Mine Site And AeroScout Bring Greater Safety And Operational Efficiency To Xstrata Coal's Beltana Mine

Wi-Fi-Based Active RFID Solution Enables Real-Time Location Tracking of Personnel and Equipment, and Controlled Mustering Process

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aero Scout, Inc., the leading provider of Unified Asset Visibility solutions, in partnership with Mine Site Technologies (MST), a global leader in mining communication, today announced that its Wi-Fi-based visibility solution is being used by Xstrata Coal to bring increased safety to workers at the Beltana Coal Mine, Australia's most productive longwall operation. Xstrata uses AeroScout's Active RFID technology, integrated into Mine Site Technologies' ImPact Digital Communication System and ICCL cap lamps, to track 200 workers underground, as well as self contained tags based on AeroScout's T2 intrinsically safe tags to track 50 diesel vehicles throughout the mine.

All of Beltana Coal Mine's workers wear Integrated Communications Cap Lamps (ICCL) from Mine Site whenever they are underground. Mine Site has integrated AeroScout's Active RFID tags into the battery packs of the ICCL cap lamps, enabling their location to be tracked over the mine's Wi-Fi network. The real-time location of every worker can be viewed on a map using AeroScout Mobile View software, which also enables users to search for the location of specific workers at any given time. In the event of an emergency, AeroScout's solution can also be used to automate the muster process, ensuring that all workers in the mine are quickly and accurately accounted for at specific refuge points.

Xstrata is using MST's self contained tags based on AeroScout's market-leading T2 Intrinsically Safe Wi-Fi-based Active RFID tags to track 50 underground vehicles at Beltana. Knowing the accurate real-time location of each of these vehicles facilitates better fleet management and enables Xstrata to streamline vehicle access into ventilation districts. The same Wi-Fi network used by the AeroScout solution to provide accurate real-time location tracking is also leveraged for Wi-Fi-enabled communications equipment, such as VoIP telephones, which can be implemented when IS approvals are achieved on the VoIP hand set.

"With AeroScout's technology integrated into our ICCL cap lamps, we can bring greater safety to miners without encumbering them with additional equipment," said Denis Kent, Business Development Manager at Mine Site. "Underground workers will always have their cap lamps with them, so it only makes sense to use that same equipment to enable quicker emergency response and to automate the mustering process."

"Beltana is a great example of how Unified Asset Visibility can make mines safer and more efficient by providing real-time personnel, vehicle and equipment tracking," said Amir Ben-Assa, Industry Solutions Marketing Director at AeroScout. "Because our visibility solution is based on a Wi-Fi network, mines are able to leverage the same infrastructure for personnel safety, equipment management, energy savings and improved communications."

AeroScout will be at the Minexpo International in Las Vegas, Nevada on September 22-24 in Mine Site's booth #1609.

About Mine Site Technologies

MINE SITE TECHNOLOGIES (MST) is a global leader in mining communications and has a suite of technologies to deliver an overall solution to a mine's communication and management needs. Their technologies have been installed in over 350 mines in Australia, China, USA, Canada, Peru, Chile, Sweden, Mexico and Tanzania, and include:

• ImPact – a digital 802.11b based communication system for underground.
• PED – an ultra-low frequency paging and emergency warning system.
• BlastPED – a remote blast initiation system.
• TRACKER – a tracking system for underground applications.
• ICCL – Integrated Communications Cap Lamp, that can include a range of communication and PPE devices.

For more information, please visit www.minesite.com.au

About AeroScout

AeroScout is the market leader in Unified Asset Visibility solutions. The company's products accurately locate and monitor assets and people over standard Wi-Fi networks to improve and automate business processes. AeroScout's global customer base includes many of the Fortune 500 and the world's leading hospitals. Founded in 2000, AeroScout pioneered the Wi-Fi visibility market by introducing the industry's first Wi-Fi-based Active RFID tag, and is widely recognized as leading the market in number of tags shipped. AeroScout is headquartered in Redwood City, Calif., with offices in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Australia. For more information, please visit www.aeroscout.com.

AeroScout is a registered trademark of AeroScout, Inc. Wi-Fi is a trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Information is subject to change without notice.

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