Chris Hall
Superintendent Geotechnical, Cannington Mine, South32
Cannington mine is a silver lead zinc operation located in north west Queensland. The operation has been in production since 1997. Ore is primarily moved through an underground material handling system comprising of a crusher, conveyor and hoist. The underground crusher and conveyor system were sited in lower grade ore when the mine was first commissioned and a mine design exclusion zone was established around them. As the mine matured, stopping fronts advanced towards the crusher, resulting in an increase in damage of rock mass and ground support within infrastructure areas in the lower parts of the mine.
In response to preliminary observations of crusher chamber deformation, additional ground support was designed and installed. As the rate of damage began to exceed the rate of rehabilitation, monitoring of rock mass became the predominant control to ensure that exposure to personnel working in the crusher chamber was appropriately safe. The intensity of the monitoring regime continued to increase as the rockmass deformed to the point that new laser scanning technology was implemented to provide short interval monitoring. Ultimately, the monitoring system enabled a safe and controlled closure of the chamber.
James Hall
Partner, Ashurst
Brett Elgar
Counsel, Ashurst
In November 2018, the Coal Mining Safety and Health Act 1999 was amended to introduce a number of significant reforms.
A number of the changes were aimed at improving the focus on contractor management and safety. We discuss these important changes and their practical implications for the industry.
Bill Haylock
Director, Green Ticket
All mine sites have two things in common—workers and risks. Their workforce, the company’s biggest asset, need to be trained efficiently and effectively on hazards’, risks’ and incidents’ management. Mine site workers handle highstakes machinery and dangerous substances in high-risk settings. The success of risk procedures for a company depends on how well workers understand, accept, and implement these procedures. Without appropriate knowledge and specific tools workers are at high risk of impacting their safety and health, while also undoing corporate compliance measures implemented by management. To mitigate this, we need cost-effective and time-efficient tools. We need targeted, pertinent, specialised training.
This raises questions about what tools contractors need to do the job and how these tools can effectively and efficiently be created and delivered.
Questions to address:
- What is the decision-making process undertaken to create a targeted, pertinent, specialised training program?
- What is the problem?
- Who is at risk?
- What are the regulations?
- Who is the target?
- What are the methods of delivery and desirable frequency?
- What locations?
- What are the workers’ levels of literacy?
- And most importantly, what decision-making processes help to answer these questions and get cut-through to the workers?
Jenny Krasny
Senior Customer Safety & Fatigue Consultant, Caterpillar Inc.- Caterpillar Safety Services
Sleep deprivation, abnormal sleeping patterns, long commute times, and highly repetitive, sustained and monotonous tasks are common predictors of fatigue across the mining industry. Fatigue is a reality that our industry faces, and while all would agree that it is a critical risk that must be managed, understanding the severity of that risk and developing the associated controls has been a challenge… until recently. Using wearable devices, the condition of our operators, employees and managers can be assessed easily and accurately, enabling solutions for fatigue mitigation and management to come to the fore. The dilemma, however, is that solutions developed for one operation do not always apply to other operations due to the unique differences in rosters, sleeping conditions, commute times and a multitude of other variables.
Having worked across four continents, supporting various mining operations identify, mitigate and manage their fatigue risk, Jenny Krasny will present to you not only the state of fatigue in our industry, but also some of the unique and innovative solutions customers are adopting to manage fatigue risk.
Dr. Jenny Legge
Managing Director, JobFit Systems International
Exoskeletons, or wearable robotics, are appearing in scientific journals, industry publications, the media, and even in some workplaces as a potential ‘solution’ for workplace musculoskeletal injury prevention.
This presentation will outline the different types of exoskeletons currently available and their intended uses, including how they can potentially reduce the load on specific muscle groups to minimise fatigue and subsequent injury. However, there are also several documented risks associated with their use in industry. A review of the current evidence base will be presented.
Acceptance of exoskeletons across industries and different work types has been variable and is still in relatively early stages of development and implementation. Mining is often seen at the forefront of safety innovation and can be early adopters of new technologies and processes. Could ‘Exos’ be the next big thing for our industry?
To assist potential users and purchasers to make informed decisions before trial or purchase of such devices, a checklist for independent evaluation will be presented. This takeaway resource will also outline a number of ‘toolspecific’ risk factors to be considered in any onsite formal pre-use / pre-purchase risk assessment for the mining environment.
Dr. Nick Mabbott
The Science of Sleep Director, Beyond Midnight Consulting
A raft of work has been done regarding the reduction of fatigue risk. However, a portion of fatigue risk is brought into the workplace by employees who don’t fully understand sleep and its nuances. Good sleep is the cornerstone of fatigue management as it allows employees to reduce fatigue risk prior to arriving for work. Fundamental to this is to have the workforce educated on all aspects of sleep. This includes: What healthy sleep is, how to target the correct amount, how to pay back sleep debts, addressing sleep disorders, developing a healthy attitude toward sleep, understanding health and wellness implications of sleep, and implementing controls when fatigued.
This presentation provides the understanding of the processes that occur within the brain when we sleep. It follows with discussion around different stages and cycles of sleep and how each of these stages add to, or take away from, our safety, health, wellness and productivity. Using the above information, the author has seen first-hand, the differences in people after applying better sleep management practices. There have been improvements in physical and mental health, productivity and safety. Healthy sleep provides a great opportunity to be the “best version of yourself”.
Larnie Mackay
Operations Scheduler, Anglo American-Moranbah North Mine
Anglo American has introduced Australia’s first certified, electronic tablet device for use in underground coal mines. The device provides real-time access to CITECT data for Hazard Awareness and system monitoring, as well as Anglo American’s latest Safety and Health Management processes and documentation.
Developed in collaboration with a tablet manufacturer, the device was developed and tested to achieve International Group 1 Certification together with Queensland Government’s SIMTARS safety in mines certification.
The underground tablet can be used as a portable video communication device (via Skype) to instantly access expert technical advice. Not only does this accelerate operational fault-finding, it also allows a live video link to paramedics in the case of an emergency.
The tablet allows real-time environmental monitoring; provides up-to-date equipment resetting requirements; displays risk-categorised Strata Defect locations pictorially on the Mine Plan; and allows short interval control on the actual plan.
The introduction of the tablet is a major step towards the removal of all underground paperwork and the electronic lodgement of statutory and production reports.
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
The aim of the Workshop is to provide an interactive forum where approaches to fatigue management may be discussed with experts and peers, with participants having the opportunity to take part in a fatigue risk assessment exercise.
The Workshop will be led by:
Prof. Naomi Rogers
Specialist Fatigue Consultant, Naomi Rogers Fatigue Consulting
John Tate
Barrister, Crown Law
Katie Harrold
Health, Safety and Emergency Management Advisor, Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal Pty Ltd
Industry Representatives from the Mine Inspectorate, Management and Workforce
Bipin Parmar
Principal Engineer, Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy
The potential for a gas or dust explosion, arising from misuse, failure or lack of maintenance of electrical equipment in underground coal mines is high. In order to reduce the risk of a failure, pre-overhaul audits on the Explosionprotected (Ex) certified equipment are conducted.
Occasionally Simtars is involved with investigation or inspection of equipment after a failure resulting in an incident or accident. This paper will present various methods of collecting and analysing the information/data prior to the event, the actual event and post event activities. Examples of investigation or inspection work, conducted by Simtars, will be presented.
These are:
- Investigation of circuit breaker failure
- Failures of electrical cable used in underground and open cut coal mines
- Fire Resistance and Anti-Static (FRAS) compliance of non-metallic materials used in underground coal mines
Results of incident investigation conclude with recommendations for the manufacturer or for the end user. In the examples presented, the circuit breaker failure indicated a manufacturing issue. The example associated with electrical cables indicated cable insulation being compromised probably due to cable crushing (vehicle run over) or poor handling practice. The FRAS issue indicated potential hazard for static discharge when used with compressed air in underground coal mine.