Q&A
QLD coal mine trial encourages safer practices EACH YEAR, RESOURCES SAFETY AND HEALTH QUEENSLAND CONDUCTS A SIMULATED EMERGENCY EXERCISE AT ONE OF THE STATE’S MINES. QUEENSLAND CHIEF INSPECTOR OF COAL MINES PETER NEWMAN REVIEWS THE LEARNINGS FROM THE SIMULATION AT ANGLO AMERICAN’S MORANBAH NORTH MINE IN 2020.
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nowing what to do during a hazardous situation is crucial to avoiding disaster. In the mining industry, hands-on learning approaches are being encouraged to ensure workers are prepared to follow the correct procedures and protocol. Resources Safety and Health Queensland (RSHQ), the state’s independent regulator of worker safety and health in the mining, quarrying, petroleum, gas and explosives industries, has recognised the importance of trialling disaster situations at mine sites. RSHQ organises simulated emergency exercises at a Queensland underground coal mine site each year, bringing its findings to the rest of the industry to encourage improvements to the health and safety protocol that are followed by mine operators and coal mine workers. In 2020, a simulation at the Moranbah North coal mine involved an underground loader fire, followed by a fan stoppage that led to a mine evacuation. A coal mine worker remained missing underground when the evacuation was completed, prompting a mine re-entry by Queensland Mines Rescue. RSHQ Chief Inspector of Coal Mines Peter Newman tells Safe to Work about the purpose and learnings of the exercise.
What benefits do emergency mine exercises have over other methods of establishing safety-related industry learnings? One of the key learnings out of the Moura No.2 1994 disaster was that level one exercises were to be run in underground mines each year with level two exercises being run across surface and underground mines each year. As with level one exercises, the learnings from those other level two exercises are to be shared with the industry. So why is it different to other safety related industry learnings? It’s validating the learnings being implemented at one underground coal mine each year, through a coordinated external agency validating the mine’s emergency response and management capability. It’s use of an independent party to test the emergency response capabilities of an organisation as close as possible to an actual disaster condition, providing real-life testing of the mine’s capacity and capability to respond and ensure there is no further loss of life with the incident. There are safety alert bulletins, seminars and conferences that cover industry learnings, but the level one emergency exercise validates whether learnings from past exercises have been implemented. The cross-industry stakeholders that
SAFETOWORK.COM.AU 28 JUL-AUG 2021
Queensland chief inspector of coal mines Peter Newman.
we use in the planning and assessment of the exercise, which are people outside of the mine being tested, take their learnings back through to their respective organisations. One of the recommendations in the December 2020 report is to enhance communication protocols for mine workers. Could advancements in wearable technology make this easier for mine workers to adopt? I suppose there’s several new technologies when it comes to communications that have been introduced into mines to enhance those communications protocols. For a long time in the industry, Wi-Fi and fibre has been available in surface
