The last-known-location system the law now requires underground.
MHSA Regulation 16.7 requires an intrinsically-safe device to locate every underground worker if they go missing. MeshTrack delivers exactly that — on a self-healing Wirepas mesh that keeps a location when a leaky-feeder backbone would sever. Built for mining and other harsh, hard-to-reach environments where connectivity and safety are hardest.
“No person goes underground at the mine without an intrinsically safe device to determine the last known location of such a person … in the event that they go missing while in underground workings.”
Chapter 16 of the MHSA regulations was substituted on 28 March 2025 with no transitional period — the requirement is effective on publication, triggered by the Section 11 risk assessment for hazards like engulfment, slope failure and water, mud or rock flow. A shaft without a compliant locator carries the risk of a Section 54 stoppage.
Why the regulation exists — at Lily Mine in February 2016, a crown pillar collapse took down the lamp room with three workers inside and the on-site locating device failed to find them. Reg 16.7 is the regulator's response.
Requirement → answer
What Reg 16.7 asks for, and how MeshTrack meets it.
The regulation is specific about what an underground locating system has to do. MeshTrack is built around those four requirements.
An intrinsically-safe cap-lamp tag option — replaceable coin-cell, shift-length battery. IS certification is confirmed against the supplied hardware at quote.
The Wirepas mesh self-heals on node loss and the last anchor hop persists — so a location survives even when a section fragments in a collapse, fire or flood.
Position history is held at the anchor and in the cloud, with a signed, time-stamped export pack ready for MHSI inspection.
An eye-sensor tag with button, motion and temperature raises missing-person, tamper and low-battery alerts into your existing control rooms.
Why the mesh, not a backbone
Resilience is the whole point of the regulation.
Reg 16.7 asks for a location precisely when things have gone wrong. A system that depends on a cabled backbone fails the test at the worst possible moment — the Wirepas mesh is built the other way around.
Leaky-feeder backbone
A cabled backbone severs in exactly the collapse, fire or flood the regulation was written for — the moment you most need a location is the moment it goes dark.
Cap-lamp RFID at portals
Portal readers give an entry / exit count only — a headcount at the shaft top, with zero position once a worker is underground.
UWB / Wi-Fi / LoRaWAN
Single points of failure, and often not Ex-rated or not real-time — they don't hold up to the environment or to the requirement.
Reach past the last gateway
Put a gateway where you have power and a network, then push battery-powered anchors deeper into the areas that have neither. Each anchor relays through its neighbours, so coverage extends hop-by-hop into haulages, refuge bays, stopes and outlying structures.
No power, no cabling in the workings
Anchors and tags are battery-powered with multi-year life — there's no electrical work to run into the areas you're extending into. The only wired points are the gateways, which stay where the infrastructure already is.
Self-heals on node loss
If one anchor drops or a route degrades, the Wirepas mesh re-forms around it and location data finds another path back to the gateway — the resilience the “system damage or failure” clause demands.
What's in the platform
Everything the compliance case needs, in one platform.
Real-time positioning
Sub-second updates on web, iOS and Android — tag to anchor to gateway over the Wirepas mesh.
Zones, alerts & rules
Per-shaft geofences with missing-person, tamper and low-battery alerts — push, email, SMS and webhook.
Audit-grade evidence
90-day replay, 12-month archive and signed, time-stamped exports for MHSI inspection.
Multi-protocol radio
Wirepas mesh primary, with BLE, UWB and RFID at portals — the right radio for each use case.
Multi-tenant & SSO
Single sign-on, role-based access scoped per shaft, and encrypted secrets — access stays controlled.
Open integrations
REST and WebSocket, webhooks and MQTT for OT — into ERP, WMS, ITSM and BI.
Right precision per area
Precise mesh where it counts, approximate BLE where it's enough.
Not every area needs sub-5 m positioning. MeshTrack lets you mix technologies across one site, so the design matches what each space actually needs — and you don't over-build.
Where you need to know exactly which zone.
A grid of anchors gives sub-5 m, zone-level location with movement history and dwell — for haulages, workshops, stores and anywhere accountability and safety depend on precision.
Where “roughly which area” is enough.
In large open areas — wide yards, open floors, boundary gates — a lighter BLE proximity layer can tell you which area or gate a tag is near, without the cost of a dense anchor grid. Right-sized coverage for spaces that don't need metre-level detail.
We recommend the mix on a per-area basis during planning — see Coverage & Anchor Planning and the Site Readiness guide.
Where it matters most
Safety, exactly where connectivity is worst.
The areas hardest to reach are usually the ones where knowing who is where matters most. Because the mesh extends into them, MeshTrack supports:
- Lone-worker safety and panic / SOS where help is furthest away
- Refuge-bay presence and headcount during an event
- Automated muster roll-call when an alarm trips
- Restricted-zone and unauthorised-movement alerts underground
Install & deploy
Hosted, on your own infrastructure, or a phased pilot.
MeshTrack managed cloud
Sethala runs the platform under SLA on SA-hosted infrastructure, updates rolled out continuously — your team focuses on operations.
Your VM or on-prem
Deploy inside your own cloud or on a mine-site server so data residency stays with you, supplied as images under a support contract.
Via approved supply partner
Tags, anchors and gateways once-off through the appointed supply partner, selected per Ex-zone classification, with a spares cadence under SLA.
A pilot path to prove it: a discovery and risk-assessment workshop, a pilot install on one shaft to validate the system end-to-end, then production rolled out per shaft under SLA.
Reg 16.7 · let's scope your shafts
Get compliant, and know where your people are.
Tell us about your operation — the shafts, the levels and the dead spots — and we'll scope a Reg 16.7 deployment: intrinsically-safe tags, a resilient anchor grid and audit-ready evidence.
MeshTrack is an operational visibility platform. Real-world performance depends on hardware, connectivity and site conditions, and the mine remains responsible for its own legal, safety, regulatory and emergency-response obligations. Intrinsic-safety certification is confirmed against the supplied hardware at quote. Regulatory references: MHSA Regulation 16.7 (Government Gazette 52388, Notice 6052, 28 March 2025).