He went down on his knees, switched off the light on his hat and thanked the Lord for ensuring his safety on the mines.
Charles Millett-Clay then asked the Lord for help.
“I said: ‘Lord, I’m leaving mining, give me something to give back to the mining industry’.
“I do not know what it is, but I’m getting in that cage now – I’m going to join Pick n Pay Hypermarket, just give me something.”
Sixteen years later, the long-term Farrarmere resident started having dreams of a projector projecting onto a rock face.
Millett-Clay finally received clues that would not only answer his prayer, but change the face of the mining industry.
The recurring dreams led to the design and invention of two products that now cut the time it takes to map out tunnels in underground mines.
Charles’s two products, the Kwik-Spot and Kwik-Angle, have been on the market for over 20 years, but have, for the past few years, been gaining more support in the mining industry.
The Kwik-Angle is set-up under survey pegs and requires an operator to punch in direction and grade lines into it.
The Kwik-Spot is the projector fitted with a precision-drilled metal gradicule, which projects the desired drill pattern onto the rock face.
“Once I put it on the rock face, it takes me five to six minutes to project a pattern and five to six minutes to mark off,” said Charles.
“So time saving and accuracy is the thing.”
It has simplified a process of manual measuring – cutting it down by about an hour.
The brain of the product, the Kwik-Spot, is designed according to a mathematical calculation.
Charles receives the mining pattern, which is then worked out and translated onto the gradicule.
Only three people in the world know the secret to this calculation, which includes Charles, an engineer and the Boksburg company that manufactures the product.
He said his product is now being used in mines in South Africa, India, Canada, Kazakstan, India, Australia and Russia.
He recently returned from an Indian mine where he delivered his product and trained mining officials to use it.
Charles conceded that mines are not easily convinced of the product’s success and potential.
“It’s a mindset change, but the companies that are using it have had very good results,” he said.
The products formed part of a two-year study at the Finsch Diamond Mine, from 2003 to 2005.
The study found that the product reduces the over break (the amount of excess rock that is unnecessarily drilled and extracted from the mine) from 30 per cent to 2,6 per cent.
This reduction ensures greater structural integrity of the underground tunnels and reduces costs, as less unnecessary rock is extracted.
Despite scepticism from the mines, Charles said people have tried to reverse engineer his patent, but have fallen short of achieving this.
He hopes his product will simplify mining in more countries around the world and thanked God for giving him the ability to design the products.
“This was given to me by the Lord and I have no opposition in the whole world to this product,” said Charles.
