Roctest Wins a Major Contract in South America
St-Lambert, QC, September 28, 2005 - Roctest Ltd. "Roctest" (TSX:RTT) has been awarded a major contract from Los Pelambres mine, located in the mountains to the north of Santiago, Chile. The C$287 000 contract includes instrumenting the Mauro tailing dam with fiber optic sensors, as well as on-site training.
This is a first for this type of application with fiber optic instruments. Immune to electromagnetic interferences and static electricity found in high altitude, fiber optic equipment offer a distinct advantage over traditional vibrating wire technology sensitive to such harsh environment. Los Pelambres mine is located at an altitude of 3,200 m where dry air produces static electricity. This area is also affected by earthquakes which will be monitored by the installation of seismographs connected to the fiber optic instruments so that high speed dynamic measurements can be taken during a seismic event.
"Roctest has instrumented many large structures like bridges with fiber optic sensors and many customers have also combined our traditional vibrating wire technology with our fiber optic sensors. In this contract, fiber optic has been selected as the sole technology for monitoring the tailing dam, clearly proving the maturity of our solution for harsh environment and it will certainly lead to more opportunities in geotechnical applications" said François Cordeau, President and Chief Executive Officer of Roctest.
The Los Pelambres project owned as follows: Chilean Anaconda-Antofagasta (Luksic group): 60%; Nippon Mining & Metals Co. Ltd; 15%; Mitsubishi Materials Corp.: 10%; Marubeni: 8.75%; Mitsubishi Corporation: 5%; and Mitsui and Co.: 1.25%. The Los Pelambres mine is one of the largest projects in Chile.
About Roctest
Roctest designs, manufactures and markets sensors and high-precision measuring instruments for challenging applications in the civil engineering, energy, healthcare and defence markets. Its products are mainly sold internationally. The Company has over 140 employees in Quebec and France, and its shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol RTT.
Roctest news releases and product information are available on the Internet at: www.roctest.com
CONTACT:
François Cordeau, President and Chief Executive Officer
(450) 465-1113
info@roctest.com
www.roctest.com
