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For over 10 years, we had the honor to serve and be part of Marlin mine´s success, in Guatemala.

The main challenge was to constantly adapt our communications solutions to the mine´s growing process without compromising one minute of effective communications while combining underground activity with surface activity, allowing us to connect workgroups on both working areas.

We consider this was a success case because we saw a direct positive incidence in the administration´s productivity index, and we had the pleasure to participate in the mine´s work culture, collaboration and partnership.

The project was developed in a completely rural area: San Marcos department in Guatemala. Our relation with Marlin Mine started by providing communications service to the contractor who was in charge of the access ramp in the early stages of the project. The mine´s administration recognized Beetrex´s job and required our communication solutions. For 10 years we solved critical communication challenges while being dynamic in the application of our solutions and adapting the communications system to the mine.

According to the mine´s directives, our accompanying was a key role in the management process of the mine and it allowed the mine to produce 30% more thanks to effective radio communications.

From soil movement in the surface to the mine´s closing process, our client required cero interference, 24/7, 365 days and to keep the signal´s quality. The radios couldn´t emit any noises nor interference in the workgroups´ communications.

The mine´s dynamic growing process presented complex communication scenarios. Communication was needed between the mine´s entries, sometimes through the wall, and on multiple mine entries simultaneously. Conventional telephone service limits were proven because of the project´s location on rural Guatemala and underground activity. The radio helped to raise the limits. Communication was effective and constant thanks to the design and the knowledge on the matter, even when facing a very complex tunneling topology.

The system was based on 7 communication channels because of the mine´s intense communication requirements: production, electricians, mechanics, topographers and 3 more for contractors.

The system combined both, Beetrex Rural and Beetrex for Buildings technologies. Among the solutions that the mine used, one was the remote administration of water pumps and fans through data transmission with a computer interface and another was a portable communications system that allowed the geologists´ exploration outside coverage areas.

Besides the application of the communication system, Beetrex also provided radios and industrial safety equipment that needed to perdure in harsh and intense mining applications.

The use of worldwide recognized quality brands such as Motorola was key to our project´s success. Motorola MOTOTRBO analog and digital radios and accessories were up to the task, combined with guaranteed audio quality, coverage and functions that protected the miner´s life.

“The radio is here until the very last day”

In compliance with Marlin´s safety standards, the mine required a constant provision of NLT mining cap lamps, Lacrosse steel toe puncture-proof rubber boots, CAB wire hooks and vehicle equipment kits, which included a flagpole, flag, backup alarm, wedge, and beacon.

Our team received several industrial safety courses in order to comply with the mine´s standards and regulations. System and equipment maintenance was done three times a year following the mine´s planning and development.

Thanks to our performance in Marlin Mine, during all those years, we were able to provide similar services on projects such as Cerro Blanco Mine in Asunción Mita, Jutiapa and Escobal Mine, in San Rafael Las Flores, Santa Rosa, both projects in rural Guatemala.

Thanks to the professional relationship with Montana Exploradora de Guatemala, S.A. at Marlin Mine, San Marcos, east of Guatemala City, we were contacted by the Operations and Industrial Safety Department to provide communication services for another mining project, Cerro Blanco Mine.

Cerro Blanco Mine planning, exploration and perforation began in 2010, located in Jutiapa department 6.8 km away from Asunción Mita, a town with an estimated population of 15,000 people who are directly benefited by the mine as a source of work.

We provided analog radio communication services on surface to the contractor in charge of the perforation of the North and South entries. Simultaneously, we have been providing communication services for the mine’s personnel, delivering radio signal in underground environments as each of the entries’ perforation advances, since february 2010.

The communication system had 3 channels, one for all surface communication, the second for the underground north ramp and the third for the south ramp. Thanks to the communications system, the Unified Exploration Management, production, electricians, mechanics and industrial safety work teams have been continuously communicated 24/7 and for 365 days a year.

Communication on the surface was linked to underground communication with coverage to the very last corner of the tunnel which is approximately 6 kilometers long in composite. The signal coverage also included, temporarily, communication from the project to Asunción Mita, where the Mine’s offices were established for a short period.

Throughout the operation of the project we have faced challenges that demand the very best work service attitude, commitment and responsibility.

Beetrex signal coverage allows an efficient coordination of the project’s development on the surface. It’s an essential requisite for the underground operation as established by the industrial safety regulations.

Beetrex active cable system was implemented in two phases: the equipment that was temporarily installed during the first phase was then replaced by the permanent equipment installed on phase two. The system’s installation lasted for around 16 days given the physical effort required to complete the job. Besides that, the mine’s high temperature and noise environment forced the administration to establish industrial safety norms and protocols that require that all personnel must rest, recover and hydrate after short periods of work shift inside the mine.

Because of the noise conditions inside the mine, it was necessary to plan every detail of the work shift with responsibilities for each member of the team with alternate plans in case something did not go as planned as Betrex’s eactive cable was installed.

Guaranteeing continuous and great quality underground communication at the meeting point of the North and the South ramps was a challenge we overtook thanks to a provision of equipment installation work shifts without compromising each work team’s communication.

Xacbal is an hydroelectric project established in the riverbed of the river with the same name, it is located north of the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes, Northeast of the Guatemalan Republic, in San Gaspar Chajul, El Quiché.

The contractor that developed the tunnel was the one that originally required a underground communications system combined with coverage on the surface. An improved version of this system would be useful to the project’s administration to manage the operation.

The tunnel’s development lasted 4 years. During this period, several workgroups like Drilling, electricians, mechanics, management, warehouse and security were able to communicate efficiently and to finish the tunnel´s development. In 2011, the hydroelectric was ready to start operating.

A modification to the communications system was necessary because the administration did not require communication inside the tunnel but at the Machine Rooms, which are around 5 storeys deep. In addition, this improvement allowed us to add coverage from Nebaj’s Head Municipality, located approximately 50 kms away from the project and also allowed us to link the management headquarters, located on Guatemala City.

Coverage between Nebaj and the project was fundamental for the safekeeping of the electrical transmission towers due to a sabotage crisis and vandalism. Radio communications, combined with the necessary coverage allowed them to respond efficiently to threats and keep the electrical transmission towers safe.

The region’s climate and topography made this project particularly challenging since the difficult to transit roads and the hikes in the mountains represented obstacles that we happily overcame.

Hydroelectric projects Renace II and III are located in Cahabón river, while Renace IV is located in Canlich river, both in San Pedro Carchá, Alta Verapaz, in Guatemalan northern mountainous region. Access to mobile phone communication services around the projects is limited and unreliable; this, combined with the job´s intensity and the environmental conditions created the need for an alternative that communicated all the workgroups and that the equipment was robust enough to uphold the environmental conditions where they were to be used, for that reason, Beetrex´s Active Cable system included Motorola Solutions portable radios.

In 2015 we were contacted by the contractor in charge of Renace II´s tunnel development to satisfy the need to communicate all workgroups. After a strategic planification meeting, a underground Beetrex Active Cable system was designed using the 5 tunnel entrances; this system was then linked to another system that provided coverage on the project´s surface.

The same contractor, satisfied with the system´s performance, requested that a similar system was installed in Renace III and Renace IV, both systems worked simultaneously in both tunnels but completely independent one from another.

As the contractor´s providers, we complied with industrial security norms, implemented in projects around the world, following regulations by norm OHSAS 18001:2007.

A battery backup energy system was implemented to support Beetrex active cable system in the event of a power outage in the project to keep more than sixty users communicated.

In 2009 we were contacted to provide a radiocommunications solution in Escobal project, located in San Rafael Las Flores, Santa Rosa, in Guatemala´s southwest region, approximately 40 kilometers away from Guatemala City. During the design phase we realized that the project explores a silver, gold, lead and zinc vein, and we then knew that the project would require high-end Motorola Solutions equipment that would put up with a humid and dust filled environment.

A Beetrex Rural Industry Solution with 8 channels was designed with coverage in the whole project´s surface. Before the underground perforation, the primary contractor, who was in charge of developing the processing plant, also required two-way radio communications for his work teams and another 34 sub-contractors, all of them working simultaneously but with independent communications managed by our technical department so each radio would be identified by the administrator using caller ID.

When the processing plant was built, the project began underground perforation and installed a underground communications system. In several occasions, we have provided technical assistance, audits and, counsel to correct functionality errors complying with the client’s quality and industrial safety standards and our short time response and technical assistance availability promise, which has been another differentiator from our competitors in the radiocommunications market for over 30 years.

We identified that miners had issues regarding how uncomfortable wearing the cap lamp was, how long the battery lasted and quality in general, so we suggested to replace these lamps with Northern Light Technologies Polaris mining cap lamp, a LED 3,500 LUX, MSHA (Mine Safety and Health Administration, an agency of the United States Department of Labor) approved, IP67 with rechargeable Li-Ion battery mining cap lamp.

In the project´s underground development, refuges were established in strategic and regulatory locations to be used in case of emergency or due to changes on the underground normed environmental conditions. We have provided Strata Worldwide components to said refuges, a company that manufactures underground safety solutions for miners around the world. As a part of the same solution to solve contingencies and, by Industrial Safety standards, a wired intercommunication network was designed to cover every corner of the project´s underground tunnels. The wired intercommunication network serves as a backup communication system used for emergencies and MSHA Standards.

During the project´s execution, our client required to monitor millimetric movement of rocks to guarantee safety and integrity of the support structures built inside the underground tunnel. We have executed an intermediary role between our client and Yieldpoint Incorporated, a canadian company that provides technology solutions used to make these measurements.

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