With IoT making inroads into the mining sector and continually evolving to meet industry needs, low-cost commercially available IoT systems that are fully integrated (turnkey) solutions were explored. For these reasons, NIOSH researchers believed a more cost-effective solution requiring less technical expertise to deploy was needed. However, small mines with 10 or fewer employees had the highest incident rate for machine-related severe accidents, and these operations may not have the technical resources or finances to deploy such systems. While the above-mentioned systems showed great potential for improving conveyor safety, they required an immense amount of technical expertise to set up and deploy. More recently, NIOSH researchers developed and installed a proof-of-concept wireless Internet of Things (IoT)-based system to provide real-time monitoring of machinery and conveyors during operation and maintenance. In 2013, NIOSH researchers reported on a wireless miner tracking system, which was repurposed to provide intelligent machine guard monitoring to improve miner safety. To address the problem of entanglement-related accidents, NIOSH researchers continue to investigate emerging technologies that may be beneficial in improving conveyor safety, specifically through enhanced situational awareness. Systems that can sense a miner’s presence in hazardous locations ensure that machine guards are properly secured in place and/or ensure machines are properly locked out and tagged out during maintenance would reduce fatalities”. Factors that contribute to entanglement hazards include inadequate or missing guards, inadequate or an insufficient number of crossovers in strategic locations, and/or inappropriate lock out/tag out procedures. The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has also recognized this problem, stating in a recent request for information (RFI): “Since 2007, there have been 17 fatalities related to working near or around belt conveyors, of which 76 percent were related to miners becoming entangled in belt drives, belt rollers, and discharge points. Research performed by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) showed that from 2000 to 2007, 14% of all mining-related accidents involved conveyors, with most accidents occurring at surface operations. Injuries and fatalities associated with conveyor systems at sand and gravel mining operations continue to be a problem in the mining industry.