Current & Past Projects

HO CHI MINH TRAIL, SAVANNAKHET PROVINCE, LAO P.D.R.

Client: Lane Xang Minerals Ltd (formerly a subsidiary of RIO TINTO and now owned by Oxiana Resources NL)

Task: Through numerous phases of competitive international tendering since 1993, Milsearch has completed some twelve consecutive years providing close support to this major copper-gold exploration and mining project. The project involves provision of pathfinding and a wide range of clearance operations to support mineral exploration and mining on the Ho Chi Minh Trail in the Sepon area of Savannakhet Province. With a team of some 7 expatriate technicians drawn from four nationalities and approximately 350 national staff operating throughout wet seasons in remote and difficult terrain, this project has successfully detected and destroyed thousands of UXO and aerially dispersed plastic mines without a single explosive incident or serious injury. This has allowed the client's drilling, geological and earthmoving activities to continue safely and uninterrupted in heavily contaminated country which was used by the North Vietnamese Army as a major supply route during the Vietnam War. Acting as Oxiana’s preferred EOD company in Lao PDR, Milsearch's clearance and other support activities within the 5,000 km2 exploration tenement is likely to continue on a long-term basis.

XIENG KHOUANG PROVINCE, LAO P.D.R

Client: Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation (AusAID funded project)

Task: Working as an integral element of the joint SMEC/SWECO study team, Milsearch provided a wide range of EOD support to engineering feasibility studies for the ADB/AusAID co-financed Xieng Khouang Road Redevelopment Project which straddles Xieng Khouang and Bolikhamsay Provinces in the Lao P.D.R.

The project required redevelopment and realigning of some 270 kms of existing road through the Plain of Jars which is heavily contaminated by Explosive Remnants War. The Project also involved the construction of an additional 250 kms of new road southwards from the Plain to the start of the wartime Ho Chi Minh Trail. Milsearch tasks included:

HOUAPHAN PROVINCE, LAO P.D.R.

Client: Kreditanstalt Fur Wiederaufbau (KfW-German Government International Aid agency)

Task: Following historical research and the conduct of an extensive instrumented route contamination assessment, Milsearch was engaged by the German Government international aid agency to support the redevelopment of National Route 6 through the provincial capital of Xam Neua in north eastern Laos. Won against international competition, the task was in two phases. Phase 1 required clearance of an 11m wide easement ahead of 103 kms of road re-construction. This was completed over a 100 day period as planned, with a wide variety of ordnance including 750 lb HE bombs being found in the existing road. Phase 2 provided on-going support during construction together with minor clearances for repair and new culverts on an additional 150 kms. Acting as the main Line of Communication from the Pathet Lao Headquarters at Xam Neua to the Plain of Jars battlefields during the period 1965-73, Route 6 was heavily interdicted by US airpower.

WOODLANDS, SINGAPORE

Client: Public Works Department (through Explomo Pte Ltd)

Task: Conducted geophysical surveys with TM-4 imaging magnetometer and EM-61 imaging electromagnetic detector systems to detect the location of buried munitions contamination on the future site of a proposed immigration checkpoint and car park complex which was to be constructed at Woodlands near the Johore Causeway in northern Singapore. The Site saw heavy battles in WW2 during the Japanese siege and invasion of Singapore Island from the Malayan mainland.

CAMBODIA

Client: Alcatel Contracting GmbH

Task: Won on competitive bidding, Milsearch conducted an extensive mine and UXO contamination survey for Alcatel's proposed 607 km long fibre-optic telephone cable. The cable which follows National Routes 1 and 5 from the Vietnam border through Phnom Penh to the Thailand border, passed through extensive regions of conflict related to the American War of 1970-75 and the Vietnamese occupation and subsequent Khmer Rouge conflicts up to the 1993 UNTAC elections. Milsearch identified, scoped and costed de-contamination requirements and developed a remedial strategy and plan with specifications to support the cable's in-ground insertion. Limited UXO route clearances on Phnom Penh’s outskirts and stand-by EOD services were provided to allow cable laying commencement.

SUBIC BAY, PHILIPPINES

Client: Halliburton Multinational Inc. (Brown & Root)

Task: Conducted contamination assessments and follow-on clearances on a 40ha site at Green Beach, Redondo Peninsular at Subic Bay. The task included underwater clearances of the sea approach to the site to a 15m depth. The site was required for construction of off-shore oil/gas drilling platforms for Shell Petroleum’s Malampalaya Gas Field. Green Beach was used by the US Marine Corps for amphibious landing practice. The balance of the site is situated in the Zambales Field Firing Range, which was employed by US Forces since WW 2 for a variety of explosive ordnance training activities.

SAVANNAKHET PROVINCE, LAO P.D.R.

Client: Katahira and Engineers of Tokyo (for Japanese International Co-operation Agency JICA)

Task: As part of the engineering design for the reconstruction of 70 kms of National Route 9, Milsearch was contracted to provide path-finding teams to safeguard route alignment surveys and to provide point ERW clearances for Katahira’s test drilling on potential quarry and borrow sites. A UXO hazard assessment comprising a historical review, village level inquiry and a comprehensive field sampling programme was conducted as Phase 1. Milsearch also conducted extensive route remediation in Phase 2, removing many hundreds of munitions items.

Funded by JICA, this task is an element of the East-West Corridor Road Project, which links Thailand and Vietnam via central Laos. The corridor follows the existing alignment of Route 9 to the border with Vietnam at Lao Bao Pass. Both NR 9 and the Pass were scenes in 1975 for the South Vietnamese Army’s Operation Lam Song 719, an armoured thrust which attempted to cut infiltration routes from North Vietnam. NR 9 and the Pass were also heavily interdicted by United States airpower as part of the Ho Chi Minh Trail during the period 1965-73.

VUNG TAU-BARIA PROVINCE, VIETNAM

Client: British Petroleum Exploration Ltd

Task: Following on from earlier work on the British Petroleum gas terminal site, Milsearch was again engaged to conduct formal quality assurance (QA) and payment certification on the UXO searches of 42 kilometres of gas pipeline easement. The search work was conducted by the Vietnamese Army’s Lung Lo Company. Working to a specification designed by Milsearch, the Vietnam Army cleared a technically difficult easement, which runs closely parallel to an existing ferrous pipeline installed some 6-8 years previously by Russian oil companies. The route crossed several large rivers and passed through numerous areas subject to tidal inundation. The route also passed close to the Long Hai Hills, formerly a Viet Minh then Viet Cong refuge and a zone of significant conflict during the American War.

XIENKHOUANG, SAYSOMBOUN, OUDOMSAY & LUANPHRABANG PROVINCES, LAO PDR

Client: Asea Brown Boverie (ABB) of Spain

Task: Milsearch was contracted to provide UXO clearance and safeguarding support to ABB construction teams who built three 115Kva power transmission lines spanning some 400 kms in four provinces of northern Lao. Portions of the transmission routes straddled the Plain des Jarres in central northern Laos; a scene of continuous fighting between CIA backed montagnard forces and the Pathet Lao/North Vietnam Army. Milsearch safeguarded the route and pylon site surveying teams and then conducted UXO clearances on each pylon site. The task also included clearance of feeder line and sub station construction. Due to heavy contamination and the sensitive nature of cluster bomb type UXO located, the clearance task was expanded to include the clearance of a construction easement between pylons, variously 10m to 4m wide and a 6m wide access road to all pylon locations.

BOUGAINVILLE, PNG

Client: Connell Wagner (Ausaid funded Task)

Task: Following earlier contamination assessments, Milsearch was re-engaged to complete underwater and land UXO searches on construction sites in Buka Harbour in Northern Bougainville and at Siwai and Kangu Beach in South Bougainville. Underwater searches of Kangu wharf site were also successfully conducted.

Large caches of Japanese depth charges and naval shells were located at the Kangu site. An on-shore demolition programme to destroy these munitions was instigated over a two week period, utilizing explosives flown in from commercial sources in mainland PNG. All munitions were successfully destroyed without mishap. Several other aerial bombs from the WW2 period were also collected and destroyed as an assistance to the civil community.

PORT MORESBY HARBOUR, PNG

Client: InterOil (PNG) Ltd.

Task: Milsearch was engaged to conduct underwater searches for UXO and other obstacles to navigation at the new Inter Oil refinery site at Napa Napa on the wester side of Port Moresby Harbour. Mobilizing at very short notice, Milsearch conducted underwater diver and magnetometer searches at piling and berthing sites to permit continued construction of the refinery wharf facilities. Milsearch also removed a bomb load from a WW2 era flying boat wreck that would have posed a threat to future supertanker berthing operations.

BORIKHAMXAY PROVINCE, LAO PDR

Client: Nam Theun Two Consortium (NTEC) Stage 1 Works

Task: Following international competitive bidding, Milsearch was engaged to conduct UXO remediation of some 450 hectares of nominated construction areas for the Nam Theun Hydro Electric project. The contract award follows the earlier conduct by Milsearch of a contamination sampling operation throughout the project area in 2002. The project area was the scene of fighting towards he latter stages of the War that concluded in 1975 and there are significant areas with extremely heavy levels of contamination. A team comprising four international EOD technicians and some 450 national staff are involved with this high profile project, which is proceeding to budget and in-line with projected programmes.

NEW BRITAIN PROVINCE, PNG

Client: Curtain Brothers Constructions (Ausaid funded project with Cardno MBK as supervising engineers)

Task: Following contamination assessments conducted during the design phase, Milsearch was selected through competitive tender to provide all EOD support including UXO surveys for the rehabilitation of a 23 km section of the Rabaul-Kokopo Road. This section had deteriorated since the volcanic eruptions of 1994 and passed through areas of Allied strategic bombing during WW2. As traffic flows could not be interrupted for any appreciable time, Milsearch chose to survey the 12m wide construction easement at night well ahead of construction using digital geophysical techniques. Hand towed carts mounting quad magnetometer sensors were employed for the existing formation, with hand carried dual magnetometers utilized for the road verges and batters.

NEW BRITAIN PROVINCE, PNG

Client: Curtain Brothers Constructions (Ausaid funded project with Cardno MBK as supervising engineers)

Task: Following contamination assessments conducted during the design phase, Milsearch was selected through competitive tender to provide all EOD support including UXO surveys for the rehabilitation of a 23 km section of the Rabaul-Kokopo Road. This section had deteriorated since the volcanic eruptions of 1994 and passed through areas of Allied strategic bombing during WW2. As traffic flows could not be interrupted for any appreciable time, Milsearch chose to survey the 12m wide construction easement at night well ahead of construction using digital geophysical techniques. Hand towed carts mounting quad magnetometer sensors were employed for the existing formation, with hand carried dual magnetometers utilized for the road verges and batters.

As the road followed the edge of the Rabaul Harbour with numerous turns and bends, positioning throughout the survey was achieved by integrating sub-metre DGPS with the magnetometers. Follow up investigation of anomalous targets was achieved utilizing computer produced investigation sheets with coordinates being regained with DGPS. Manual investigation was achieved with analogue magnetometers. In addition to the road formation, by-passes, resource pits, laydowns and numerous culvert construction sites were also searched over the nine month construction period. Numerous Japanese and allied munitions were identified and disposed of to authorized sea dumps.

DAK NONG PROVINCE, VIETNAM

Client: BHP Billiton

Task: Following historical review and assessment of USAF bombing records, Milsearch provided EOD support to safeguard preliminary ore sampling operations in the Ban Me Thuot/Dak Nong district of the Vietnam Southern Highlands. Milsearch conducting point clearances at sampling points utilizing mine detectors and magnetometers and recorded sampling locations by DGPS. Dak Nong District was the scene of numerous battles during the American War of 1962-75. Its location abutting the Cambodian border led to portions of the District being used as a major logistic and recruiting base by Viet Cong and NVA elements throughout the conflict.

SAVANAKHET, KHAMMOUANNE & BORIKHAMXAY PROVINCES, LAO PDR

Client: J-Power Systems Corporation (Japan)

Task: Following international competitive bidding, Milsearch was engaged to conduct ERW remediation of some 605 hectares of power line easements for the 500kV & 115kV Transmission Line (TX) task in the Nam Theun 2 Hydropower project. The transmission line easement passes through three provinces with varying degrees of contamination. A Milsearch contingent of 3 international EOD technicians and 160 Lao staff were deployed.