State firm to monitor miners with chips

ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency

Some 2,000 miners are tracked with chips, TTK says. AA photo

The Turkish Hard Coal Enterprise (TTK) is set to monitor underground miners with chips.

Work safety has been a high-level priority for years, after past firedamp explosions and industrial accidents, according to Burhan İnan, general directorate of the TTK. “Sometimes our workers get lost underground and we can’t find them. So we decided to track them with chips in order to locate and reach them easily in the event of those kinds of incidents.”

Around 2,000 workers are currently being tracked with imported LED chips and the TTK is planning to extend this coverage to all 8,800 employees working underground at the Zonguldak mining coal catchment area, the general directorate said.

The chips are able to detect the location of workers and how many kilometers they descend.

Mines, drifts and mine faces – where coal is brought to the surface – are being monitored for coal gas danger as well.

İnan also said they have applied to take on 2,500 new workers for underground production in 2013.