Belinda Martin – SSE, Sibelco Australia Pty Ltd
ABSTRACT
The fact is that most mines do not close when their mineral resources are exhausted but close prematurely due to a range of reasons including geotechnical, economic, regulatory and other pressures. Mining companies can develop and implement a mine closure plan that will highlight risks and set out a work breakdown structure to get from point A to point B, but keeping your employees focused on safety, motivated and retained brings many challenges. Strong leadership, a simple safety management system, ‘value add’ processes and ensuring employees have access to the right tools and equipment are extremely important but it is the workforce culture that drive safety and business outcomes. This paper will outline the challenges an impending 2019 mine closure brings and will explain the impacts on the workforce and the steps my team and I are taking to keep our workers safe up until the day we raise the ladder for the final time.
Anthony Masciangioli – Director and Principal Consultant
Darren Head, Principal Consultant, Riskcom Pty Ltd
ABSTRACT
Risk can often be seen as a disparate set of problems that seem to be unrelated and can result in Boards, Executives and Senior Managers being overwhelmed and exposed as the business struggles to address its issues across many competing priorities.
So how do we manage this? We must first identify and understand the critical risks the business is exposed to. The concept of risk lends itself to the Pareto principle, that is; 80% of a business’ risk profile is related to 20% of its risks (i.e. the critical few). Given this, it is appropriate for a business to focus on the ‘critical few’ rather than the ‘trivial many’ and to drill down deep into the causal pathway of the ‘critical few’. The aim of this is to ensure that effective controls are available to be implemented when required.
We must then understand the organisation’s (including the Boards, Executives and Senior Managers) appetite for managing these ‘critical few’ risks. The appetite for managing these ‘critical few’ risks is a function of the organisation’s culture and we must understand what motivates (or demotivates) the Board, Executive, Senior Managers and employees to implement (or not) the relevant management system requirements including activation of the critical controls when required.
When we truly understand what motivates people to manage the ‘critical few’ risks and we hold people accountable for the availability and effectiveness of the controls, then and only then will we have a culture that will enable a business to mitigate/manage its risk profile and optimise its business performance.
In this session, we will reflect on several case studies to support these contentions and provide evidence of this approach.
Dr Rhiannon McBean,
Research Coordinator, The Wesley Dust Disease Research Centre
Coal Mine Dust Lung Disease (CMDLD) is a term for of all lung diseases caused by inhalation of coal mine dust. CMDLD includes pneumoconiosis; coal workers’ and mixed dust pneumoconiosis (CWP; MDP) and silicosis, as well as inflammatory-type diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). CMDLD was undetected in the Queensland coal industry from 1984 to 2015. We aimed to understand the spectrum and severity of disease in recently diagnosed CMDLD cases (n= 79) by reviewing medical imaging, charts, lung function and occupational history.
CMDLD pneumoconioses were diagnosed in 71% of cases; CWP was most common (34%). Advanced disease was observed on medical imaging for 24% of subjects. Lung function results were equally split, 47.2% normal and 52.7% abnormal. On average, the tenure in coal mining was 26 years (range 6-45). The majority of subjects (44%) had only worked in underground coal mines. Surprisingly, 27% of subjects reported to have never worked in an underground coal mine.
We observed a diverse spectrum of diagnoses and severity ranged from mild to severe. Occupational history in terms of tenure and mine type varied across the subject group. It is hoped these findings will boost awareness of CMDLD
Peter McLaughlin, Safety and Health Field Officer / SSHR, Jellinbah Mining Pty Ltd
Andrew McMahon
Mates in Construction
Deanna McMaster & Trent Forno
MinterEllison
Deanna McMaster, Partner and
Rhian O’Sullivan, Special Counsel, MinterEllison
