficiency, eliminating the need to have people on the ground outside vehicles, where they are most vulnerable to accidents, and the eliminate the need to deploy pegs in the field. Also the recording of events can be useful is accident situations, in order to obtain the causes that lead to the incident .

Truck Fleet Management: In a fleet management application, trucks can be assigned to different loading machines in real time to improve overall efficiency. A safety benefit is that the central control station always knows the location of each truck.

Hazard Avoidance: These applications warn the operator of onsite hazards such as machines operating next to each other where the operators don't manage to see other due to terrain orography or voids from older workings. These systems can also be set to automatically broadcast an assistance required signal to the central control station if the device is tilted beyond a preset angle.

More information at http://www.jimilab.com/blog/ .