A recent visit to Laos to map bauxite and UXO locations has been conducted. With the addition of this latest country, Groundradar has conducted GPR projects in a total of 73 countries worldwide, far more than any other near-surface geophysical service company.
Tag Archive: GPR
ATEX-Approved MineVue Delivered to India
Following a four year research and development phase, Groundradar has successfully delivered and installed the first ATEX-approved MineVue system to the Central Institute for Mining and Fuel Research in Dhanbad, India. The project is one of the largest ever undertaken for the development of a commercial GPR system in the world, and produced the world’s first low-frequency ATEX approved radar. It is expected that further installations in India will be forthcoming, based on the success of the first unit.
Visit Groundradar at PDAC Booth 702
Groundradar will be exhibiting at the PDAC in Toronto, Canada (March 6-9), the world’s largest annual mining convention Visit booth 702 to learn more about Groundradar’s unique long-range GPR technology for mineral resource evaluations.
MineVue deployed in August to India, Australia, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia
Groundradar’s latest custom long-range radar system, MineVue, has been trialled extensively both above and underground at a series of Indian coal mines in Jharkand and West Bengal states. The system was able to detect abandoned coal workings at impressive depths in environments where complete radar shielding was required.
MineVue was also tested in Papua New Guinea and Australia, where the system was used to detect voids in limestone to depths of over 40 m in cluttered surroundings where traditional low-frequency unshielded radar systems would have been unsuitable. Although limestone is generally an excellent radar environment, some limestones, particularly those with a weathered mantle of clays, can prove problematic for traditional radar equipment. MineVue is a hybrid radar system comprising of a real-time sampling impulse radar as well as a pulse-compression radar which is completely shielded, easily portable, deep penetrating, and continuously tracked by DGPS.
A challenging laterite project in Indonesia where unshielded antennas have been unsuccessful was the site of further MineVue surveying. The results of trials were very encouraging, opening new applications for custom GPR instrumentation.
MineVue coal radar system surveys in India
Groundradar’s new MineVue hybrid GPR system was used extensively at a number of coal mines in India to detect abandoned workings at impressive depths from both above and within mine tunnels. MineVue is an ATEX-approved, intrinsically-safe long-range GPR system designed specifically for deep void detection in mines where unshielded antennas are unsuitable. In nearly every open-pit mine where abandoned workings pose a geotechnical and safety issue, unshielded radar antennas are generally unsuitable due to the above-ground reflections from the near-by mine walls. Similarly, unshielded antennas are impossible to use underground due to the reverberations of reflections from the opposing tunnel walls. MineVue addresses these issues by using a highly effective, yet lightweight, shield, along with two advanced long-range radar systems on a single circuit board. Acquisition and data display is handled by a small Windows Mobile device, eliminating the need for bulky laptops.
Adrove and Francke author paper on the use of advanced GPR for abandoned tunnel detection at Geita, Tanzania
Jan Francke has co-authored a paper entitled “Application of advanced ground penetrating radar technology for abandoned working detection at Geita Gold Mine, Tanzania”. The paper, to be presented at an AngloGold Ashanti conference in September, 2009 discusses the use of UltraGPR to image abandoned workings at an open pit operation in Tanzania. UltraGPR was able to detect a series of voids at a coverage rate of one hectare per day with one metre-spaced profiles.