Witwatersrand University Mining Engineering School head Fred Cawood is seen in discussion with Mining Weekly’s Martin Creamer on the school’s ‘stairwell laboratory’, which is monitoring signals sent from roof to floor through the built-to-scale steel shaft structures shown. This is all part of the ‘digital mine’ that the university is creating beneath the mining engineering school to pave the way for the introduction of real-time satellite communication into South Africa’s Internet-bereft underground mines. The aim is to facilitate real-time communication in underground mines to a point where underground mining and safety decisions can be made from control rooms on surface. To watch videos on the concept, go to www.miningweekly.com and click on ‘Multimedia’ and then on ‘Video Clips’.