Scottish Mines Rescue team praises heroic efforts in Chile

By Amanda MacMillan

A SCOTS based underground recovery team yesterday (thurs) lavished praise on the Camp Hope emergency teams in Chile – and vowed Britain’s own experts could rise to the same kind of challenge if ever needed.

Mines Rescue, based at Crossgates in Fife, are on constant stand-by for just such an emergency while offering expert solutions and preventions through mainly health and safety training.

But Brian West, 50, a rescue officer with Mines Rescue, said that Britain has all the necessary equipment to cope with such a drama if ever confronted with the same kind of trauma of the San Jose 33.

He said: “It was a fantastic job in Chile. Very well done and very well managed from start to finish.”

Taxpayers land £175,000 mine fine after planning row

By Oliver Farrimond

A SCOTTISH council has had to cough up its biggest ever pay-out after bungling a planning application from one of the UK’s largest coal mining companies.

ATH Resources – who are currently under investigation by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency – were handed more than £175,000 by Fife Council after the Scottish Government overturned the council’s application refusal.

The coal mining firm was also recently fined £10,000 for paving over protected peatland near another of their opencast mines at Grievehill in Ayreshire.

Alistair Black, Chief Executive of ATH Resources, said: “It was something that the company did not relish having to do, but given the decision by the reporter it is quite clear that the councillors based their decision on unreasonable grounds.

Lasers Could Sniff Out Deadly Landmines In Battlezones

By Paul Thornton

A LASER which can sniff out landmines has been developed by scientists at a Scots university.

Developers hope the hi-tech device could save hundreds of lives by mapping out mine-fields in combat zones such as Afghanistan and Iraq.

It is also thought that the technology, developed by experts at University of St Andrew’s in Fife, could be used to improve security at airports by checking for bombs hidden in luggage.

Dr Graham Turnbull is a lecturer in physics at the university and worked on the project – published this week – with fellow boffins Professor Ying Yang and Dr Ifor Samuel.

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Over two years they created a plastic which emits blue light as a laser beam but which dims when it comes into contact with even tiny traces of the vapour emitted by deadly road-side bombs.

Dr Turnbull, 36, said: “We have shown that our lasers can rapidly sense these TNT-like molecules, frequently used in explosives, at extremely low concentrations.