MINING IN A DIAMOND DEPOSIT
One of the largest diamond deposits in the world
The Grib mine, located in Russia’s Mezensky District in the Arkhangelsk Oblast, is the second biggest mine in the Russian part of the Karelian Craton, which itself houses one of the world’s largest diamond deposits. Low temperatures in the region present major extreme challenges for the products used in the mine -temperatures in the area around Grib can get as low as -25 °C to -37 °C.The «Arhangelskgeolrazvedka» exploration crew monitors underground water levels and temperature within a radius of five kilometres around the mine. The crew bored a total of 81 wells with depths of 20 – 270 metres between 2011 and 2014 to monitor the water levels. Each well was equipped with a water level monitoring system from KELLER Pressure that consists of hydrostatic level and temperature sensors and 59 GSM remote transmitters (GSM2-boxes*).
The Grib mine
Savings potential with the monitoring network
Measuring points located at a close distance to one another were grouped together in order to make it unnecessary to equip each of the 81 water wells with a remote transmitter. Up to three sensors can be connected to a single box module simultaneously, which reduced costs by eliminating the need to install 22 remote transmitters.
Installation of level tubes at hard-to-reach locations
Remote data transmitter and data logger in one device
When linked to a pressure transmitter or water level sensor , the GSM2-box-module* can autonomously collect up-to-date measurement values for pressure and temperature (and optionally for conductivity as well) and then transmit this data via SMS, e-mail or FTP using the GSM mobile phone network (GPRS connection).
The GSM2* is robust, able to withstand short periods of immersion, available in different types of housings, and equipped with several sensor interfaces. The battery in one module can supply power to several level sensors if necessary. The GSM2 box collects and transfers data once a day over a period of several years in sub-freezing temperatures and can even do this with a weak or unstable signal.
As a result of this durability, the «Arhangelskgeolrazvedka» crew never had to replace a single battery during four years of operation and was able to completely forgo manual monitoring at difficult-to-reach locations. The use of an automatic water level monitoring system allowed the «Arhangelskgeolrazvedka» crew to save money that otherwise would have been spent on special purpose vehicles and additional staff.
* The GSM2 remote data transmission unit was refined and then replaced by the new ARC1 unit.
GSM2-box* remote transmitter with data logger
