Client Story: Upgrading Capcoal’s radio communications seamlessly

Mining truck, carAnglo American’s Capcoal operates one underground mine (Grasstree), two open-cut mines (Lake Lindsay and Oak Park) and additional surface operations across the original Capcoal German Creek and German Creek-East sites, in the heart of the Bowen Basin in Central Queensland, Australia.

Capcoal’s operation covers 34,085 hectares (131.60 square miles) and annually produces in approximately 8.5 Mt (million tons) of prime quality hard coking coal and PCI coal.

Situation

Expansion of the Capcoal mines and topographical changes to the lease drove the need to update the communications systems on site. A four-site voted analog Tait system was already in place, fully functional and serving its purpose, however the age of the system was leading to higher maintenance costs. 

Capcoal needed a new digital system based on open standards that would deliver seamless communications for operations across the four mines, covering both mine staff and contractors alike. As both safety and continuous-operations are the top priorities at each mine site, Capcoal required a seamless transition to the new digital system to ensure operations were not interrupted.

Response

Tait, working with our partner Nixon Communications, were able to provide the optimal solution to Capcoal including the following:

  • Digital upgrade with minimal interruption to operations
  • Robust and reliable communications
  • Mine safety, emergency and blast tones
  • Flexible system to grow with the mine
  • Integration with the telephone network

The detailed solution overview and technical details can be seen on our client story page.

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