By Zandi Shabalala THABAZIMBI, South Africa (Reuters) - Anglo American Platinum has started trialling a new underground blasting technique employing emulsion explosives to improve safety as well as productivity. Mining companies in South Africa face weeks of safety stoppages when injuries or death occur at their underground operations, and the transport of explosives through the shafts is a slow and hazardous process. But in the new trial Amplats is instead piping an inert emulsion of nitrate and other ingredients underground which is then injected into the rock face along with a delayed-reaction sensitising solution that triggers the explosion, the technology's developers said. The technology could save lives because live explosives will no longer be carried through shafts where miners are working. According to government data more than 100 miners are on average killed every year in South Africa, although last year's toll fell to 84, its lowest ever. "This is really key to the technology because it limits the amount of time spent transporting explosives because there are fewer legal restrictions," said Selwyn Pearton, operations manager at BME, a unit of explosives company Omnia Holdings, who developed the technology for Amplats. BME already supplies a similar emulsion to open-cast mining operations, including Amplats' flagship Magalakwena mine, BHP Billiton's coal mines, and Kumba Iron Ore's Sishen mine. The new underground emulsion being used by Amplats is being trialled in a shaft in the Tumela platinum mine, in the northern Limpopo province, which produced about 150 ounces of refined platinum last year and is one the world's largest reserves of the white metal. If the six-month trial at Tumela's 16 West shaft is successful, the portable emulsion pumps could be used in other parts of the mine and eventually at other Amplats operations.