Profile/Technology sector

From 'fixer-upper' to rising star of mining industry

Active Control Technology aims to revolutionize safety with wireless system that works deep under ground

MATT HARTLEY

From Thursday's Globe and Mail

June 18, 2008 at 3:26 PM EDT

Believe it or not, the next evolution in mine safety technology has a lot to do with remote-control garage door openers.

Steve Barrett is president and chief executive officer of Active Control Technology Inc. (ACT), a company that until recently specialized in high-tech remote control garage door openers, but is now on the verge of rewriting the rulebook on mining safety.

If Mr. Barrett has his way, ACT's ActiveMine systems will help mining companies prevent tragedies such as the Sago Mine disaster that killed 12 miners in West Virginia in January, 2006.

Today the Burlington, Ont., company — which took the lead spot in the technology sector of the 2008 TSX Venture 50 ranking — is on its way to becoming one of Canada's rising technology stars by specializing in wireless mesh communications networks that work in the deep, dark recesses of coal mines.

Enlarge Image

Steve Barrett, president of Active Control Technology, which will open its first international office in Beijing later this year. (ASHLEY HUTCHESON FOR THE GLOBE AND MAIL)

Think of it as creating a WiFi cloud that stretches many kilometres underground.

"Building a network underground is really something we've been able to master," says Mr. Barrett, 53.

"We build a WiFi cloud that becomes a wireless backbone and network for many types of WiFi appliances."

It was January 2006, and he and his partner, ACT chairman Richard Hazell, were investigating a new business opportunity for their company, which they had bought a few years earlier as a "fixer-upper." The market for garage door openers had become overly commoditized and the pair were considering expanding their footprint in the burgeoning market for networks that ran on WiFi technology.

A few days after the Sago Mine incident, one of Mr. Barrett's financial advisers called to ask if his company was capable of building a technology that could track miners underground. Mr. Barrett had never been to a coal mine and knew almost nothing about the mining business. "But sometimes that can be a good thing."

After the Sago Mine disaster, the U.S. government passed the Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response (MINER) Act, which called for major safety changes within the mining industry.

Two important communication upgrades mandated by the act called for all coal and non-coal mines to be outfitted with both a wireless two-way communication for miners as well as a tracking system to help locate trapped workers in the event of a collapse.

"When the MINER act was promulgated in June 2006, it was written in such a way that a 100 per cent wireless system is required," Mr. Barrett says. "But the legislators at the time thought that technology was very far off in the future and didn't think anyone would come up with this invention."

Six weeks later, ACT held its first demonstration of ActiveMine, a wireless communication network that allows miners to use phones, laptop computers and other devices underground while tracking their every move through RFID (radio-frequency identification) tags on their belts.

"We just didn't know any better — we didn't know we weren't supposed to do this so quickly," he laughingly recalls.

ACT's technology is in use by four U.S. mining firms in a total of eight coal mines and Mr. Barrett is currently in negotiations to bring the technology to Canadian mining companies. Later this year, ACT expects to open its first international office in Beijing.

Depending on the mine, ActiveMine installations cost anywhere from $200,000 to more than $1,000,000.

Although ACT still makes garage door openers as well as wireless access networks for buildings and parking lots, it is the ActiveMine technology that is creating all the company buzz, helping to push its stock on the Venture Exchange from 12 cents in December 2006 to 57 cents a year later.

Last quarter, ACT generated revenue of almost $300,000, and that is expected to grow as more U.S. mining companies change their communication systems. Although ACT is still operating at a loss, Mr. Barrett says it is virtually debt free.

The technology that helps miners communicate with workers on the surface miles above their heads is similar in principle to conventional WiFi hot spots. ActiveMine operates on public band wireless spectrum to create a mesh-style WiFi network. This involves placing a series of nodes, or routers — which are encased in 18-inch square boxes about the size of a computer printer — at regular intervals throughout the tunnels.

Each node can both send and receive radio signals, and in the event that one node stops working, the system simply finds an alternate path in the mesh by rerouting to the next available access point.

Coal mines are often built using a "room and pillar" structure, where seven to 11 tunnel entries are carved into the side of the mountain, and every 15-to-30 metres cross tunnels are carved between the pillars, creating a street-grid layout underground.

Before ACT developed its technology, the only way to get phones and other communication tools into a mine was to run a hard line along the wall, which could be easily damaged or severed in the event of an accident. Now, ACT can hang nodes at tunnel cross cuts to easily transmit signals and maintain a link to the outside world without the need for wires.

ACT's networks are built to be spark free (an essential feature when working around explosive methane gas and ignitable coal dust) and also feature what is known as a "starfish" system. In the event of a collapse, if a series of nodes become isolated from the larger network, that small cluster will continue to function independently with one of the access points taking over as a hub; this allows trapped miners to communicate and regroup, similar to the way the severed limb of a starfish can regenerate into a full organism.

"One of the key self-rescue responses is to muster all the workers in one spot," Mr. Barrett says. "If they are working across a pretty big section of the mine, you want to collect them and create a plan."