Creswick Bulger
Senior Inspector of Mines, Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy
This paper discusses critical controls – those which can prevent fatal and catastrophic events from occurring in Queensland surface coal mines. To understand what the critical controls are we have to identify all fatal hazards in surface coal mines.
Analysis of all fatalities that have occurred in Queensland coal mines since 1969, show hazards causing the majority of fatalities in surface mines are distinctly different to those causing the majority of fatalities in underground mines. During this 50 year period there have been 132 fatalities in Queensland coal mines, 94 in underground and 38 in surface mines.
A breakdown shows 86% of fatalities in underground mines were caused by principal hazards. In surface mines only 24% of fatalities were caused by principal hazards. This means for surface mines the majority of critical controls relate to a number of fatal hazards which are not principal hazards.
Based on that analysis the Queensland coal mine inspectorate has sought information from surface coal mine companies relating to the fatal hazards and critical controls identified within their risk identification systems. This information will be developed into audit and inspection guidelines which the inspectorate will apply when carrying out inspections and audits at surface coal mines.
Prof Robin Burgess-Limerick – Professor of Human Factors, The University of Queensland
ABSTRACT
Operators of earth-moving equipment at surface mines are exposed to whole-body vibration. Prolonged exposure to high amplitude whole-body vibration accumulates to cause adverse health effects, particularly back disorders. The potential for instantaneous high impact loading also exists and these high impacts (jolts and jars) experienced by earth-moving equipment operators may cause acute injury. ACARP project C23022 successfully demonstrated the use of an iOS application (WBV) as a cost-effective means of measuring whole-body vibration.
An extension of this work is underway which enables continuous communication of the accelerations to which equipment operators are exposed to a central server to facilitate the management of both whole-body vibration and instantaneous impacts. The server software will undertake further analysis and provide an alert in the event that a high amplitude impact on the operator is detected, or when the daily vibration dose approaches the upper limit of the ISO2631.1 Health Guidance Caution Zone. The vibration data will also be combined with GPS data to allow further analysis of the sources of elevated whole-body vibration levels and high impact incidents.
Robin Burgess-Limerick
The University of Queensland
Prof. Robin Burgess-Limerick – Professor of Human Factors, Minerals Industry Safety and Health Centre, The University of Queensland
ABSTRACT
Proximity advisory systems have potential to reduce collision risks associated with surface mining haul-trucks by assisting truck drivers to maintain situation awareness. The design of the visual interface by which information is provided is likely to influence the effectiveness of such systems. During ACARP project C24028, a range of information sources were reviewed including best practice guidelines from other industries. The consequences of different visual interfaces were examined when drivers were presented with potential collision scenarios via a modified haul-truck simulator (Figure 1). Additional information available in a Schematic proximity advisory visual interface was utilised by drivers to reduce collision risk and braking force and decrease travel time; although the effects were smaller in a subsequent experiment involving a smaller number of experienced truck drivers.
Design guidelines have been developed for haul-truck proximity advisory systems. Further work is underway in project C27005 in which a similar experimental paradigm is utilized to examine two of the issues identified as requiring further investigation: the relative benefits of proximity information based on distance only vs collision prediction information; and secondly, the relative benefits of auditory tones vs speech.
Nathan Cables, Global Head Mining and Industrial, EYECUE by Fingermark (USA)
Prof Ismet Canbulat – Professor and Chair of Rock Mechanics, The University of New South Wales
ABSTRACT
There is an increasing trend to use multimedia visuals as tools in training to enhance learning process, which help to better present the concepts and contents. In 2017 ACARP initiated a project to develop new advanced videos to update the geotechnical awareness and training video (i.e., Black Gold) for open cut coal mines utilising the latest technology in animation and visualisation.
The benefits of these videos are:
• They are powerful as they empower employees and improve productivity and safety
• They are cost-effective; when developed, they can be used by all operations and mines
• They save time in training, providing more learning in less time
• They can be deployed quickly and efficiently
• They offer a consistent experience
• They are flexible (i.e., deploy, stop, rewind, forward etc)
• They give more time to geotechnical engineers to fulfil their other day-to-day duties
Two distinct modulus, one for the operators and supervisors and the other one for the technical service teams, have been developed in the project.
These videos focus on the following aspects:
1. Operational hazard identification and control
2. Mining practices and associated impact on geotechnical aspects
3. Geotechnical processes and systems
4. Role of geotechnical engineers
5. Equipment capabilities
This presentation summarises the development of Geotechnical Hazard Awareness and Training Videos for the open cut coal mining industry.
Ashley Cannan & Luke Daniher,
Sano Health
David Carey
Queensland Mines Rescue Service
Ben Carnell
Principal Consultant, Sentis
Accurate and timely reporting of safety incidents is a crucial component of a positive safety culture. These invaluable learning opportunities allow us to adapt, make improvements and prevent future injury. Yet, recent Australian data has found that on average, 31% of incidents go unreported and in some organisations this figure rises as high as 53%*. And it’s not just frontline workers failing to report; leaders and managers also underreport at alarming rates.
Session outcomes:
- Explore insights from a global research study of 12,460 participants, including mining specific results and case studies
- Discover underreporting rates across team, leader and management levels
- Understand the three key drivers of underreporting and the risks to your business
- Learn strategies for addressing underreporting in your business
*based on a sub-sample of 6,899 participants in Australia.
Dr. Tristan Casey
Lecturer, Griffith University
What exactly is a ‘safety culture’? How is one achieved (and is it even possible)? What is the link between leadership and safety culture? As a result of the plethora of answers to these questions, there is also diversity of approaches to safety culture improvement within mining. The LEAD model is an integrated and evidence-based framework that focusses on the leadership and team work practices required to build a safety culture.</p .
Freely available through the Safety Leadership at Work program, the LEAD model and toolkit are designed to empower organisations regardless of size or industry to achieve positive safety culture outcomes. Developed through a partnership between academia (Curtin University and University of Queensland), government (Workplace Health and Safety Queensland), and industry (including the Sustainable Minerals Institute), the LEAD model has been operationalised as a practical toolkit.
A cohort of 12 workplaces representing a diverse snapshot of different sectors (including the mining industry) participated in the design, delivery, and evaluation of the LEAD toolkit. In addition to presenting the LEAD model, my presentation will also describe the main phases and resources within the LEAD toolkit, and present a short case-study around the outcomes achieved through this project.