manager Brandt Pattison, Cobar Shire Council ranger Daryl Kliendienst and Cobar
Police Sergeant Warwick Laing at last week’s MicroDOT demonstration at the CSA Mine site.
MAC Copper Limited have invested in a new form of insurance for their assets at the CSA Mine and are branding all tools and equipment on site with MicroDOTS.
MicroDOT Australia’s managing director Neil McCormack gave mine staff, local police, Cobar Shire Council’s ranger and The Cobar Weekly a demonstration on how MicroDOTS work on site last week.
“Basically it’s an identification program for assets.
“The easiest way to explain it is a modern way to engrave,” Neil said.
MicroDOTS are tiny metallic particles that are nearly invisible to the naked eye.
They are chemically etched with a unique identification code which is registered permanently to the company.
“We use it to mark (with a couple of different types of glue) all the assets—all the power tools, all the hand tools, whatever other assets they choose to mark that may be subject to theft,” Neil explained.
“So firstly, it’s a deterrent to thieves.
“That’s the main crux of the program and secondly, it’s an ability to identify assets if they’re found.”
Once applied the MicroDOTS can only be removed by an abrasive material such as a scalpel, knife, sandpaper or heavy acid, all of which will most certainly damage the item and decrease its resale value for a thief.
And because a single item may contain many MicroDOTS, the thief can never be sure he has removed all the MicroDOTS.
Police only need to find and read a single MicroDOT to identify the rightful owner.
Neil explained MicroDOTS have been around since World War II in some form or other.
During WWII microdots were used in ordinary looking letters with secret information hidden in periods (full stops) at the end of sentences.
Neil said after they were commercialized, BMW started putting them on their cars, spraying about 10,000 of them all over in about 80 different locations.
“It reduced their theft by 78 per cent,” Neil said.
He said a couple of different glues are used to adhere the MicroDOTS to assets, depending upon what they are made of and the environment they are used in.
Neil said the MicroDOTS have been endorsed by Rio Tinto who used them at their Argyle Diamond site, “which is as harsh of an environment as you can get”.
“They took their theft problem to zero overnight,” he said.
The MicroDOTS are a very hardy product that can also withstand commercial tool washers.
“They can adhere to everything—metals, woods, plastics and certainly our laptops and mobile phones.”
As part of the program, warning signs about the MicroDOTS are put up at all entrances, in communal areas and on stickers on the items themselves.
“So everybody’s warned about the program, staff and subbies,” Neil said.
“There’s no secrecy here, the company’s seriously protecting their assets, that’s the program.
“It’s pretty simple, if you’re going to steal it, be warned that it’s marked.”
Cobar Police Sergeant Warwick Laing said MicroDOTS are going to help make their
job easier.
“If we come across somebody that we suspect has property that might not belong to them, we shine the identifying tool over it and we identify that its got this code on it then we can make some enquiries about where it comes from and it makes it easy to identify who owns it,” Sergeant Laing said.
