Seeing Machines to install DSS at Freeport’s Morenci mine in largest contract to date

Seeing Machines (LON:SEE) has landed its largest DSS contract to date, through its framework deal with Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold (NYSE:FCX), to install the driver monitoring equipment in the haul truck fleet at the Morenci mine in Arizona.

The contract will pilot the DSS deployment at the Morenci mine in Arizona, which is majority owned by Freeport. According to Seeing Machines, the deal marks the next phase of DSS deployment at other Freeport operations, following earlier DSS trial installations at Freeport’s Safford mine in Arizona and the Grasberg mine in Indonesia.

The company said that this contract is one of the contracts noted in last weeks trading update, which will now carry over into the new financial year. Seeing Machines shares took a hit after the company reported that the delay of a series of orders would cause revenue for the full year to 30 June 2010 to fall significantly below market expectations.
Despite the share-price reaction, Edison Investment Research & London-based stockbroker Daniel Stewart & Co, remained upbeat about the sales pipeline and the company’s commercial prospects. Indeed, today’s latest deal reinforces the analyst's view. Seeing Machines share rose 5%, to just over 2.6p per share, following the release of today’s statement.

“We are extremely pleased to have won our largest DSS mining contract to date.  This new purchase contract forms part of our forward pipeline of DSS business which remains especially strong in the resource/mining industry segment”, Seeing Machines chief executive Nick Cerneaz commented. “Growth in demand from the mining sector continues to grow in line with expectations.”

“The directors believe the company’s sales pipeline in the mining sector remains as strong as ever and the forward prospects for our DSS business remain positive for FY2011 and beyond.”

The DSS is Seeing Machines’ key product, the driver fatigue monitoring system is based on the company’s proprietary motion detection and eye-tracking technology. The company has secured two separate framework deals with major mining groups - BHP Billiton (LON:BLT, ASX:BHP) and Freeport McMoRan - to roll-out the DSS across their respective fleets of mining vehicles.

The DSS active system directly monitors the driver of a vehicle for distraction and fatigue events and provides a series of interventions aimed at managing these events and averting potential disasters.

With a remote sensor on the dashboard, the vision-based, DSS system measures the eyelid opening of the driver and based on this data derives the drowsiness state. The DSS also monitors the driver's head movements and positioning, when the driver has not been focused on the roadway ahead for a period, the DSS-IVS detects this event and generates instant alarms including audio alerts and seat vibration feedback.

The DSS product suite also includes options to link the alerts with dispatchers and controllers located in central control rooms.  Furthermore, the integrated data management, analysis and reporting system gives fleet managers the information they need to manage their vehicles and drivers effectively, Seeing Machines said.