Dedicated to the humanitarian removal of landmines in war-torn countries
The Demining Process
The deminer begins his or her day very early in the morning-often before sunrise. Before entering the minefield, all personnel must don their Kevlar safety vest and helmet. Once in the minefield, the deminer is assigned a meter-wide lane to work in where he will spend the day searching for metal signals and clearing any mines they may find. The deminer's tools are mostly low-tech gardening implements, with the exception of the metal detector which can cost thousands of dollars. Once a deminer has checked his tools and calibrated his metal detector he is ready to begin work:
1. First he uses their eyes to look around carefully for danger signs such as a tripwire or exposed mine. He will also search for fragmentation and other bits of junk metal that will set off his detector.
2. If deminer is in working in minefields with dense vegetation he will use shears to cut away the foliage. In open areas, 'weed-whackers' or mechanical brush-cutters, can be used to speed up this process.
3. Afterwards, the deminer will employ their metal detector to find any metal in the soil. He passes his detector of the ground, listen for audible signals. Deminer calibrates his detectors each time he begin searching for metal to make sure they are fine-tuned.
4. When a signal is confirmed, three small sticks are used to give the deminer a visual picture of the metal itemıs location.
5. Working very slowly and carefully, the deminer then scrapes away the earth around the signal to expose it. Scrap metal is put in a bucket and disposed of later. The process then begins all over again.
If the deminer discovers a landmine or item of UXO, he calls his superior or section commander to destroy the item in situ.
Landmines
