Workers in South Africa's platinum mining industry could soon benefit from a new cap lamp, it was confirmed yesterday (20th August).

Mine Safety Appliances (MSA) Africa is developing the new product and is now awaiting approval from South African standards boards after revealing a sample design, Mining Weekly reports.

A major part of the lamp is the colour rendition index (CRI), a spectrum which ensures that all natural colours are included on the output light and that they do not overshadow each other.

"Platinum underground mining requires a light with a CRI of not less than 30. This helps miners underground to easily identify different rock patterns," Emmanuel Manaka, Product Manager for Instruments at MSA Africa, told the news provider.

"This new cap lamp will provide more than 3,000 lux of lighting, compared with the previous cap lamp, which only provides 1,600 lux of lighting."

The lamp has been introduced to improve safety as the Department of Minerals and Energy has determined that a lack of light is a major cause of accidents at mines.

Among the new features is the use of LEDs in the main beam, which should improve the 13-hour run-time duration offered by the previous lead acid cap lamps.

"It has been two years since the R&D for this cap lamp started and it will probably be launched by the first quarter of 2011, as we are still awaiting approval," added Mr Manaka.

"As soon as we are granted the South African standards rating, the product will be rolled out globally because South African standards are high and are internationally recognised."

South Africa is currently responsible for about 75 per cent of the world's platinum production.

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Cap lamp developed for platinum-mining industry (20/08/10) 

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