Your winners for the 2022 Prospect Awards

WAS A KEY THEME AT THE AUSTRALIAN MINING PROSPECT AWARDS.

Australia is an unofficial mining capital of the world and the people who work tirelessly to support it deserve to be recognised for their efforts.

And since 2004, the Australian Mining Prospect Awards have been the premier event to do just that.

The Prospect Awards have been the only national awards program to take a step back and appreciate what the mining industry is doing by rewarding those who are excelling and going above and beyond, recognising and rewarding innovation.

Safety Advocate Of The Year

The winner of the Safety Advocate of the Year award has a very simple motto: It’s okay not to be okay. It’s okay to get help.

Nigel Gould, a Rio Tinto plant operator, has been a fierce advocate for men’s mental health since his first days as a fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) worker. He dedicates his time to different charities in order to help as many people as he can.

The Safety Advocate of the Year award recognises an individual who is committed to ensuring safety – either for an individual site or company, or for the mining industry as a whole.

“In mining, you’re in a cab for hours and then in your donga and it can be really lonely. Men are sometimes not the best at communicating and it can get bad fast,” Gould said. “So I just try and get people to talk, and I’ve been fortunate to save a couple of lives just by talking to people.

“I’m no expert; all I do is listen and not judge. But sometimes that’s all someone needs.”

Gould has been an ambassador for Movember, a charity aimed at raising awareness for men’s mental and physical health, for over a decade.

“It’s not just men’s mental health that Movember focuses on but things like prostate and testicular cancer, too,” Gould said. “It helps men to be aware of themselves and get those muchneeded check-ups.”

In an effort to raise more awareness for Movember, Gould sat for a portrait as part of the esteemed Archibald

Prize. The portrait captured Gould’s character, mining experience and mental health advocacy.

“The portrait is the whole story of my career involvement,” Gould said. “You’ve got the Royal Flying Doctor Service, the Movember big mo, the big wad of money because it’s not all about the money, even though that’s at the forefront of a lot of people’s minds.

“There’s a lot of meaning in the portrait.”

Gould called being named a Prospect Awards winner “an absolute honour”.

“I’m very fortunate to be known around the mine sites as someone people can go to for help,” he said.

Category sponsored by Flexco.

EXCELLENCE IN MINE SAFETY, OH&S

This award recognises a mine, company or project that has developed or carried out a program that increased safety, removed risk, or cut worker issues on a project or mine.

Emerging health safety and hygiene consulting firm GCG took home this award for its Real-Time Monitoring (RTM) App.

“The team and I at GCG Health Safety and Hygiene are extremely grateful for the amazing recognition and wonderful support from Vocus,” GCG operations manager Richard Crafter said.

The Real-Time Monitoring App is an advanced software solution developed to provide intelligent dust-exposure control management for smarter, faster dust exposure control decisions.

GCG has partnered with industry to refine and optimise the innovation to ensure benefits will be realised, with Hunter Valley Operations (HVO) being just one company that reported benefits from using the app.

“The RTM app allowed HVO to conduct a deeper analysis of potential worker exposure to respirable dust when undertaking a specific task, allowing for task-specific dust controls to be implemented and resulting in less exposure for the workforce,” HVO said in a case study.

Category sponsored by Vocus.

Innovative Mining Solution

Recognising a mine, company or project that has developed a unique mining solution, the Innovative Mining Solution award was presented to RattleJack Innovations for its SafetySpear.

The SafetySpear was invented in response to the ever-present danger of falling drill rods in underground mining operations. Drill assemblies are necessary to the process of underground mining but are often left abandoned in blast holes, creating significant risks to operators and equipment within the space above.

“The SafetySpear is a proactive approach to mine safety,” inventor of the SafetySpear Leigh Sutton said.

Sutton himself was almost injured by this hazard in 2014, setting in motion the conception of the SafetySpear.

“The SafetySpear will silently save someone’s life and they won’t even know it,” Sutton said. “They will go home safely to their family and that, my friends, is what we all want.”

Category sponsored by Austmine.

Outstanding Mine Performance

This category merges the Coal Mine of the Year and the Hard Rock Mine of the Year awards of past years into a single category.

This was Kestrel Coal’s first win of the evening. For close to four years, Kestrel has steadily improved its longwall mining operation efficiencies, from longwall move,to reaching first one million tonnes of coal in a new longwall block.

Kestrel believes its strong operational performance is built on confident and capable leaders and teams. To that end, the company’s UNLEASHED leadership program aims to strengthen operations by investing in the strength of its people.

“Through capable and confident leaders, we’re determined to deliver our compelling vision and solid strategy to become the mining industry’s employer of choice,” the company said in a statement.

Category sponsored by SEW Eurodrive.

Discovery Of The Year

The Discovery of the Year was one of five new or updated awards making its debut in 2022. It celebrates a significant discovery at either a greenfields or a brownfields site.