Brandon Wentzel & Brett Young,
BHP Mitsubishi Alliance/BMA
Russell White,
Driver Safety Australia
Melton White
Mideco
Mideco provide dust control products and solutions for mines, quarries and any commercial environment. We are an Australian owned company and have been operating since 1950. With over sixty years of successful dust collection experience behind us, Mideco has designed Bat Booth, the system for cleaning workers’ clothes after the shifts, helping prevent dust related conditions like silicosis and black lung.
Approved and recommended by NIOSH, UL certified and installed on sites all over the world, Bat Booth provides the highest value for OHS in mining and quarrying.
Eleonora Widzyk-Capehart & Zachary Kiehl
Simtars & Sentinel Occupational Safety
Peter Wilkinson, Associate Principal, Noetic Group
Stephen Williams
Engineering Manager, Connec High Voltage Coupler Systems
High voltage (HV) electricity is one of the primary sources of energy within underground coal mines, the effective control of which is fundamental to maintaining a safe working environment. Furthermore, the equipment typically used in HV transmission and distribution is heavy, requiring manual handling to facilitate installation in what can be deemed a confined and harsh working environment.
HV cable coupler and connection systems are an integral and necessary part of mining electrical systems. Underground mining especially has a frequent need to connect and disconnect cables as a result of both the mining process and cable/connector inspection, maintenance and testing regimes. However, current coupler designs which have been in use for several decades consist primarily of a heavy metallic body that inherently limits methods for “testing for dead” prior to touching the coupler.
This presentation describes at a relatively high level the various associated safety benefits that have been incorporated into developing these polymer coupler systems, including the ability to reliably “test for dead” prior to disconnecting a coupler and the substantial weight reductions that allow for improved manual-handling.
Having been supported by ACARP from the outset, Connec has developed the world’s first polymer-based Restrained (≤3.3 kV) and Bolted (≤11 kV) HV coupler systems that are both ANZEx and IECEx certified for use in underground coal mining environments.
Lauren Williams,
Lung Foundation Australia
Liam Wilson, ISO Committee Member TC-82 Mining, WG 9, ISO Committee TC-82 – Mining, WG 9
Simon Worland – Occupational Hygienist
ABSTRACT
Use of compressed air to blow out or “clean” electrical cabinets is a routine maintenance task across the Queensland Coal Industry. Elevated levels of harmful dust can engulf the blow out operator for extended periods and increase the risk of developing lung diseases including Coal Workers Pneumoconiosis and silicosis.
In 2017 the Queensland Mines Inspectorate reported that approximately 50% of all respirable dust and Respirable Crystalline Silica (RCS) exceedances in surface coal mines was directly related to the use of compressed air for cleaning down enclosures and equipment during maintenance activities.
Respiratory protection has historically been viewed as the primary control to protect the health of blow out operators as dust controls at the engineering level or above have not been considered to be feasible.
Blow out of electrical cabinets on Komatsu 960E haul trucks have been targeted for an engineering dust control project at Hail Creek Mine. The project has focussed on the following areas:
• Sealing of cabinets
• Application of positive pressure
• Local exhaust ventilation / vacuuming
• Identification of alternative cleaning methods
• Measurement of control performance
This paper describes the dust control project along future direction for application of common principles to other equipment such as draglines and excavators.