Canadian mining giant New Gold has signed an agreement with Damm’s local partner Cartel Communications Systems for the installation of a TetraFlex radio communications network at its New Afton mine in British Columbia.

The new network will replace the existing iDen radio system serving the mine site. New Gold, one of the world’s leading producers of gold and industrial metals, has calculated that its investment in the TetraFlex system will be repaid in less than a year. As well as being able to reuse New Gold’s existing 800MHz infrastructure, the system will accommodate all of the company’s existing operational groups and provide mine safety personnel with the capability to constantly monitor all operational talk channels. This functionality is crucial for a mining operation, where it is vital to know where everyone is, especially in cases of accident or emergency.

The new system will be delivered with Damm’s Dispatcher option, and a Voice Gateway that will interconnect with New Gold’s PABX telephone system. The network will be the first TetraFlex system to be deployed in Canada.

In a separate announcement Damm reports the completion of Interoperability (IOP) tests between the latest TetraFlex infrastructure software and all major TETRA terminal providers. The Multi Test Interoperability sessions were carried out under the supervision of ISCOM, the TCCA appointed independent certification authority. The TCCA defined IOP certification testing process is carried out in a multi-vendor environment and tests the interaction between products from different manufacturers. The full IOP test consists of about 200 single tests on each piece of equipment.