PRESS RELEASE: Enhanced with MineWare's new Machine Terrain Mapping (MTM) technology module, Pegasys can now help miners locate and recover material up to 100ft (30.5m) below water.

MineWare North America regional vice president Greg Ladewig said this is a significant development for the mining industry globally, making underwater materials retrieval safer and more efficient.

"Identifying and reaching mineable material on the pit floor is a key challenge for underwater dragline digging and dredging operations," he said.

Bedrock Resources was the first company to adopt the technology at its limestone operations in Florida, US. The system has been in place for 11 months.

"Pegasys has provided Bedrock with a new level of situational awareness of their underwater digging conditions," said Ladewig.

"During a two-week re-mining period, Bedrock successfully recovered approximately 49,000 additional [US] tons of material that may have otherwise gone unrecognised.

"This technology represents a major step forward for the industry with significant potential for productivity gains in dredge mining, re-mining and the mining of flooded areas— where operations traditionally need to cease.

"These inaccessible or hard-to-reach areas are now back on the table."

MineWare's MTM technology has also been successfully implemented by a coal mine in South Africa. Ladewig said the team was quick to implement the technology after substantial rain caused the coal pit to become submerged in 32ft of water.

"Utilising Pegasys' new capability, the mine was able to productively continue their operations with little to no downtime," he said.

"Pegasys uses bucket position information to allow operators to mine underwater where they cannot visibly see.

"This reduces the risk to personnel and improves efficiencies, while also assisting with slope management by reducing the risk of the machine undercutting itself."

Pegasys' new underwater digging capability is now available to all of its existing and new Pegasys customers in global mining markets.

MineWare's monitoring systems provide mine sites with independent machine guidance and payload monitoring information for their large ground-engaging machinery in real time.