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Signature Sponsor
SureWave Technology Limited today successfully demonstrated its ability to locate trapped miners underground utilizing its revolutionary micro seismic technology. The test commenced at noon February 23rd. At 1.05 pm, the ‘trapped miners’ were located. Simulating the trapped miners was achieved by ‘trapped miners’ striking the roof, within a fully functioning coal mine, with a ‘Crib block’, a 6” x 6” x 42” wooden timber commonly found in coal mines. Two location tests were undertaken – the first at 780 feet, the second at 1040 feet. In both tests, SureWave’s technology clearly identified the ‘trapped miners’ signal by filtering out the majority of the background noises present within the mine. Philip Shaw, the Company’s Managing Director and Chief Scientist, stated “Based on today’s test, we are confident our state of the art technology would be able to locate miners trapped to a depth of up to 2000 feet (over 600 meters). What is also remarkable about SureWave’s technology is that it is capable of detecting and locating within minutes or so of being deployed”. Shaw then added, “To the best of my knowledge, there is no other technology in the world that can identify these microscopic sounds a thousand or more feet below the earth’s surface, which are typically masked by the surrounding noise and rapid attenuation”. Keith Heasley, Professor of Mining Engineering at West Virginia University who facilitated and directed the testing procedures at the coal mine commented, “I was pleased to clearly see the signal from the miners pounding on the roof at that depth. This system performed much better than other systems I have seen”. Mr. Shaw first developed this technology over a decade ago. His original goal was to monitor mine stresses to give advanced warning of structural failure in UK coal mines. Shaw’s technology successfully forewarned of a mine collapse 18 weeks before it occurred. Ten years later having perfected his technology in mine safety, the use for locating trapped miners was an obvious product evolution. Shaw stated “Given the system’s ability to accurately locate underground acoustic events many thousands of times smaller than the noise generated by the activity from the working mine, the technology is ideal to detect events underground and locate these signals in a few seconds”. The first demonstration took place at the Blue John Cavern in Derbyshire, England last December where SureWave located the sound of stamping feet 350 feet (106 meters) underground. Mine owners, through SureWave Technology, now have the ability to monitor the stresses within the mine enabling them to be forewarned and hence prevent a calamitous event occurring within the working mine. At the same time now having the ability to locate anyone should they become trapped through other events. David Manning, an investor and SureWave director, added, “As we all know it took 17 days to determine that the Chilean miners were alive and locate them. Based on today’s successful demonstration, our technology would probably have located them in hours”. Manning also raised the security applications of the technology noting, “Since we are certain we can find men up to 2000 feet underground, we can obviously very easily find individuals doing shallow tunneling under secure perimeters”. SureWave Technology would like to thank the management and staff at the mine for permitting today’s test and their enthusiastic cooperation which was an integral part of its success.
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