Safe to work Nov/Dec 2020

THE FIRST PRIORITY FOR AUSTRALIA’S MINING INDUSTRY

ISSUE 10 - NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020

Remote working New ways to operate mines emerge

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Comment Positive safety changes here to stay RAPID CHANGES HAVE BEEN FORCED ON THE MINING INDUSTRY IN 2020.

BUT WILL THESE ADJUSTMENTS BECOME PERMANENT FOR THE INDUSTRY? BEN CREAGH

W

hat a transitional year it has been for safety in mining.

Fundamentals, such as safety being the industry’s top priority and the focus on keeping workers out of harm’s way, have remained strong.

Instead, it’s how the industry has been required to approach safety that has forced immediate adjustments.

Since March this year, the COVID-19 pandemic has been the key safety focus for the industry.

We have seen borders across the country and the world close, worker mobility limited in a way not seen in modern mining before and a sudden re-think of how companies operate to reflect the ‘new normal’.

Innovation, one of mining’s most commonly used words over the past decade, has again come to the fore as the industry has accelerated its use of technology and other novel ways of working.

But what will this transition

VANESSA ZHOU Tel: (03) 9690 8766 Email: vanessa.zhou@primecreative.com.au PUBLISHER CHRISTINE CLANCY MANAGING EDITOR BEN CREAGH Tel: (03) 9690 8766 Email: ben.creagh@primecreative.com.au JOURNALISTS SALOMAE HASELGROVE Tel: (03) 9690 8766 Email: salomae.haselgrove@primecreative.com.au

CLIENT SUCCESS MANAGER JANINE CLEMENTS Tel: (02) 9439 7227 Email: janine.clements@primecreative.com.au SALES MANAGER JONATHAN DUCKETT Mob: 0498 091 027 Email: jonathan.duckett@primecreative.com.au

mean in 2021 and beyond?

Despite traditionally being an industry reluctant to accept change, the mining sector has been overwhelmingly positive in response to the moves companies have needed to make this year.

If anything, the new ways of working have shown the potential to deliver safer workplaces over the long term and are not being viewed as band-aid solutions until restrictions ease.

Automation, for example, is now more broadly accepted across mining communities as a necessity for operations, instead of a technology that threatens jobs.

From driverless haul trucks to remote monitoring for maintenance activities, automation has contributed to the Australian mining industry’s successes in 2020.

Autonomous technologies continue to come into their own as innovations that go hand in hand with the human jobs that will make up the future of mining.

And the achievements of

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SAFETOWORK.COM.AU 3 NOV-DEC 2020

the past year may only be the beginning of this new wave of safety innovation.

Australia is heading in a promising direction with its response to the pandemic, but globally there is a long way to go.

Mining is, of course, a global industry and the demands on companies to keep workers safe against this threat will remain paramount in the year ahead.

Ben Creagh Managing Editor

FRONT COVER Workers oversee a conveyor operation.

Image: Fenner Dunlop

PRIME CREATIVE MEDIA 11-15 Buckhurst St South Melbourne, VIC 3205 Australia www.primecreative.com.au © Copyright Prime Creative Media, 2016 All rights reserved. No part of the publication may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means without the written permission of the p ­ ublisher.

In this issue Features

38

12 R emote work changes mine operations

ortescue, Rio Tinto spearhead F remote working

16 Troubleshooting from afar Accelerating uptake of ABB Ability Remote Insights

18

Providing frontline safety

20

Dousing fire threats

JSG Industrial Systems expands fire suppression capabilities

Austmine speaks with Banlaw on threats of fuel fires

22 Incident investigation:

30 Dust solutions for plant

The recommended way

Processes and execution shape incident outcomes

24

38 The necessity of HEPA filters

Sy-Klone looks into new air quality standard

cabins

LSM provides cabin filtration, pressurisation systems

A competition for the ages

42

Instigating cultural change

Emergency response competition steps into 10th year

34 Underground respirable

Safety: Then and now

Northern Star OHS manager exposes multi-decade change

40

hazards

GRT addresses dust exposure around longwall operations

Fenner Dunlop joins forces with SafetyCircle

26 Nationwide act to settle

36 Blocking out nanoparticles

the dust

Queensland, Western Australia and New South Wales get to work

44 A mine worker’s account of

Companies remain united by common goal

eye injury

Bollé Safety escalates importance of eye protection

48 Breaking isolation in remote mine sites

Geoscience creates a COVID-19 ‘urban retreat’

50 A controlled reaction to

incidents

Mitchell Services makes people the solution

53 The journey to

30

REGULARS

6 NEWS

10 PRODUCTS

interoperability

BHP weighs in on future mines

54 EVENTS

SAFETOWORK.COM.AU 4 NOV-DEC 2020

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News Anglo American launches world-first remote multi-pass drill

Anglo American’s drill was developed at the Dawson mine in Queensland.

Anglo American has developed the world’s first remote multi-pass drill at the Dawson coal mine in Queensland as it transitions to controlling the site from a remote operations centre.

The drill is the first known rotary blasthole drill rig that enabled Anglo American to remotely complete multi-pass operations at the Dawson mine.

This was driven by Anglo American’s commitment to make open cut mining safer as it removed operators from the field, with the rigs used as part of a drill and blast process that

enabled excavation activities.

Anglo American’s Dawson mine general manager Clarence Robertson said the drill was testament to 18 months of tireless work by the Dawson team.

“Our project team did an incredible job upgrading the D90K drill rig by giving it a new control system and mechanical modifications,” Robertson said.

“This allows the drill rig to continually add and remove multiple drill rods during the drilling process without operator intervention, making it more

efficient and consistent.

“Most importantly, the innovation is improving safety by removing our people from an operational area where they could be exposed to noise, dust, vibrations and vehicle movements.

“They now work from a site office environment, where a remote operations centre has been a step up for them to use new one-touch drilling technology.”

The multi-pass drill can reach six times deeper than a standard singlerod drill for both angled and vertical holes, allowing Anglo American to reach coal seams more easily.

Anglo American chief executive of Metallurgical Coal business Tyler Mitchelson said, “The remote multipass drill is a strong demonstration of how technology, digitisation and remote operation can come together to make our operations safer, more sustainable and more productive.”

Newcrest combats mental health with Thinking Well program Newcrest Mining has introduced a program called Thinking Well to address mental health and the challenges COVID-19’s had on its employees.

This follows company health and hygiene reviews that were aimed to identify risks to people, including mental health illness, musculoskeletal disorders and acid mist.

Mental health is part of the company’s three pillars of health, hygiene and wellness framework.

During the 2020 financial year, the company also implemented exposure reduction plans for silica, diesel particulates and noise, while launching a better management of fatigue risks.

At the Red Chris gold mine in Canada, Newcrest significantly reduced the cases of injuries since taking over management.

Newcrest chairman Peter Hay said the company immediately began a safety transformation at the operation after acquiring a 70 per cent interest in the mine in August last year.

Newcrest delivered a 13 per cent improvement in its total recordable injury frequency rate in the 2020 financial year against the previous period, totalling two per million hours worked.

This went up to 2.6 per million hours worked when Red Chris was included, indicating the operation had a higher

SAFETOWORK.COM.AU 6 NOV-DEC 2020

average injury rate than Newcrest’s other operations.

“Newcrest’s safety transformation plan continues to yield benefits with another 12-month period free of fatalities or life-changing injuries and a continued improvement in injury rates,” Hay said.

Newcrest managing director Sandeep Biswas added that the company’s safety figures were “industry-leading low levels of injury and we remain focussed on achieving further reductions in injury rates.”

The Red Chris mine is one potential world-class project that Newcrest is exploring, aside from its Havieron gold-copper project in Western Australia.

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News Caterpillar enhances operator safety with Next Generation truck Caterpillar has continued a 35-year tradition with the launch of the latest 785 mining truck, the Next Generation Cat 785, which will be available from next year.

The Next Generation Cat 785 enhances operator safety and performance with multiple upgrades to improve truck responsiveness and controllability.

These upgrades include an antilock brake system, dynamic stability control, enhanced traction control, machine speed limiting, hill start assist with anti-rollback and cruise control.

Inside the updated cab, operators have access to the Next Generation Cat 785 speed coaching feature, which provides feedback on how to operate the truck in the safest and most productive way.

Operators have guidance information, machine data and electronic controls displayed across two touch screens

regulations around the world, including the optional Tier 4 final emissions configuration, which has shown fuel efficiency improvements of up to 9 per cent.

The advanced electronic powertrain controls deliver faster cycle times and acceleration and less spillage for a reduction in road maintenance as well as improved engine life.

The ability to access and analyse accurate real-time data from the Next Generation Cat 785 allows faster diagnostics to predict and prevent machine failure and the remote flash and troubleshooting capabilities help to boost machine availability on-site.

Operators can schedule software updates so they do not interrupt production, and diagnostics can be completed remotely while the truck is in operation.

Caterpillar will begin production of the Next Generation Cat 785 truck in the first quarter of 2021.

Caterpillar’s Next Gen 785 mining truck.

for convenience, eliminating clutter in the cab.

The cab also features a new air filtration system, increased leg room, deluxe seats with in-built lumbar support and heated and cooled cushions with a 30-degree recline to accommodate operators of all sizes.

The Next Generation Cat 785 is available in multiple emissions configurations to meet different

Mount Gibson tightens Koolan Island travel safety Mount Gibson Iron has commissioned a $20 million airstrip that is expected to bring safety benefits to the Koolan Island iron ore operation in Western Australia.

The company completed the commissioning via a test flight of a Fokker 100 jet aircraft at the end of the September quarter.

The airstrip expected its first passenger flight in October, with around 100 personnel arriving directly from Perth to Koolan Island.

The direct flights enabled by the facility will reduce the average commute time required by Perth personnel by around half.

Mount Gibson stated that the COVID-19 pandemic had further

demonstrated the value of this development.

Its completion contributed to a positive start to the new financial year at the company, according to Mount Gibson chief executive Peter Kerr.

Mount Gibson stated: “From early March 2020, the COVID-19 global pandemic necessitated significant and evolving responses by industry and government to slow the transmission rate of the virus, including restrictions on the movement of people into and within Western Australia, and strict social distancing requirements.

“Measures included pre-travel screening and declarations, social

distancing during travel and on site, enhanced cleaning and personal hygiene protocols, extended rosters to minimise travel, support for the relocation of interstate personnel to (Western Australia), and replacement of commercial flights for Koolan Island personnel with dedicated jet charter services.”

Mount Gibson has moved into a peak phase of waste stripping at the hematite mining operation, which is around 140 kilometres north of Derby in Yampi Sound, off the northern Kimberley coast of Western Australia.

The 2.1 kilometre sealed and allweather airstrip lies at the centre of the Koolan Island.

SAFETOWORK.COM.AU 8 NOV-DEC 2020

MINERS MOVE MOUNTAINS WE HELP THEM DO IT SAFELY. Meet ISO 23875 Mining Air Quality Standard

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Products BAXTER POLARISED GLASSES READY FOR SUN Polarised safety glasses are essential for workers who spend a lot of time outdoors near reflective surfaces.

The lenses have a special filter that blocks the light reflecting off surfaces like sand, water or road, improving colour perception and reducing eye strain.

The new Baxter safety glasses by Bollé Safety feature injection moulded polarised lens technology, providing optical quality and 99.99 per cent protection against UVA/UVB. An optional gasket and strap kit is available to maximise protection in dusty environments.

Suitable for workers who may need a sealed model in some areas but not in others, this model allows them to apply and remove the foam and strap as needed.

Thin, flexible temples perfectly adapt to other personal protective equipment, and an ultra-sporty design encourages wearer compliance.

The product is certified to ASNZS 1337.1:2010 for medium impact.

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SANDVIK REVEALS AUTOMINE CONCEPT FOR MINING EQUIPMENT Sandvik’s AutoMine Concept vehicle is fully working and autonomous.

It is based on the latest technologies and equipped with new sensing capabilities and artificial intelligence.

The AutoMine Concept perceives its surroundings and environment in 3D and reacts to it in real-time.

The technologies allow vehicles to plan their own routes and find the most suitable paths even in continuously changing environments.

AutoMine is also equipped with obstacle detection, collision avoidance and 3D online mapping capabilities.

Sandvik Mining and Rock Technology vice president, automation, Riku Pulli said the AutoMine Concept was the world’s first fully autonomous underground mining machine built specifically for automation.

“This technology raises ease of use, effectiveness of asset utilisation and adaptability to a new level, resulting in higher productivity,” he said.

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PACIFIC EARS PROTECTS MINERS’ HEARING Pacific Ears specialises in custom soft silicone moulded hearing protection as per the Australian, New Zealand and/ or European safety standards.

Any workplace with average noise exposure above 85 decibels requires hearing protection for employees. Pacific Ears’ products are a cost-effective solution, averaging at under $75 per person, per year.

Pacific Ears, through its subsidiary ACS Custom is developing its own range of hearing protection filters and one-off items that are unique to each customer.

The company’s protective filters are not only comfortable, but they also offer a perfect seal and are discreet, helping workers keep their spatial awareness while protecting their ears.

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SAFETOWORK.COM.AU 10 NOV-DEC 2020

OSISOFT ACCELERATES ACCESS TO REAL-TIME DATA The PI System has the ability to collect, analyse, visualise and share large amounts of time-series data from multiple sources to people and systems.

By delivering key data and insights at the right time to the right person, the PI System helps mining companies extend equipment life, improve safety and increase production capacity.

Operators are empowered to investigate intermittent issues, troubleshoot equipment failures and manage regulatory compliance.

Companies can also move from reactive to proactive decision making thanks to the real-time access and visualisation of data facilitated by the PI System.

Easy and quick to install, the system is used by mining majors such as Barrick Gold, Newcrest Mining, Anglo American and ArcelorMittal.

• osisoft.com

TRACKED ELEVATING DEVICE REMOVES WEIGHT FROM FITTERS Nivek Industries helps take the weight out of belly plate removal and replacement by designing a self-propelled and remote-controlled machine known as Tracked Elevating Device (TED).

The machine removes fitters from the deadly crush zone by going in tight spaces under machinery.

Human employees no longer need to push, pull or carry heavy loads in awkward situations.

The machine protects workers against back, shoulder, neck and muscular skeletal injuries.

In addition to TED’s wide array of attachments, Nivek Industries has introduced the jib attachment to move heavy components of varying shapes in confined spaces; the front belly plate cradle to safely remove the sloping front belly plate on D11 dozers; and the strut spindle cap tool to safely replace strut spindle cap on haul trucks.

• nivekindustries.com.au

MINEARC SYSTEMS HELP SAVE LIVES DURING EMERGENCY The DEZEGA Ci-30 KS self-contained self-rescuer (SCSR) is a portable, waist-worn SCSR that is used for escape from irrespirable atmospheres.

It is suitable for use over medium and short haul routes in underground mining scenarios.

The SCSR contains a cartridge with chemically-bound oxygen, enough to leave a danger zone within 30 minutes or wait for help for up to 90 minutes.

As oxygen is released, the active cartridge substance simultaneously absorbs carbon dioxide, thus isolating the user’s respiratory organs from hazard.

The DEZEGA Ci-30 KS SCSR is a closed-circuit breathing apparatus that ensures the user does not inhale outside gases after donning.

It features an automatic starter that automatically generates oxygen when it is donned and detects exhalation.

Designed specifically for underground mining, the DEZEGA Ci-30 KS SCSR is housed in an anti-deformation, ruggedised casing to ensure it is kept free from damage.

• minearc.com

SAFETOWORK.COM.AU 11 NOV-DEC 2020

Remote monitoring

The evolution of remote mine workers RIO TINTO AND FORTESCUE METALS GROUP HAVE LED THE EMERGING NORM OF WORKING REMOTELY FROM MINE SITES. SAFE TO WORK TAKES A CLOSER LOOK AT EACH COMPANY’S METROPOLITAN-BASED OPERATIONS CENTRES. mine dispatch, monitoring and control capabilities and port and grade dynamic scheduling for the Weipa and Gove bauxite mines.

“Our operations centre provides 24/7 operation and monitoring of all safety, production and quality aspects at our remote bauxite mines,” he tells Safe to Work.

The capability of the Brisbane integrated operations centre (BIOC) does not stop at the operation of heavy equipment; it also optimises mine stockpiles and their supply chain.

Rio Tinto incorporates technology such as fatigue monitoring systems, data analytics and automation initiatives, such as removing the need for manual visual inspection, at the BIOC. The company has introduced a fully automated ‘drone in a box’ system,

which is made up of an industrialgrade drone that can launch and land autonomously from a weather-proof base station.

“We’re continuing a trial and working through the approvals process with Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) to operate the system remotely from the operations centre in Brisbane,” van der Westhuizen says.

“The trial has proven the value and accuracy of having access to real-time stockpile monitoring, as well as access to post-processed datasets such as high-resolution aerial images, 3D models and volumetric reports, to help with stockpile monitoring, scheduling, grade control and reporting.

“With safety at the forefront, we’ve been able to integrate technologies such as CCTV and drones that assist our teams to complete their work

Credit: Rio Tinto.

T

echnology is strengthening its importance by breaking down geographical barriers for humans, from the introduction of cars and airplanes, to today helping mining projects operate without the onsite presence of employees.

Rio Tinto is a leading example of a company that continues to adopt these technological advances.

The company consolidates all relevant shift data to a central point in mine control at its operations centre in Brisbane.

The Albert Street centre provides 24/7 monitoring to the Queenslandbased Weipa and Northern Territorybased Gove bauxite mines’ safety, production and quality aspects.

Rio Tinto integrated operations general manager Daniel van der Westhuizen says the team manages

Mining truck and loader at the Weipa bauxite mine in Far North Queensland, overseen by the BIOC.

SAFETOWORK.COM.AU 12 NOV-DEC 2020

Rio Tinto’s Brisbane integrated operations centre looks after the company’s remote bauxite operations.

Credit: Rio Tinto.

safely and efficiently.”

The BIOC provides benefits that extend far beyond the removal of employees from the mine face.

It also facilitates flexible arrangements that have proven to lift team engagement, according to van der Westhuizen.

“They are better able to balance work and personal commitments,” he says.

“The centre currently has 50 employees, of whom half are female.

Flexible arrangements include staggered shift hours, job share arrangements and an array of work from home options.”

The same experience is replicated on level one of the Fortescue Centre in Perth. Iron ore miner Fortescue Metals Group has refurbished its expanded integrated operations centre known as the Fortescue Hive, which provides employees with greater flexibility.

There are 330 team members across Fortescue’s supply chain that work together 24 hours a day, seven days a week at the Fortescue Hive.

Fortescue chief executive Elizabeth Gaines says their positions in the integrated operations centre (IOC) mean they no longer need to regularly travel to site.

She adds that the Cloudbreak mine control system leads the way, with working arrangements of 25 per cent, 50 per cent and 75 per cent of a full-time roster offered as flexible options across the team. “(This has) proven to be beneficial to team members, and to Fortescue, by helping to retain team knowledge and experience,” Gaines says.

“The Hive was built as an all abilities accessible space and in doing so has built a flexible workplace, which has fostered supportive and inclusive culture.”

The IOC, though situated remotely from the real actions of a mine site, is not that far removed from reality.

It includes many team members in planning, operations and mine control who have worked on each of the company’s mine sites in the Pilbara, bringing an invaluable perspective and real-world experience to the IOC, Gaines continues.

“There is a period of adapting to working remotely as remote operations require different skills, such as being able to think in a virtual world,” she says.

“We train and support team member as they learn a different way of operating.”

Enriched by port, rail, shipping and marketing teams, the Fortescue Hive has embraced innovation and technology to bring many traditionally site-based teams together.

According to Gaines, there is a deliberate flow of information from planning through to shipping and marketing, which allows the company to sell the right tonnes of the right quality at the right time.

The insights and marketing intelligence of the sales and marketing team can be instantly shared with the

SAFETOWORK.COM.AU 13 NOV-DEC 2020

planning and operations teams.

“This truly integrated approach allows us to capitalise on market dynamics to deliver value to our customers, shareholders and the broader community,” she says.

“At Fortescue, the safety of our team members is our highest priority and the adoption of innovation and technology has been fundamental to driving further safety improvements throughout our operations.

“Working side by side in the Fortescue Hive allows for cohesive planning across the business, as our teams seamlessly share information.

This underpins continual reliability improvements in our supply chain, which is fundamental to the safe operation of a mine site.”

The existence of the Fortescue Hive doesn’t mean that all its regional workers have relocated to Perth.

In spite of Fortescue’s pioneering move to become the first Western Australian operator to control a railway from outside the region in 2009, a residential workforce of around 500 team members lives in Port Hedland.

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Remote monitoring

Remote support drives a new way of working ABB HAS DEVELOPED AN ENHANCED MODUS OPERANDI THAT ACCELERATES THE DETECTION AND RESOLUTION OF EQUIPMENT FAILURES AT REMOTE MINE SITES. SAFE TO WORK EXPLORES THE WONDERS OF ABB ABILITY REMOTE INSIGHTS.

T

he mining sector is embracing new ways of working, with progress in this direction accelerating across the world.

While Australia’s mining companies are already at the forefront of technology that enhances remote work, this year has reinforced that it is a top priority.

ABB service manager Thomas Stur has observed a definite uptake in the company’s remote operation diagnostic capabilities, called the ABB Ability Remote Insights, as mining companies seek to become more connected.

The remoteness of Australian mines compared with those in other countries has conveniently positioned them as an early adopter of remote technology.

ABB, a leading global engineering company that connects software to its electrification, robotics, automation and motion portfolio, has existing contracts with companies it supplies its products to, and that includes 24/7 remote support through its ABB Ability Collaborative Operations Centre.

The company has contributed to the sector’s transition to remote work for over a decade.

“The use of remote insights has been accelerated this year because we haven’t been able to get to site, so we have been using remote insights and

other ABB Ability technologies to enable our engineers from Finland, Switzerland and the United States to dial in and assist on-site workers and engineers to solve problems they’ve encountered on our machinery,” Stur tells Safe to Work.

“It’s the same customers we’ve been supporting for many years in Australia, but the appetite for using these technologies has definitely increased.

“We rolled out ABB Ability Remote Insights in October 2019 so we’re lucky to be able to support our customers even when it’s not safe to go to sites.”

Such remote work has been called on to comply with travel restrictions, but also to assist operators in resolving issues that would affect the safety of daily activities.

ABB provides 24/7 support through its collaborative operations centre.

SAFETOWORK.COM.AU 16 NOV-DEC 2020

Mining operators can get the help they need without waiting for an email response.

Stur says a gearless mill drive could experience an abnormal rise in temperature and the operator may not know whether there is an underlying problem, or if it is simply a reaction to hot weather.

ABB Ability Remote Insights is at the operator’s disposal for quick remote support 24 hours a day without having to wait for an email response.

The company’s engineers will then use augmented reality (AR) to investigate issues as they arise before they turn into something major.

“You don’t have to take the guesswork when maintaining large industrial equipment. You don’t have to take risks when you don’t need to.

Instead, you can dial in and access

assistance from the experts that designed your equipment,” Stur says.

ABB Ability Remote Insights are delivered via a headset worn by both the ABB technician and mining operator.

The technician can see what the latter sees, annotate on the image and provide step-by-step guidance as part of seamless two-way communication.

“AR is where you overlay the real world with additional information. It is, by far, the most common technology at the moment and is being used by ABB extensively in Australia,” Stur says.

“This gives operators the ability to escalate a problem as it arises.

You retain a clear line of sight to your equipment and surrounding while receiving support.”

Such mode of troubleshooting is built with safety in mind for it doesn’t require an operator to be caught up and look down at their tablet or mobile phone and be oblivious to an incoming danger in their surroundings.

To Stur, this is the most important point of differentiation between AR and virtual reality (VR) as the latter works by blocking one’s view in real life.

The AR technology doesn’t neglect the importance of personal protective equipment (PPE) either. It comes with full hearing protection modules so that

ABB service manager Thomas Stur.

an operator can hear the technician while remaining protected in a hazardous environment.

“Mines of today are better connected than ever. 4G and 5G networks are set up in a lot of mines, facilitating the smooth utilisation of ABB Ability Remote Insights,” Stur says.

“Everyone’s also very tech-savvy so we haven’t had any major issues in companies’ adoption of ABB Ability Remote Insights. After all, we live in the age of smartphones.”

ABB Ability Predictive Maintenance for mining is also proactive for alerting operators before they can see an issue coming.

Equipment receive 24/7 monitoring on the back of automated artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms that predict failures before they occur, stopping an issue from turning into a major failure.

SAFETOWORK.COM.AU 17 NOV-DEC 2020

This is part of the ABB Ability suite, which encompasses a different range of capabilities around predictive analytics.

Such is the masterful use of technology that ABB has decided to roll out its next technology.

ABB is working to incorporate AR and mixed reality to create remote training, targeted to operators of ABB gearless mill drives.

The prospects of a cross-over between AR and mixed reality have proven so well that ABB is also working on building remote factory acceptance test (FAT) capabilities to support the mining sector.

A customer who wants to purchase equipment, but can’t travel to the factory to inspect it before shipment can choose to dial in directly using AR and other technology to conduct a remote FAT. They can watch a demonstration of the equipment, ask for any further information or particular tests to be conducted, and they will be guided in every step of the process.

With the development that is going on at ABB, the industry can see what the future of operational support will look like.

This new slice of reality is being added to the equation without compromising safety.

Risk management

JSG Industrial Systems: Improving equipment fire outcomes AS A FRONTLINE SAFETY PRODUCT IN THE MINING INDUSTRY, MUSTER FIRE SUPPRESSION SYSTEMS AIM TO PROTECT OPERATORS AND ASSETS. JSG INDUSTRIAL SYSTEMS REVEALS HOW THE MUSTER PRODUCT IS EMBRACING NEW TECHNOLOGIES TO ATTAIN SAFER MINE OPERATIONS.

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SG Industrial Systems, a fully owned subsidiary of John Sample Group, is a company that listens to and invests in the needs of the mining industry.

JSG offers the market a portfolio of lubrication systems, fuel and flow management products and Muster fire suppression systems.

Muster is a frontline safety system designed to provide protection by suppressing a fire, allowing a window of opportunity for safe operator egress.

A thorough fire risk assessment identifies the “at risk” areas of the equipment and the system is then designed to provide detection and protection in those identified areas.

Muster’s unique cloud-based design program, Muster360, provides distributors of the product – who are also

the installers, a platform through which they can facilitate the risk assessment for the end-user’s assets.

The program provides distributors with the ability to produce a document pack for their clients containing the asset information, the fire risk assessment, scope or performance requirements, indicative system layout, a bill of materials and all commissioning documentation. Muster360 can also produce a quotation bearing the distributor’s contact details and logo, making it a complete snapshot of a safety system from point of enquiry through quotation to commissioning.

JSG Industrial Systems business development manager for Australia’s east coast, Vince Atkinson, has worked in the fire suppression industry for the past decade, gaining a strong understanding

Muster fire suppression system on a Cat AD30 mining truck.

SAFETOWORK.COM.AU 18 NOV-DEC 2020

of many products in the market.

In conjunction with his west coast counterpart Dale Sharpe, Atkinson works closely with the Muster team to fine-tune the offering to market. With over 25 years of industry experience combined, Sharpe and Atkinson bring a wealth of knowledge to the table.

“The Muster product provides users with a system that is certified to AS5062:2016, and is fully monitored 24/7. Fire suppression systems operate in a harsh application, no matter how you look at it,” Atkinson says.

“Equipment is working for long hours, nearly 24 hours a day. It also works in a harsh, dirty, dusty and hot environment, and can be exposed to significant vibration. So, our product has to be robust to be able to operate at any time, day or night, all year round.

“Aside from the safety aspect of fire suppression, there’s a huge financial investment in mobile equipment, and the cost of downtime and repairs associated with a major fire event can be significant. The reliability of our system provides equipment owners with peace of mind.”

The Muster system offers some additional features, such as the versatile alarm panel with a round face allowing for 360 degrees mounting on the bracket supplied. Despite the size of heavy machinery, availability of space in

the operator’s cabin is often limited.

The panel also contains a data port which can be easily connected to a unique hand-held Muster diagnostic module to quickly view system information, perform fault diagnosis, download event history and update software, among other capabilities.

With multiple automatic detection options available encompassing a range of temperature activation points, there is flexibility to create a bespoke solution for almost every application. Alongside safety there are environmental impacts to consider when providing fire protection.

To meet stringent environmental guidelines, Muster provides a proven fluorine free foam for use in their systems. Atkinson believes the company’s competitive advantage not only lies within the product itself, but also a holistic approach of its market offering.

“The offering we bring to the market is not only product driven but also includes additional support such as product training, technical support, supply continuity and true hand-in-hand partnership with our distributors and end-customers,” he says.

Despite the competition, Muster has become a significant disruptor in the

marketplace with a burgeoning global presence in markets such as Indonesia, China, Mongolia, Singapore, Vietnam, New Zealand and Africa.

Through continued innovation with the Muster product, JSG Industrial Systems is becoming an industry-leading supplier of choice to major companies in Australia and overseas.

JSG’s Muster system installed on a Volvo EC700C excavator.

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Risk management

Industry Q&A: The threat of fires during refuelling THREATS OF FIRE DURING EQUIPMENT REFUELLING ARE CLOSELY LINKED TO ITS MAINTENANCE, PROCESS ADHERENCE AND PROTECTION SYSTEMS. BANLAW EXPLORES THE RISKS IN A CONVERSATION WITH AUSTMINE.

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ustmine’s Mine Safety eBook explores the subject of mine safety, with topics spanning from asset lifecycle and maintenance processes, to wearable personnel safety technologies.

Here is an interview with Banlaw maintenance manager Sam Barnes on the threat of fires during refuelling.

Barnes joined Banlaw in 2011 as a mechanical service technician specialising in heavy mining equipment (HME) maintenance and site infrastructure for the management of industrial fluids.

He has installed and serviced hydrocarbon hardware and systems on over 50 Australian mine sites, and regularly travelled to Indonesia and West Africa to help improve maintenance management systems for Banlaw customers.

Banlaw maintenance manager Sam Barnes on the tools during a fuel infrastructure upgrade project.

Banlaw FillSafe Power’s fire-safe installation.

He now manages Banlaw’s service operation from the company’s head office in Newcastle, Australia.

The following interview is featured in Austmine’s Mine Safety eBook.

What are the biggest risks for miners to consider for fuel and lubricant management?

At Banlaw, my teams are the ones

on site every day; performing audits, doing installs and delivering machine and facility maintenance. We’re trying to eliminate leaks and spills – potential sources of harm to employees – and machine damage or breakdowns. From a hydrocarbons perspective, the focus is really on how to fill, dispense and maintain equipment as efficiently as possible, while doing so safely.

To answer your question, the scariest threat is that of fire. Mines have large amounts of stored diesel in their fuel farms, while heavy mining equipment can carry tens of thousands of litres onboard.

Poorly maintained refuelling equipment or operator error can very quickly lead to hot engine components igniting fuel, and in seconds you can have a tragedy beyond the cost of a machine.

Why do fuel fires occur on mining machines, and why is it still such a risk?

It boils down to inadequate refuelling equipment maintenance, staff knowledge

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and process adherence, and whether or not appropriate tank overfill protection equipment has been fitted. Equipment fires occur because hot engine components, like turbos, come into contact with fuel, either directly from a fuelling hose, or because the fuel has escaped from the vehicle tank. Fuel from the hose can spray out when splash fill rather than quick connect (dry break) fittings are being used, and when the flow rate is simply too high for filling with this method. Splash filling directly into the tank filler neck means a person must be paying attention to cease refuelling when the tank is full, and to keep the hose under control.

Fuel can escape directly from the tank on mining equipment because the tank has split due to overpressurisation, or vacuum, or both. Fuel can also be sprayed from a vent on top of the tank, because that vent is not sealing properly, or because the fast fill system doesn’t cease filling at the correct time.

A leading cause of tank rupture is actually behavioural. Refuelling systems are either held or tied into the ‘on’ position because machine tanks on site are not filling completely. This situation is easily resolved by installing receivers with the correct spring setting and fitting an effective overfill protection system.

There is no reason to override refuelling systems. Always fix the root cause of the problem instead.

How does tank overfill protection equipment work?

Banlaw FillSafe overfill protection systems work by putting a level sensor in the top of a fuel tank, and a control valve in the fill line. The control valve closes when fuel inside the tank reaches the correct safe fill level, and this forces the refuelling process to end before pressure builds up in the tank. Banlaw overfill protection (OFP) solutions also retain the auto-shutoff functionality of the traditional quick fill nozzle/

Hitachi EX8000 excavator with FillSafe Power installed for increased fire safety.

receiver/vent setup. That means with FillSafe, you actually have two layers of protection helping to avoid equipment fires and other types of damage. We also manufacture a range of venting products to ensure that air can get out of the tank fast enough to avoid pressurising the tank during high speed refuelling, and that incoming air is filtered quickly enough to avoid a vacuum too. That’s especially important on service trucks where diesel is being dispensed at hundreds of litres a minute.

installed to support refuelling speeds on excavators of up to 1000 litres per minute, after appropriate due diligence, of course.

We believe that every excavator should have FillSafe Power installed as an additional layer of fire safety regardless of fill speed, and to avoid unscheduled maintenance due to tank damage. They’re just too important to be risked.

Does this apply to excavators as well?

The reasons for fuel fires are usually the same on all the diesel-powered machines and stationary equipment on mine sites.

This includes losing control of fuel hoses, not checking and maintaining fuelling equipment to OEM specifications, and using equipment in a manner it was not designed for.

For most mining vehicles we recommend a mechanical tank overfill protection solution. The benefits are that it’s extremely cost efficient, you can install it yourself, it goes a long way towards mitigating the fire risk, protects your tank from pressure damage, and it makes your refuelling process more efficient as well. We call our mechanical overfill protection solution FillSafe Zero; because it fills safe, with zero pressure build up in the tank.

Large mining excavators are a special case. They have over 10,000 litres of fuel onboard, and if that fuel escapes during a fire, then the result is likely to be catastrophic.

Furthermore, excavators are critical to production, so downtime for refuelling needs to be minimised. For large mining excavators we use FillSafe Power, our electronic overfill protection solution.

It’s deployed with a float valve to sense when the tank is full, and a fire-safe actuated valve to ensure diesel can’t escape the tank even in the event of a fire. The controller uses LEDs to indicate to the operator exactly when the tank is full, and the system is totally unrestricted by flow rate. FillSafe Power is commonly

SAFETOWORK.COM.AU 21 NOV-DEC 2020

What about haul trucks, wheel loaders, dozers and the like?

Emergency response

Designing the incident investigations of the future FOLLOWING AN INCIDENT ON A MINE SITE, THERE IS ALWAYS AN INVESTIGATION INTO WHAT WENT WRONG AND HOW TO PREVENT IT FROM HAPPENING AGAIN, BUT WHAT EFFECT ARE AUSTRALIAN INCIDENT INVESTIGATIONS HAVING ON INJURY AND FATALITY RATES? SAFE TO WORK FINDS OUT.

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ccording to University of Queensland postgraduate research fellow for the minerals industry safety and health centre, Philippa Dodshon, there was a reduction in fatalities in the mining industry between 2007 and 2018.

However, Dodshon, who is completing

“We have made great progress over time in reducing fatality and injury rates, however we have also seen a plateau in the last 10 years,” Dodshon explains. “Since 2007, we have not seen a sustained downward trend in serious injury data.

“Looking at injuries and fatalities

University of Queensland research shows that learnings from mine investigations are not being implemented effectively into safety practice.

her PhD on developing more effective investigation processes for risk control, also discovered that the industry has not seen a meaningful reduction over a long period of time.

Dodshon, speaking at the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM) Minesafe International Digital Conference, says when examining serious injury data, there is a pattern occurring.

across the industry in terms of occurrence, we are seeing the same mechanisms involved; vehicle collisions, people being hit by moving objects, falls from heights and being hit by a falling object are the top four occurrences over time.

“We are not finding new ways to harm people. The same things are killing people today as a decade ago, which indicates we are not

investigating incidents effectively or we are not implementing those investigation learnings.”

This information suggests that the initiatives implemented in the past have reached their peak in enhancing safety and are now no longer effective in lowering the rate of injuries and fatalities.

Through her research, Dodshon has identified four emerging areas on how to best enhance incident investigation capabilities moving forward: incident investigation processes, investigation outcomes, incident investigators and organisations’ levels of cultural maturity.

Incident investigation processes are the existing procedures and policies developed by companies, providing the framework for investigators to use during investigations to meet the organisation and wider industry’s expectations.

Dodshon says organisations need to challenge the expected level of competency and experience of incident investigators, while also reviewing individual organisational levels of cultural maturity regarding incident investigation processes.

“One of the greatest criticisms of current investigation processes is that while investigations identify failings and operator errors, they don’t dig down to the identification of organisation factors that contribute to incidents,” she says.

“Until organisation investigations include the requirements to and

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guidance on the collection and analysis of evidence at all levels of the organisation, including external influences on its performance, we won’t see the improvements that we need.”

A major challenge for providing accurate information for the investigation is effectively collecting and preserving the evidence.

Depending on how remote the mine is, it can be several days after an incident until investigators arrive and begin the inquiry.

Another factor for incident investigation is how well the mining industry understands common hazards and risks that commonly contribute to incidents, which can influence inexperienced or underqualified investigators with confirmation bias from prior incident reports.

“We need to understand the capabilities and limitation of analysis tools and all evidence needs to be collected, not just that which supports a particular theory,” Dodshon stresses.

“As an industry we have a history of leaning towards more administrative controls rather than identifying controls higher in the hierarchy frameworks for managing risks.”

Dodshon’s research uncovered that many health and safety practitioners

confirmed that administrative solutions, like training and education were among the highest recommendations in incident reports. Computerisation and automation, however, were the least likely to be recommended.

She says the mining industry would benefit from reconsidering the recommendation process and exploring all potential control options, particularly newer technologies.

Many investigators in the Australian mining industry also receive one to two days of training, compared with transport investigators in the United Kingdom, who receive two to six weeks of training plus ongoing mentoring.

In the United States, meanwhile, the National Transportation Safety Board has a dedicated training centre solely for incident investigation training.

“Investigators need in-depth training on how to scope an investigation, effectively collect evidence, conduct thorough analysis of that evidence and generate recommendations likely to prevent recurrence,” Dodshon says.

“Feedback from practitioners in the field is that investigators need to practice their skills by performing investigations two to three times a year. It is not enough to do a one to two-day course then call yourself a lead investigator.”

To counter this, the University of Queensland has developed two training programs – Incident Investigation and Analysis Management and Critical Control Management.

The courses, which run over two and four days respectively, build the skillset required to collect and analyse evidence and provide guidance on recommendations. The second course is a more in-depth program aimed at the managers and supervisors responsible for critiquing incident reports.

In addition to more training, Dodshon recommends organisations gain a better understanding of their cultural maturity levels, with advanced workplaces typically experiencing lower levels of incidents and vice versa.

“Organisations would benefit from knowing where (they) are in terms of incident investigation maturity levels,” she says.

“This would enable the industry to identify the gaps or areas for improvement and determine how we are going to address them.

“Determining where we sit with regards to investigation processes and focussing our attention on enhancing investigation processes driving more effective outcomes will help the industry head towards this goal.”

Profile

Mining goes on a safety journey THE MINING SECTOR HAS EXPERIENCED A SHIFT CHANGE OVER THE LAST 30 YEARS IN RESPECT TO INCIDENT RESPONSE, PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT, AND MOST RECENTLY COVID-19. SAFE TO WORK SPEAKS WITH NORTHERN STAR RESOURCES’ OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY MANAGER (CORPORATE), DAVID MCCUTCHEON, ABOUT THE CHANGE.

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ter a 23-year hiatus from the mining industry, Northern Star Resources Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Manager (Corporate) David McCutcheon left his extensive career as a Western Australian police officer behind to be a safety advocate in the mining sector.

Safe to Work speaks with McCutcheon about the change he has observed in the industry when it comes to safety and how it has transitioned over time.

Your first exposure to mining was through an engineering company that was servicing the mining industry in Capel, Western Australia, in the 1970s, before moving on to become a machine operator, a drill rig supervisor then a wet plant operator.

What a journey.

Yes, I love the mining industry and the people I work with. But I left the mining industry for 23 years and became a police officer with the Western Australia Police Force.

During that time, I spent eight years in the emergency operations unit, managing all emergencies across the state. It gave me a good grounding.

But after 23 years I was ready for a change. And I knew I always had passion for the mining industry. So, I returned to mining in 2012 as an OHS

David McCutcheon in 1988 wearing complete PPE requirements.

superintendent, coming onboard with Northern Star Resources in 2014 with the acquisition of the Jundee gold mine in Western Australia. Now I have been in the manager (corporate) role for over 12 months, overseeing health and safety in all of Northern Star’s mining operations in Australia and Alaska.

What’s changed in the 30 years since you first started in mining?

There has been a huge shift in attitudes towards safety. Back when I first started, shortcuts were seen as worth the risk, but it’s certainly not now.

Saving five minutes is not worth risking

David McCutcheon wearing the full PPE requirements of today.

injury to yourself and your co-workers, or a week of downtime, or a job or income loss. We are all less accepting of failure to manage risks and safety incidents across the board, no matter what they are.

New workers that are coming on site also have that mindset. Through the best safety education and investigation into safety incidents that do occur, we identify failure to manage risks, unacceptable behaviour and we call it out. Our focus is on what went wrong, what was the cause, how did it happen and what controls need to be put in place to mitigate the risk

SAFETOWORK.COM.AU 24 NOV-DEC 2020

of it happening again. We are now focussed more on openly addressing and sharing these points, and less on enforcement. We do not let an incident go by the wayside anymore. People make mistakes and we accept that, provided they learn from their mistakes and steps are taken to reduce the possibility of a repeat incident. But if you deliberately breach a safety rule or system, there will be a consequence.

Accountability is one of Northern Star’s STARR core values, along with safety, teamwork, respect and results.

That sets the expectations for the entire workforce.

The other big thing is the sharing of safety information across operations and industry. We share the flash reports we use internally across the industry so that other companies can prevent similar incidents from happening on their site. Social licence to operate has been a relatively recent driver for safety improvement today. I think it is great because it helps build the trust between investors and mining operators, and of course between employees, contractors and mining operators.

How did mining companies manage personal protective equipment (PPE) back in the day?

We went through numerous stages of safety in the mining sector. When I first started, as long as you had a hard hat and a pair of steel cap boots on, you were fine. There was no high vis. Dark clothing was preferred most of the time because it would not look as dirty. And then the industry started supplying PPE to their workers but did not train them on how to use it.

The biggest thing is workforce education. You can give your team PPE all you want, but you must train them on their correct use. We validate the use of PPE through methods such as respiratory and hearing protection fit systems. This ensures a quantitative

result and that our employees are attaining adequate protection from their equipment.

How about COVID-19?

Has Northern Star been managing well?

We were early movers in the mining industry in managing the safety risks for our workers and the communities in which we operate. Pretty early on, as part of a medical research project, our people were able to have regular COVID-19 tests to ensure no one boarded flights to our Australian sites without a negative test in the previous 48 hours. We approached a technology company to find something that would manage our close contact from very early on. We did a trial on that back in March. We educated our people and managed their rosters so that there’d be no crossovers, with increased charter flights, including to the Pogo mine in Alaska.

Usually we would use different people to different sites for shutdowns.

But since COVID-19, we’ve been managing the teams so that they can work independently and not interact with the rest of the workforce.

In addition, we socially distanced on all our sites and reduced capacity on our planes and buses, along with appropriate PPE and enhanced hygiene practices. People are required to do temperature testing and be interviewed upon their return to site and the corporate office on a regular basis. It has worked really well. We have had zero cases in Australia.

In addition, at a critical time for the state of Alaska we were able to use our procurement expertise to source and donate $2 million worth of medical gowns and masks to Alaskan health departments when their sources were slow.

In Western Australia, we enabled mobile testing in remote communities

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by funding not-for-profit Labs Without Walls (established by the head of pathology and laboratory medicine at the University of Western Australia’s School of Medicine), who developed a pioneering, highly mobile molecular diagnostic COVID-19 test, giving test results within two hours. These fast test results mean there is an earlier ability to control the transmission of the coronavirus. This was part of our $10 million COVID-19 relief fund, which has also seen donations to local businesses in the Kalgoorlie region, and to Foodbank Western Australia at a time when food insecurity in the state is growing as a result of COVID-19.

How do you think the gold sector is attracting workers into the industry?

The one common theme I see in my decades of mining career is the huge paradigm shift that is underlined by collaboration and a genuine drive to improve today.

The Gold Industry Group (GIG) is an example of the industry coming together for the betterment of the sector and community. It is more important than ever now to support the vibrancy of the mining sector as it goes through the challenges of COVID-19. The GIG’s online hub of employment opportunities and career pathways, Gold Jobs, is a great way to raise public awareness on how the gold mining sector is doing, and to showcase opportunities to both entry level and experienced job seekers.

A total of 207 opportunities have been advertised on Gold Jobs at the time of writing, with 188 of them in Western Australia.

The mining sector has definitely been progressive in many aspects throughout the years. Year on year, we are relentless in improving safety across the mining industry.

Dust suppression

Miners act on unacceptable dust exposures WHILE THE FOCUS FOR MANY HAS BEEN ON THE REDUCTION OF DUST EXPOSURE LIMITS ACROSS AUSTRALIA, EXPERTS FROM AUSTRALIA’S LEADING PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR OCCUPATIONAL HYGIENISTS CHALLENGE THE MINING SECTOR TO SHIFT ITS ATTENTION TO THE EFFECTIVENESS OF DUST CONTROLS IMPLEMENTED IN THE WORKPLACE.

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mprovements to mine dust control have continued to roll in as state governments and institutions put a spotlight on dust exposure.

Respirable coal and silica dust regulatory limits in Queensland and New South Wales are now set at 1.5 milligrams per cubic metre and 0.05 milligrams per cubic metre, respectively.

Western Australia is set to cap its respirable coal dust exposure to 1.5 milligrams per cubic metre starting October 2021, and has halved the respirable silica dust exposure standard to 0.05 milligrams per cubic metre.

New South Wales, a state with sprawling coalfields, will be the first mining jurisdiction in Australia to apply a diesel particulate matter exposure standard of 0.1 milligrams per cubic metre in February 2021.

Further reduction of the respirable silica workplace exposure standard

(WES) to a lower value on paper does not mean that more miners will be protected, Australian Institute of Occupational Hygienists (AIOH) secretary Sharann Johnson says.

“Miners are protected when companies implement and maintain effective controls to comply with the current standard,” she tells Safe to Work.

“If companies are not complying with the current standard how do we expect them to comply with a lower standard?

“Controls that are being implemented such as improved ventilation, dust suppression, positive pressure cabins to isolate workers, cleaner air-conditioned cabins on trucks and mobile equipment, have made significant improvements to comply with the current WES standard.”

QUEENSLAND Changing the focus to the effectiveness of dust controls in mine

sites means that increasing technology advancement becomes important to help drive action and give confidence that controls are working.

AIOH member Dustin Bennett, who provides consulting services on occupational hygiene to Queensland mines, says companies must continue to monitor dust levels, but ensuring the effectiveness of controls is an area the industry needs to invest more energy on.

“Verifying the effectiveness of controls is what’s going to ensure workers are safe. The challenge is, how can you tell whether this control works better than that one, and what is the benefit?” he says.

“Control solutions have not reached a point of stability where one could

SAFETOWORK.COM.AU 26 NOV-DEC 2020

objectively say whether they work or not. This may create confusion and hesitation at a site level.

“One would ask, ‘What’s the reduction afforded by the control?’

‘Will it work with my different dust conditions on site?’ ‘Is it guaranteed?’

Dust control is seldom as simple as turning on a solution and it will work.”

Bennett says real-time dust monitoring technology has been gaining momentum in helping to verify controls by instantaneously measuring dust levels, particularly in the last three years.

However, it is still in a phase of immaturity globally. One of the technology challenges is reliably getting measurements that mimic the airborne dust that make their way into the respiratory system.

With the absence of regulatory guidance on real-time dust monitoring, the international mining sector is coming together to find best-use cases for real-time monitoring.

Even so, Bennett has observed that the mining sector’s attitude towards dust exposure over the past 10 years has moved beyond legislative obligations.

He says the sector has moved from taking a fairly immature and nonintegrated approach to dust control, to a fully integrated approach over the span of his career in mining.

“When I started in mining two decades ago, dust was not a large part of daily conversation. I wouldn’t have a conversation about dust exposure with a general manager on site,” Bennett says.

“Today, dust is spoken about by all levels of workforce, from the sitebased personnel all the way to the executive level, almost on a daily basis, which is a good outcome of a tough situation since the re-emergence of dust lung diseases in Queensland and New South Wales.

“That has sent shockwaves through all the industry and really improved dust conditions in all mine sites.”

WESTERN AUSTRALIA Despite the improvement that the mining sector has delivered across Australia, some things can fall through the cracks.

AIOH member Laurie Glossop, who specialises in occupational hygiene in relation to hard rock mining in Western Australia, agrees that dust control is a significant issue in the sector.

“Maintenance is very important and that’s where sometimes that’s not happening in mine sites. The dusty nature of the mining process means that operators will always need to be controlling it. Without maintenance, control mechanisms can quickly become ineffective,” Glossop, who has been an occupational hygienist since 1980, says.

This is especially relevant in Western Australia where a large part of the mining region is located in the desert.

A 50-kilometre wind, a 45-degree Celsius day and 2–3 per cent of humidity are all that is needed to make many dust suppression products evaporate in a few minutes, allowing dust to become airborne, Glossop says.

On top of the dust suppression binders and polymers that have been applied, new dust depositing on the surface will need addressing.

Further challenges include bigger and bigger haul trucks that sometimes carry more than 300 tonnes of ore at a time, as well as longer conveyor belts.

If these challenges aren’t enough for open cut mining companies, Glossop points out the dangers associated with underground longwall operations.

“Dust exposure increases with longwall technologies, along with longer conveyor belts systems inherently produce a lot of dust,” Glossop says.

Although these matters are no secrets in mining, those outside of the industry would be surprised to find out that some

SAFETOWORK.COM.AU 27 NOV-DEC 2020

hard rock operations in Western Australia dig up naturally occurring asbestiform minerals, according to Glossop.

“There is the double issue of dust containing crystalline silica as well as asbestiform materials, so the need for effective control is crucial,” he says.

“Unfortunately, the hindrance to making improvements in dust control is the cost. There has not been much improvement in the reduction of airborne dust exposure in some of the mines I’ve visited over several years.”

NEW SOUTH WALES Although dust control is an ongoing issue, mining companies have responded well in the lead up to and since New South Wales introduced a new exposure limit this year.

AIOH member Jennifer Hines says mining companies performed high quality investigations when an individual’s dust exposure exceeded the limit, even prior to the introduction of the new limits.

However, it has gone to another level since the limits were halved, she says.

Hines, who has been working in the mining industry for 15 years, particularly in the underground coal sector, believes mining companies have been more proactive in preventing exceedances and in re-educating their workers about respirable dust and crystalline silica, including what needs to be done to keep exposures low and what controls need to be in place and maintained.

Hines, an independent member of the Standing Committee on Airborne Contaminants and Occupational Hygiene, formerly the Standing Dust Committee, feels the challenge is now in mining companies’ ability to adapt to change.

“Mining companies have implemented many effective controls; spray systems, ventilation, appropriate procedures and good training are a few of these. They have great knowledge on

Dust suppression

The increasing size of mining equipment raises the concern of growing dust generation.

what should be done when it’s business as usual. But when something happens outside of that normal scenario, at times, they may not react as quickly as they could have,” Hines says.

“Some sites have trigger action response plans (TARP) and others could do more to protect their workers by following suit and implementing them.

For example, a TARP means that if the mine starts cutting more stone than they were anticipating, it should produce a ‘trigger’ to review the process and review or alter controls in response to this. These responses (or controls) are set out in the TARP, and thus a more timely reaction will be enacted.

“However, there is definitely a trend of improvement in control implementation among mining companies.”

Real-time dust monitoring is of real assistance to the coal sector. Although there is still work to be done in terms of the technology available, the use of real-

time monitoring equipment can provide useful indications of dusty tasks.

It gives mining companies the ability to quickly investigate sources of exposure, and also use these as an education tool.

The dust that is the real health issue is not visible to the naked eye, and therefore it can be difficult to comprehend the hazard, according to Hines. Being able to see the reading on the screen change as different controls are trialled, including moving workers into a slightly different position on operating equipment such as a continuous miner can be a powerful education tool, she says.

“Understanding your sources of exposure is important as you can then put the appropriate controls,” she continues.

“If people are not monitoring dust levels to understand what they’re exposed to, then controls won’t be put in place and workers are likely to

be exposed.

“Monitoring itself does not fix the situation, it does, however, inform you if there is a problem.”

As for automation, the coal sector has realised the benefits of new mining technologies as they remove employees from dusty environments.

Instead of being in the face of a longwall, employees can avoid being in the area altogether.

Hines has observed a step change in the New South Wales coal mining sector that is likely to result in more positive change.

With the reduction in the state’s dust exposure limits, she expects the increasing standard to continue to force improvement.

Reduction of occupational exposure limits is only one step in the journey of protecting workers.

However, it will be an ineffective one without improved controls and compliance by the industries involved.

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Dust suppression

Dust exposure mitigation controls for fixed and mobile plant cabins SAFE TO WORK SPEAKS WITH LSM MANAGING DIRECTOR PETER WOODFORD ABOUT HOW THE COMPANY IS HELPING MINERS BREATHE EASIER, PROVIDING OPERATOR COMFORT AND ENSURING THEIR HEATING, VENTILATION AND AIR CONDITIONING (HVAC) SYSTEM LASTS LONGER WITH CABIN FILTRATION AND PRESSURISER TECHNOLOGIES.

Typical mine dust conditions.

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SM’s many solutions for mitigation of OH&S issues are the preferred technologies for mining operations, providing sites with advanced fleet telemetry, collision awareness, tyre monitoring, driver fatigue monitoring, among other innovative technologies.

One of LSM’s areas of expertise is providing cabin filtration and pressurisation systems to mitigate the risks of exposure to airborne harmful dust particulate and fibrous matter.

Keeping these dangerous materials

out of the cabins of mining equipment and air-conditioning systems protects the operator from exposure, ensures thermal comfort and reduces the costs of HVAC maintenance.

Dust is one of the most common risks faced by mining employees and without the right dust mitigation solution, workers are at risk of chronic lung conditions, severely impacting their quality of life.

In combination with the dust mitigation solutions that LSM offers, the company has positioned itself as

an industry leader in contributing to the development of key health and safety standards and guidelines since 2008.

This means that LSM not only provides products to keep its own clients safe, but also provides (albeit as a quiet achiever) input into the standards that guard entire industries from the dangers of airborne dust particulates and fibre.

LSM activities over nearly the past two decades are sure to have contributed to the development of the Queensland Recognised

SAFETOWORK.COM.AU 30 NOV-DEC 2020

Standard 20 in 2019 and other recognised guidelines, which address the importance of dust control in surface mines. The company has also contributed to the development of ISO 23785, which if passed, will be introduced in the first quarter of 2021.

Recognised Standard 20 is accepted across Queensland for senior site executives to meet health and safety obligations related to cabin pressure, and to help them develop safety and health management plans to control respirable and inhalable dust at surface mines.

Specific requirements of the Standard 20 for fixed and mobile plant cabins are: • To be enclosed and sealed • Positively pressurised •H EPA filtration for both external and recirculated air •T o be frequently monitored for workplace exposure with data to be provided to the respective OH&S regulator.

LSM managing director Peter Woodford says the company’s role in contributing to the evolution of OH&S standards and guidelines, which are implemented industrywide, and mitigation technologies that meet these standards demonstrate its position as an industry leader in this space.

“Since 2008, LSM has been working alongside various companies and organisations to develop standards relating to protecting operators in enclosed cabins from dangerous dust particulate and fibre materials,” Woodford tells Safe to Work.

“What ISO 23785 will mean if it becomes a standard is that all persons conducting a business or undertaking (PCBUs) such as suppliers of mitigation technologies, the machine provider and the operators will all be responsible under the workplace health and safety act (Work, Health

The first RESPA (SD version) system for external and recirculated air filtration in 2008.

and Safety Act 2011), so they are totally accountable for the lung health of employees.”

Woodford also says that the acceptance of the ISO 23785 will not only set new compliance standards for operator dust exposure but also thermal comfort, cabin pressurisation as well as monitoring, alerting and recording of these cabin environmental conditions.

In addition, the ISO 23875 requires complete life cycle mitigation with additional requirements for performance testing, operation and periodical maintenance checks of the fitted technology to validate and prove continued compliance.

LSM provides full engineering, technical design, support, education, installation, commissioning and training services to its clients for its Sy-Klone International RESPA range of cabin filtration and pressurisers.

“LSM provides technical support

SAFETOWORK.COM.AU 31 NOV-DEC 2020

and audits for quality air environmental conditions in cabins of fixed and mobile plant,” Woodford explains.

“We have our own dispersed oil particulate (DOP) testing unit and can provide full in-house testing and certification of any cabin pressuriser or filtration systems to EN1822 and ISO 29463 standards.”

Regardless of current and future standards, LSM has long been a leader in providing compliant cabin pressurisation and filtration solutions that are field tested and certified by occupational health and safety regulators, including the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the Queensland Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy with a joint field trail/report (RESPA trial 2009) on an excavator operated at a sandstone quarry.

LSM also works alongside and represents key dust mitigation

Dust suppression

Unmanaged dust issues can cause long-term lung illnesses to mine workers.

technology manufacturer, Sy-Klone International.

LSM was the first dealer in the world to introduce the Sy-Klone RESPA® cabin pressurisation and filtration technology to the mining, quarrying and extraction industries and has been Sy-Klone’s master dealer for the Australasia region since 2008.

LSM’s involvement in providing Sy-Klone International’s RESPA cabin pressurisation and filtration technology gives it an edge when developing the most advanced system configurations to serve the needs of Australian mining applications.

Woodford says LSM endeavours to take advantage of the most advanced technologies available to ensure its products are innovative enough to not just keep up but exceed the latest health and safety standards.

However, he adds that LSM also

takes a “back to basics” approach during the design phase.

“Whilst focussing on occupational health and safety to best protect the occupants of enclosed cabins, there are other cost benefits of a reliable and complaint cabin pressuriser and filtration system that are often easily forgotten,” Woodford explains.

“What LSM sets out to do is provide clean air to the machine’s cabin through the air conditioning system without it getting choked so it doesn’t require high maintenance, filter elements last longer and by reducing failure, avoids associated production loss.”

With national exposure standards for respirable crystalline silica having been reduced from 0.1 milligrams per cubic metre to 0.5 milligrams per cubic metre of air breathed over an eight-hour working shift (and even lower for extended work shifts), LSM continually monitors changes to dust mitigation so as to not just meet but ensure the technology

is ahead of these changing standards and compliance requirements.

If ISO 23785 officially becomes a standard in early 2021, LSM will be there for its clients to provide dust mitigation solutions that keep their operator cabins clear so mine workers can breathe easy and ensure a low maintenance of airconditioning systems.

Woodford says a global standard will establish a mutual understanding for governments, OEMs, mining companies and employees, but frequent mandating and testing must still be completed for clarity and successful roll-out of the standard.

“Once a situation is created that a cabin pressurisation standard is legislated and it has been adopted, it must be implemented appropriately at all PCBU levels,” he says.

“When adopting something like ISO 23785, everyone must conform and take ownership in the supply chain, from the OEM, mitigation control supplier through to the mine.”

A blocked air conditioning system.

SAFETOWORK.COM.AU 32 NOV-DEC 2020

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Dust suppression

Super-activate water tackles finest dust particles GLOBAL ROAD TECHNOLOGY HAS PIONEERED A DUST SUPPRESSION CHEMISTRY THAT IS EFFECTIVE AGAINST COAL DUST IN LONGWALL AND CONTINUOUS MINER OPERATIONS.

GRT general manager Daniel Grundy.

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he mining industry’s rapid transition towards automation and increased production is challenging the sector’s ability to keep people safe as they introduce new ways of working.

New technologies and equipment are being rolled out in an accelerated manner, and even though they are introduced to create better productivity, the safety processes to support them potentially lag behind.

Increasingly bigger equipment operating at mine sites, for example, presents a challenge for operators to keep their dust exposure to a minimum.

Longwall mining is another significant source of dust. Even though this mining method distances workers from the hazardous underground environment, it also produces a lot of

dust that hangs in the air.

This increasingly exposes workers who enter the area for maintenance and other purposes to dust.

“The most dangerous types of dust are the ones you can’t see with your eyes. They’re the ones that hang in the air and travel a long way up the tunnels to where humans are,” Global Road Technology (GRT) general manager Daniel Grundy tells Safe to Work.

“The other machinery that’s being used that always have a team of people around them are continuous miners.

They cannot be fully automated and are an enormous source of dust.

“What this means is you’ve got high-speed shearing of materials that generates dust very, very quickly. We’re talking about high-velocity airborne dust, not just the particles that are

sitting on the road and getting blown by the passing of vehicles.”

With the prominence of respirable dust in an underground mining environment, human workers are exposed to risks of contracting respiratory diseases such as coal miners’ pneumoconiosis (or black lung) and silicosis, where the speed of death is quicker.

In response to the re-emergence of black lung in coal mining and silicosis in multiple industries, GRT conducted extensive research and development into the concern.

The company partnered with Australia’s leading universities to develop a dust suppression product and dosing system that are suitable to a coal mining environment.

It’s a concentrated additive that’s mixed with water and injected into existing spray systems for dust suppression purposes.

“We took it upon ourselves to find and develop a solution here in Australia for Australian problems,” Grundy says.

“The issue with coal and water is that they don’t interact. Coal hates water – it’s very hydrophobic. So when you spray all this water, it will only

SAFETOWORK.COM.AU 34 NOV-DEC 2020

Longwall operation is one of the biggest sources of dust in a mine site.

push the dust away, but not capture the particles.”

Grundy says the high surface tension and the surface charge of water are the reason for this reaction.

Having the same surface charge across water and coal also means that their interaction can be likened to two positive magnets that repel each other when put together.

GRT has developed GRT: Activate UG to rapidly reduce the surface tension and alter the surface charge of water, creating super-activated water that saturates the coal face, intercepts and coats airborne particles and immobilises fugitive dust.

“What we can’t do is change the nature of the coal, but what we can do is change the water. So suddenly you’ve got a positive and negative magnet that attracts each other,” Grundy says.

“We verified our test results with

those of an independent university testing, which showed that water that had been dosed with GRT: Activate UG in it was able to capture coal dust by more than 12 times compared with pure water.

“It was tested in live environments and proven to significantly reduce the dust generated in coal mining operations.”

Its effectiveness extends to above ground operations, including in a coal handling and processing plant where there is a huge amount of dust generated at the crushing, conveying and transfer points.

The Queensland Government is also pushing for mining companies to use something other than water to control dust, according to Grundy.

“Water simply has the wrong chemistry to suppress coal dust. It’s understood that water is not very effective, but this is still the standard

SAFETOWORK.COM.AU 35 NOV-DEC 2020

practice today,” he says.

GRT recognises the importance of not creating a new hazard when trying to fix one.

The company has produced GRT: Activate UG from organic and plantbased chemistries out of Australia’s backyard, setting itself apart from others that are composed of cleaning chemistries.

This makes GRT: Activate UG inherently safe for human exposure every day.

“GRT is a dust control specialist company. We don’t sell lubricants for machines, we don’t sell oil, or truck parts. Dust control is what we do all day, every day,” Grundy says.

“We provide engineered solutions using chartered engineers that provide fit-for-purpose dust suppression solutions to the mining industry. Miners’ health and safety are of the utmost importance to our team.”

Dust suppression

Lyons leads the way in ISO cabin standards AIRBORNE DUST PARTICLES CAN CAUSE SHORT-TERM IMPACT ON MINING PRODUCTIVITY AND LONG-TERM IMPACTS ON WORKERS’ HEALTH. SAFE TO WORK SPEAKS TO LYONS AIRCONDITIONING SERVICES ABOUT HOW IT COMBINES ITS AUSTRALIAN KNOWLEDGE WITH SY-KLONE’S GLOBAL REACH TO LEAD THE WAY IN DUST CONTROL.

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n their partnership, global company Sy-Klone and Perth-based Lyons Airconditioning Services are giving companies like Rio Tinto, Fortescue Metals Group and Macmahon Holdings direction and consultation on dust control.

Lyons is ensuring that dust control measures used across Australian mines meet International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) regulations, ensuring safety for workers.

Dust particles found in mining environments, such as coal dust, silica dust, asbestos dust and odours can filter into the cabin and be breathed in by workers.

They can cause long-term health conditions like coal mine dust lung disease, silicosis, mixed dust pneumoconiosis, dust-related diffuse fibrosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

With the introduction of new industrial manslaughter laws across Australia, the onus is on mining companies to take care of their employees’ health and wellbeing more than ever.

Lyons Airconditioning Services is guarding mine workers from these potential health risks, distributing Sy-Klone’s range of RadialSHIELD filters to block out nanoparticles and other harmful contaminants to keep them out of vehicles and workers out of harm’s way.

Lyons Airconditioning Services consults with companies including Rio Tinto and Fortescue about dust control solutions.

As Lyons general manager Emmanuel Lardis explains, the companies are united by their common goal to protect workers and set the benchmark for cabin filtration safety.

“By keeping containments and dangerous dust particles outside of the machine’s cab, Lyons is keeping the operator safe and making sure they get home from work safely that day and the next 20 to 30 years down the track,” Lardis tells Safe to Work.

“Sy-Klone’s and Lyons’ combined team of experts are able to formulate solutions to meet the latest international standards, including the new ISO standard, 23875.”

ISO 23875 covers safety in mining, with an emphasis on air quality control and how to implement effective air quality control systems, dilution of carbon dioxide (CO2) and routine testing of air throughout the cab.

As part of the range Lyons distributes, the Sy-Klone RadialSHIELD filters use high-tech filtration media, which captures biological nanoparticles of dust and other dangerous particles to stop them from causing harm.

Lyons not only distributes the SyKlone products, but also provides Australian mining clients with personalised feedback and instruction regarding their dust control measures.

“Lyons provides direction and expertise through our vast experience of more than 35 years in the mining industry,” Lardis says.

“In association with our partners, like Sy-Klone and associations and bodies that work in health and safety for cabin filtration, we can provide solutions that are fit for purpose for a particular site or the contaminant they are having issues with.”

Lyons was eager to partner with Sy-Klone for its global reputation and the versatility of its range, with one system having the ability to suit multiple sites across a mining company’s portfolio.

“The reason we are moving towards the Sy-Klone range is that one system will suit multiple sites,” Lardis says.

SAFETOWORK.COM.AU 36 NOV-DEC 2020

“You install the pressuriser system and you can then interchange filter media, depending what contaminant you are trying to overcome. The Sy-Klone filtration method can be customised depending on site requirements to MERV 16, HEPA, carbon or a combination.”

Another attraction of the Sy-Klone range highlighted by Lyons is the ability to match the maintenance schedules of both Sy-Klone products and the machine, meaning less downtime.

“The Sy-Klone range also has scheduled maintenance every 500 hours, which matches with most vehicles’ maintenance service. If your filter can last until your next service, you don’t need to pull that machine out and shut it down at a different time and in mining, every hour a machine is out of work can cost hundreds of thousands in lost productivity,” Lardis says.

At the helm of Lyons is its team of experts, who often work remotely on site with mining companies, offering their advice on tackling contaminants that are known issues in the local area.

Lyons Airconditioning Services strives to meet ISO regulations for its dust control equipment.

Lyons Airconditioning Services works with global company Sy-Klone to combat dust in operator cabins.

Lyons business development manager Ryan Wheeler, along with Lyons’ senior technicians, is an expert that visits client sites to complete audits on equipment and ensure they are sticking to industry standards.

“Lyons works closely with clients to advise them on the issues they are having on site so we can provide a solution for the operators inside the cabins,” Wheeler says.

“We regularly go to site, sometimes with Sy-Klone to undertake audits on the clients’ equipment and ensure they are sticking to the most up to date industry standards.

“A lot of mining companies have their own site standards and specification so by attending sites, Lyons and Sy-Klone are able to help them work towards achieving those goals with their equipment.”

Looking after workers’ health is Lyons’ top priority, but ensuring cleaner air also helps with productivity – a flow on effect from keeping workers healthy.

“For productivity, breathing in fresh air means lower CO2 intake by cabin

SAFETOWORK.COM.AU 37 NOV-DEC 2020

operators,” Wheeler says.

“Part of cabin filtration is not just clean air but it’s also about having enough oxygen within the cabin. CO2 can cause drowsiness and endanger the driver and again, affect productivity.”

As Wheeler explains, monitoring air flow throughout the cabin is also an important part of good dust suppression practice.

“Part of good practice is having a monitoring system in place that measures air flow through the cabin, which also ensures there’s enough pressure built up to push any contaminants out, so they are not putting the driver in harm’s way,” he says.

“We strongly recommend on every install, cabins also have some kind of pressure monitoring system installed, because without it, you have no way of understanding what is happening and because it will advise positive pressure, keeping any airborne contaminants outside of the cab.”

With Lyons’ local knowledge, it is giving Australian mines Sy-Klone’s global reach and innovative products, all from its headquarters in Perth.

Dust suppression

Managing cabin dust: New standard outlines steps to improve health WITH INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATION FOR STANDARDISATION (ISO) 23875 EXPECTED TO BE PUBLISHED IN EARLY 2021, SAFE TO WORK PROVIDES A FIRST LOOK AT THE NEW STANDARD WITH INSIGHT FROM THE ISO WORKING GROUP CHAIRPERSON JEFF MOREDOCK. Photo credit: Lyons Airconditioning Services.

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orkplace exposure to airborne dust is a critical issue for Australian mine sites. Exposure to asbestos, silica, coal and other respirable dust can increase occurrences of chronic lower lung diseases.

In addition to occupational health and safety (OH&S) factors, dust and debris can increase mining companies’ heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) maintenance costs due to accumulation on evaporator cores, degrading performance.

To address these issues and the challenge of navigating multiple regional standards, ISO convened TC82 Mining Working Group 9 to assess air quality system requirements in the mining industry.

TC-82 Mining Working Group 9 drafted a new international standard outlining air quality engineering and performance requirements, ISO/DIS 23875: “Operator enclosures – Air quality control systems and air quality performance testing”, expected to be published in early 2021.

ISO 23875 creates a consistent and international approach to designing, testing, operating and maintaining air quality in operator enclosures in the mining industry.

Working group chair and Sy-Klone International executive vice president

Heavy equipment used on mine sites being outfitted with Sy-Klone’s RESPA cabin air quality and high-efficiency filtration systems by Lyons Airconditioning Services.

Jeff Moredock was recruited following his involvement in the International Society of Environmental Enclosure Engineers (ISEEE), which focusses on operator enclosure air quality and standards development.

“It was exciting to see the global body of knowledge around operator enclosure engineering and performance testing come together in such a powerful way,” Moredock tells Safe to Work. “When adopted, this standard will make a huge difference in operator health and safety.

“The working group brought in stakeholders from over 10 countries

to ensure we captured feedback and created a standard with global buy-in to guide the design and testing of air quality control systems.

“Bringing mining companies, OH&S officers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) together resulted in a collectively beneficial and uniform standard that would help protect operator health and facilitate increased trade around the world.”

ISO 23875 differs from past standards because it is a lifecycle standard, addressing cabin air control systems from the time of design, to when the

SAFETOWORK.COM.AU 38 NOV-DEC 2020

equipment arrives onsite and throughout its operating life. ISO 23875 outlines specific engineering and ongoing testing to ensure compliance.

Sy-Klone International is wellpositioned to help mining companies meet ISO 23875 requirements. As SyKlone vice president of marketing and business development Austin Browne explains, Sy-Klone helps Australian mining companies address dangerous respirable dust with its advanced heavy equipment cabin air quality systems.

“With over 30 years of experience and over 100 patents and trademarks in air filtration and precleaning, Sy-Klone is the world’s leader in heavy equipment air quality and control systems,” Browne says.

“Sy-Klone has an extensive global reach, working in the world’s most extreme environments. Sy-Klone’s leadership in air filtration and cabin precleaning has been recognised internationally, including via a recent award from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the development of a smart cab operating system that blends internet-of-thingsenabled sensor capabilities with SyKlone’s state-of-the-art technology in air quality systems.”

Sy-Klone’s RESPA system keeps dust and debris outside of operator cabins, allowing workers to breathe easy and stay safe on the job. The RESPA system includes a precleaner, pressuriser, high-efficiency filtration and an in-cabin monitoring system.

“Sy-Klone’s HEPA filters outperform the competition, delivering a higher filter efficiency, while maintaining needed airflow levels,” Browne explains.

“The Sy-Klone HEPA filter is 99.991 per cent efficient at 0.3 microns versus other HEPA filters evaluated at 99.97 per cent at 0.3 microns. This difference is meaningful. Sy-Klone’s filter can stop much smaller particles and prevent additional dust from reaching

the operator cabin.”

United States-headquartered Sy-Klone has a team of Australianbased partners with in-depth expertise of the Australian mining industry: LSM Technologies and Lyons Airconditioning Services.

LSM chief executive and managing director Peter Woodford shares that with over 40 years of experience, his company, a Sy-Klone master dealer, has influenced Australia’s air quality knowledge, including by partnering with the Queensland Department of Mines and Energy to write a case study on occupational hygiene monitoring for airborne particulate matter.

“We have worked with mining companies across Australia to shape our country’s understanding and approach to air quality, installing Sy-Klone solutions that deliver cleaner air for machine operators,” Woodford says.

Lyons Airconditioning Services general manager Emmanuel Lardis adds that with 35 years’ experience in providing HVAC solutions to the Australian market, his team are Sy-Klone RESPA installation experts.

“My team has witnessed an increased demand for air filtration and air quality systems,” he says. “We have become experts in helping mining companies address the toughest dust issues through Sy-Klone RESPA installations.”

Former Rio Tinto chief advisor for industrial hygiene, Liam Wilson, was one of several hygienists who provided input to the working group on the new standard.

“The working group was active in trialling the standard in field applications to ensure it was written in a way that can be practically applied for either OEMs or operators,” Wilson explains.

Wilson shares how Sy-Klone’s products will help companies address the updated standard and control dust in operator enclosures in a better way.

“Sy-Klone is very proactive and continually evolves their technologies to

SAFETOWORK.COM.AU 39 NOV-DEC 2020

effectively manage dust exposure inside operator cabins,” Wilson says.

To ensure an Australian perspective was captured, the working group engaged the Earth Moving Equipment Safety Round Table (EMESRT) and the Minerals Council of Australia to discuss future equipment design to meet the standard in Australia.

Aside from not wanting workers to become ill, mining companies are liable for insurance costs or workers’ compensation, so improved worker health offers both intrinsic value and cost avoidance potential.

“Prevention is better, and if a business can effectively manage and reduce dust, it’s stopping people from getting hurt at work and eliminating long-term costs to the business as well,” Wilson concludes.

ISO 23875 requirements: • Increased filter efficiency requirements: A filter that meets more stringent evaluation criteria, typically an ISO 15 E or higherefficiency, ISO 35 H HEPA filter, is required in ISO 23875-compliant cabins in mining environments.

• Maximum allowable CO2 level: Ambient CO2 plus 400 parts per million.

• Fresh air and recirculation system requirements: Maximum respirable particulate matter concentration of less than 25 micrograms per cubic metre of air at start/end of decay test, with a maximum of 120 seconds decay time.

• Established cabin pressurisation levels: Operator enclosures must maintain minimum pressurisation of greater than or equal to 20 Pa, even when the HVAC is turned off.

• Real-time operator cabin monitoring: Monitor must include an audible alarm for CO2 and pressurisation to alert the operator when levels go beyond the permissible threshold.

Emergency response

A decade of MERC rolls on IN 2020, THE MINING EMERGENCY RESPONSE COMPETITION IS CELEBRATING ITS 10-YEAR ANNIVERSARY. SALOMAE HASELGROVE FINDS OUT WHAT HAS CHANGED SINCE THE EVENT’S HUMBLE BEGINNINGS. The first aid scenario at the 2019 Mine Emergency Response Competition.

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hen Sue Steele, Jen Pearce and Simon Paul devised the idea for an emergency response competition to show fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) families what their relatives did at work, they thought it would last two years at the most.

Ten years later, the Mining Emergency Response Competition (MERC) is still going strong and is one of the only emergency response competitions proceeding in 2020.

Having received the green light to go ahead on November 28-29 at Perth’s Langley Park, it fell on Steele, Pearce, Paul and their dedicated team of volunteers to plan an event that usually takes a year to build in just four months.

With the community that MERC has grown during the past 10 years, this mammoth task became possible, much to their relief.

As Steele explains, MERC has

grown from a small concept in 2011 to an Australia-wide and international community in 2020, which all pulled together to ensure MERC was ready for its milestone year.

“In 2011, we wanted to bring something back to Perth for the families of FIFO workers,” Steele tells Safe to Work. “We wanted for their families and kids to see what their mums and dads do at work, particularly in emergency response.

“Emergency response crews are voluntary roles, and we wanted to showcase the work that they do in this space.”

After three years at Burswood Park, MERC quickly outgrew its first venue and moved to Langley Park, where it has been running since 2014.

With gold and iron ore mines and oil and gas operations entering teams, MERC is one of the largest mining emergency response competitions in

Australia, with categories to suit all these different aspects of the industry.

In 2020, the competing teams will compete across seven categories: a first aid scenario, road crash rescue, vertical rescue, firefighting, confined space rescue, hazmat and emergency response readiness.

Each category has a physical and theoretical component, meaning the teams need to not only be physically fit, but mentally sharp if they want to take home the trophy.

“Every year the categories focus on the work these teams would do at the mine sites,” Steele explains.

“The teams are judged based on the process they learned back when they completed their training course as per the industry standards per that discipline.

“They are judged on teamwork, how well they treated the patient, team safety and the captains and medics have a separate score sheets for their roles.”

Not only are bragging rights up for grabs for the winning teams, MERC provides the teams with the opportunity to keep their skills up to scratch, particularly for teams that have not had an emergency event occur on their mine site for several years.

The skills also transfer to their local remote mining communities where mine workers are often first responders.

“A lot of the competing mine sites in towns like Newman are right by the highway,” Steele says.

“Even though our teams are volunteers, they might get called out to a road trauma event, especially in northwest Western Australia they’re often exposed to these emergency events.”

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In 2019, the Mine Emergency Response Competition welcomed its first international team from Indonesia, pictured competing in the confined space event.

Each year, MERC supports a charity, often with relevance to the mining industry, such as the Royal Flying Doctor Service and Men’s Helpline.

This year, MERC selected mental health and suicide awareness charity the Blue Tree Project, which will even involve the delivery of a tree painted blue.

Relaying the message by spreading paint, the Blue Tree Project aims to communicate that it is okay to speak up about mental health.

“The great thing about MERC is whatever funds we raise that we don’t spend on the event go to the charity of choice, which this year is the Blue Tree Project,” Steele says.

“The Blue Tree Project fundraises for suicide awareness which is very appropriate, and they are even shipping in a blue tree for us.”

In 2019, MERC evolved from an Australian to international event, welcoming its first overseas team to compete from Indonesia.

While this is not possible in 2020 due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, Steele and the team at MERC aim to keep growing the event on the international stage in future years.

“MERC has so much to offer not only to Western Australia but the world on an

international stage,” she says.

“Australia is leading best practice in the area of safety and last year having our first international team was a really great vision of what we can do. We’ve seen that anything is possible with this dedicated community that we’ve built.”

Steele credits this community with keeping the event afloat during 2020, with supporters and volunteers pulling together for the 11-plus teams competing this year.

“We have had unbelievable help from the emergency response community,” Steele concludes. “Things are going to look a bit different this year but it’s awesome that the teams are still able to come to MERC and get this valuable training.

“We owe it to the community that we’ve built to keep MERC running through COVID-19 and make it to 10 years, only getting stronger as we continue.”

The Mining Emergency Response Competition allows mine emergency response teams to practise valuable skills like firefighting.

SAFETOWORK.COM.AU 41 NOV-DEC 2020

Health & Wellbeing

Fenner Dunlop takes safety procedures full circle FENNER DUNLOP’S HIGHEST PRIORITY HAS ALWAYS BEEN SAFETY DUE TO THE EXPOSURE ITS WORKERS HAVE TO HAZARDOUS EQUIPMENT AND WORK ENVIRONMENTS. SAFE TO WORK FINDS OUT HOW FENNER DUNLOP HAS PUT THE FOCUS ON ITS PEOPLE TO ENSURE SAFE OPERATIONS.

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lthough already a key priority, Fenner Dunlop has continued to broaden its focus on health and safety, continuously striving towards an injury free workplace across its Australian operations.

While Fenner Dunlop’s previous work to underline the importance of and improve its safety procedures often concentrated on operations and equipment, its latest initiative aims to put people at the forefront of implementing safe practice, from upper management through to its workforce.

To do so, Fenner Dunlop joined forces with SafetyCircle, a company that designs powerful cultural changes in the workplace to build a positive health and safety culture, to roll out workforce engagement and effective field leadership initiatives.

SafetyCircle uses direct language and straight-forward ideas that appeal to workers at all levels of a business and brings teams together by focussing on the human element of a well, healthy and safe work culture.

It was enhanced following a research project directed by University of Tasmania associate professor, Benjamin Brooks, who identified three key areas for creating a more effective work culture: personal engagement, supportive leadership and regular reinforcement.

A key aspect of this is moving the emphasis from negatives, such as

Fenner Dunlop and SafetyCircle have worked together to build a positive culture around health and safety.

injuries and danger, to positives by reminding businesses and workers that the simplest, yet most important point of a safety culture is sending workers home safely each day to enjoy their life to the fullest.

SafetyCircle managing director Martyn Bradfield says connecting people to their ‘why’ is part of personalising their experience in building a safe work culture.

“The more we connect together and understand that everyone has their own why, the more likely we are to speak up and fully participate in making a difference at a local level,” Bradfield tells Safe to Work.

“Getting workers connected to what is in it for them and what is their why helps to build that social expectation.”

One of SafetyCircle’s core techniques is working with companies like Fenner Dunlop to build a culture

where workers feel comfortable interrupting their colleagues if they are doing something potentially hazardous at work.

This active involvement gives workers ownership and connection with their workplace’s health and safety procedures.

SafetyCircle has helped Fenner Dunlop to improve its total recordable injury frequency rate (TRIFR) by 40 per cent and has recorded improvement as high as 98 per cent across its versatile range of Australian clients.

“Safety is all framed around the goal of everyone wanting to go home safely every day,” Bradfield says.

“The people we work with all have great lives and a lot to be grateful for, so it makes sense for them to make the effort to not get hurt at work. Switching people on to that is what makes a difference.”

Working in environments such as mine sites, workshops and warehouses, Fenner Dunlop already had a stringent existing work, health and safety plan in place.

SafetyCircle’s people-focussed program fit in well to allow Fenner Dunlop to enhance its existing safety measures and engage its workforce with its procedures.

Fenner Dunlop surveyed its employees, who responded that they wanted to be more actively engaged in managing their own safety, prompting the company to implement a program

SAFETOWORK.COM.AU 42 NOV-DEC 2020

that allowed this, which was when it turned to SafetyCircle.

As Fenner Dunlop chief operating officer Steve Abbott explains, SafetyCircle has given the employees confidence to break down the culture of being hesitant to speak out with colleagues and helping one another to improve their own safety measures for a safer all-round workplace.

“For us, implementing SafetyCircle is really about generating a common language for the people involved in the work to interact with each other and enable them to feel comfortable interrupting each other,” Abbott says.

“It’s not just the language itself, it’s also about the culture. Generally in Australia, interrupting your workmates who are potentially undertaking an at risk behaviour is something we are not often comfortable with.

“SafetyCircle has allowed Fenner Dunlop to break down that culture

Fenner Dunlop conveyor system technician mechanical, level 3 Terris Hagan.

of not speaking out and getting our workforce to be more actively involved in determining the way the business will operate from a safety perspective.”

Having the same common language explaining simple concepts that are regularly reinforced to the workers meant that SafetyCircle resonated with

(L-R) Fenner Dunlop general manager service, Western Australia Joy Krige and area manager – coastal Dan Luther.

SAFETOWORK.COM.AU 43 NOV-DEC 2020

Fenner Dunlop’s diverse workforce, and the simplicity of it enabled the company to roll it out across their Australian operations.

Abbott says the versatility of SafetyCircle allowed Fenner Dunlop to implement it within their manufacturing business, which is a more factory-oriented environment, as well as its services business, which is vastly different as employees visit multiple customer sites.

“Following a universal program enables that engagement with the different styles of work,” he says. “This is what SafetyCircle does; it’s not generic to a particular work style.

“It is also versatile to the workers; you need to have not just the engagement of senior executives, but also through to the next level or it just won’t engage consistently with the individuals.”

Applying SafetyCircle to its operations allowed Fenner Dunlop to fill the gap in its safety procedures and for its workers to choose the types of localised solutions they wanted to introduce under Fenner Dunlop’s existing safety system framework.

Despite a people-based solution not being the usual type of safety framework Fenner Dunlop invests in, Abbott is impressed with the positive change in safety culture within the business.

“The nature of the business we are in leads itself to procedures, equipment and training so SafetyCircle filled the people gap really well in that sense,” he says.

“Having a really different peoplebased solution to safety filled that gap really well and to see a 40 per cent improvement in the overall TRIFR is particularly pleasing.

“It has been a significant effort to roll out, then to see the results that have come through is really pleasing for the team.”

Eye protection

An eye for (the safety of) eyes in mining PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT HAS BEEN DESIGNED WITH THE PRIMARY FOCUS TO REDUCE INJURIES. SAFE TO WORK SPEAKS WITH AUSTRALIAN EXPERTS ABOUT THE EVOLUTION AND IMPORTANCE OF PPE IN MINE SITES.

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ining companies are sure-footed in protecting their workforce from eye injuries.

Kevin Webster, who has worked at six different mine sites, testifies that each mining company imposes strict guidelines to protect the eyesight of workers.

Webster says Australia’s largest mines are leading the way by continually improving protection against eye injuries.

Mine operators weigh a worker’s adherence to site rules more heavily than the credentials of the worker – such is the heightened attention on eye protection in the workplace, according to Webster.

“It doesn’t matter how good your work is. If you keep breaking the rules, you won’t work there for very long,” he says.

“I know what mines really want: (for you to) be as safe as possible and go home at the end of the day.”

Bollé Safety territory manager – New South Wales, Adam Martin has observed the leadership in setting a high standard when it comes to eye protection in the mining industry.

After decades of experience in the personal protective equipment (PPE) manufacturing and mining sectors, Martin says the mining industry has developed significantly from a safety perspective.

“Back then when I started in the

A fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists, Shweta Kaushik.

steel industry, PPE was still in its infancy. Its use wasn’t mandated back in the 1980s and 1990s. The industry has come a long, long way, and the mining sector has certainly helped drive that,” Martin, a boilermaker by trade, tells Safe to Work.

“A lot of workplace eye injuries today are caused by people wearing the incorrect PPE for the tasks they are doing, or they are just not wearing them.

“And there are many reasons for not wearing PPE: they either find it uncomfortable, they find it unsuitable for the task, or they just don’t like it.”

The result of this are the seemingly insignificant events that Webster sees at mine sites, such as the flicking up of a worker’s glasses when they fog, or not wearing gloves when they should be worn. They are potentially a precursor to the biggest accidents in the workplace, he says.

Like Webster, Martin believes

an employer can only do so much in supplying their workers with the correct PPE for their job, but it is the latter’s decision to look after themselves.

“At the end of the day, safety in mining goes back to the individual,” Martin says.

“Businesses can put forward safety policies and build PPE matrixes where they identify the risks associated with a task and the products that are suitable to be worn for that task. But it comes down to the individuals to look at those matrixes actively and wear the correct PPE.” Webster himself was involved in a real-life accident that nearly cost him his eye.

While working at a maintenance workshop in New South Wales, he tripped and landed face down on a piece of bent up steel.

“I received my eye injury at work when our overhead crane became locked after a limiter switch was hit. In the process of unlocking the crane, I needed to get the control box for the crane, which hangs down on a cable via a sliding rail,” he recalls.

“This control box was just slightly out of reach from where I was standing, so I needed to walk around a ladder and some folded platforms on the ground to reach it properly.

“While walking around these, my foot got caught on the corner of the ladder and I fell down eye first into

SAFETOWORK.COM.AU 44 NOV-DEC 2020

Kevin Webster injured his eye when working at a maintenance workshop this year.

the corner of the platforms. Luckily, I was wearing my prescription safety glasses, which took some impact from the fall.

“But I did receive severe damage to my eye and needed surgery. The main damage to my eye was a small laceration in the lower part of the white of the eye, which was stitched in surgery by Dr Kaushik.

“If I didn’t have those glasses on, I wouldn’t have had an eye.”

Shweta Kaushik, a fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophtalmologists, says Webster was lucky his glasses lens didn’t shatter.

“I understand they were highquality impact glasses. Otherwise, to be perfectly honest with you, that morning I would have been repairing (Webster’s) eye or tear duct, and he would have had significant visual impairment,” she says.

“If I didn’t have those glasses on, I wouldn’t have had an eye.”

According to Kaushik, wearing safety glasses can reduce the risk of eye injuries by 50–90 per cent – a huge reduction in risks that warrant proper use of PPE. She says a vast majority of eye injuries are caused by metal foreign bodies that enter the eye, rendering simple safety glasses ineffective.

“You need actual goggles or a face shield,” she says.

While glasses and goggles provide

SAFETOWORK.COM.AU 45 NOV-DEC 2020

protection against chemical burn and small particles and irritants, frames and lenses that meet minimum lens dimension requirements of AS/NZS 1337.1 are recommended for protection against penetrating eye injuries.

According to Kaushik, Australia has stringent regulations on how safety glasses should be best manufactured to protect the eyes. Australian Standards should be adhered to when manufacturing safety glasses.

For example, Bollé Safety’s popular Rush+ specs have been tested and approved to these standards for medium impact protection.

“Our eyewear is very well accepted.

It’s comfortable and people trust it.

And that is a crucial part of selecting an eyewear – that it meets all Australian Standards and suitable for the job you’re doing,” Martin says.

“It’s only when users are fatigued

Eye protection that they start removing things, like goggles that are getting heavy and uncomfortable, and they substitute them for something else that isn’t right for the job.

“So, we’ve brought a lighter weight and durable product in our goggles range that people can wear for longer and keep them on.”

Bollé Safety’s product innovation is driven by users who are looking for safety eyewear that is the right fit.

Similar to the trend of respirator fit testing, mining companies are looking for eyewear that fits users, with minimal gaps around the lenses.

In response, Bollé Safety has developed a range of eyewear that brings out improved seals, so they fit comfortably around the face and keep foreign bodies out.

“We’ve introduced another product called the Ultim8 that has a thermoplastic rubber (TPR) foam around it, so it’s similar to swimming goggles in the way it seals around your face,” Martin says.

“We pursue that kind of innovation to reduce the possibility of any foreign body entering the eye.

“Even with our goggles, we are looking at new designs to provide a wrap-around fit.

“Our 180 goggles have fantastic panoramic 180-degree vision because what we don’t want to do is compete with the wearer’s vision – if you can’t see what’s around you, you may not be alert to a danger.

“The last thing we want to do is for PPE implementation to introduce another risk.”

Even so, PPE remains the last line of defence and in the hierarchy of control in the workplace.

Kaushik says mining operators can change processes that are concerning or put barriers in place to protect workers against any exposure that

Bollé Safety’s Ultim8 goggles feature sealed thermoplastic rubber (TPR) foam.

could lead to an eye injury.

While mining companies put controls in place to prevent accidents from happening, the role of PPE, in this case, is not to prevent injury.

As Martin explains, mine workers need to be aware of all the safety risks as wearing PPE only reduces

the likelihood of injury.

“People have the perception that when they’re wearing PPE, they’re protected, however protection can only be achieved once the risks have been assessed and the most appropriate PPE has been selected for the task,” Martin concludes.

SAFETOWORK.COM.AU 46 NOV-DEC 2020

THE FIRST PRIORITY FOR AUSTRALIA’S MINING INDUSTRY

ISSUE 10 - NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020

Mitigating dust exposure Breathing safety at mine sites

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Remote monitoring

Eye protection

Mental health

Fire safety

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Technology

Using geoscience data to connect mine regions THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC HAS LIMITED TRAVEL BETWEEN AUSTRALIAN STATES AND REGIONS, WHICH MEANS PEOPLE HAVE LOST ACCESS TO INFORMATION ABOUT REGIONAL AREAS, INCLUDING MINES. GEOSCIENCE AUSTRALIA CHIEF SCIENTIST STEVEN HILL EXPLAINS HOW TECHNOLOGY CAN RECONNECT PEOPLE WITH THESE REGIONS.

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ith hard border closures imposed between several Australian jurisdictions, travel has been scaled back to only essential activities such as mining and logistics, ensuring Australians are equipped with the minerals and items they need to get through the pandemic.

This has created what Geoscience Australia chief scientist Steven Hill describes as a “COVID urban retreat.”

With 80 per cent of Australia’s population living along the coastline, this has meant the bulk of people living in state and territory capital cities are not travelling to or through remote communities like inland farms and mining towns.

Hill, speaking at the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM) Minesafe International Digital Conference in September, says with less Australians taking holidays or business trips, this can give Australians an out of sight, out of mind attitude about regional centres.

“We really have formed a COVID urban retreat where without travel for business and pleasure, people are staying in urban areas and not getting out to a large part of the country,” Hill says.

“The result from that is we start to lose our first-hand connection to country; our understanding, love, appreciation and knowledge of those areas become challenged.

“This challenges our perceptions of

value, particularly of regional areas and the resources industry, which can have an impact on the sector’s social licence.”

The current isolation of many Australians from regional centres and in turn, the resources industry can lead to misinformation or negative perception of the industry, with people forming opinions based on second- or thirdhand knowledge.

This can not only harm the resources sector’s social image within the wider community, but also the self esteem and wellbeing of its workforce. The connection of those outside of the industry that recognise their work in the sector as valuable and appreciated contributes to mental health.

As Hill explains, the science and raw data that is collected from regional centres and mining operations to help Australia make informed decisions has never been more important.

“That information provides connection to country, basis for decisions, advice and the trust we need to provide our communities and governments,” he says.

“From there it is important to ask if we have the information and data and is it able to be accessed by the right people and used in a useful way?

“If we don’t address that need for connection, our industry and nation (are) set to be impeded.”

With this risk in mind, it is up to Hill and his team at Geoscience Australia

Geoscience Australia chief scientist Steven Hill.

to identify the most useful scientific data from across Australia to help the industry and wider nation to make informed decisions around safety, development and impact of industry.

Working across a broad spectrum of geoscience, including minerals, energy, groundwater and seismic monitoring, Geoscience Australia works to not only identify the risks but to find the best solutions for them.

“A really big part of our work is around the area of creation location enabled Australia, particularly with things like earth observation, satellite observation and geopositioning,” Hill explains.

“We make our geo-positioning information freely accessible and we are looking into developing national

SAFETOWORK.COM.AU 48 NOV-DEC 2020

Geoscience Australia’s map of potential resource corridors in Australia.

coverage of this via satellite to improve the accuracy and reliability of geo-positioning.”

The geo-positioning available from Geoscience Australia has a 10 centimetres accuracy across Australia and its maritime zones, and 3–5 centimetres in areas with mobile phone coverage.

This accessible data allows anyone in Australia to view proposed, big impact projects in agriculture, transport and mining in regional areas.

Geoscience Australia also uses a remote sensing technique called interferometric synthetic aperture radar (INSAR) to monitor distance change measurements.

This is particularly useful for mining as it collects new images of changes to landscape and geological patterns every 12 days, meaning mines can monitor surface movement around their sites to help prevent potential disasters like tailings collapses.

“Every time a satellite passes over it creates a radar image of the area and once that is done twice or more you

have two different images to compare,” Hill explains.

“This shows accurate changes in vertical elevation, surface changes and surface movement at the reconnaissance level.”

With INSAR data, Geoscience Australia has been able to investigate a 2018 tailings collapse at a New South Wales mine, with the images showing displacement to the land over a two-year period.

“We can see on the axis when the collapse happened in March 2018 but from 2016 and in the months beforehand, we could detect subsidence leading to the collapse,” Hill says.

“If we had a national data set where people everywhere could tap in for free, what a difference that would make in predicting and preventing events like this, which is exactly what Geoscience Australia is trying to do.”

Geoscience Australia is constantly evolving its data around monitoring the land and has high hopes for creating a data solution that allows mineral

SAFETOWORK.COM.AU 49 NOV-DEC 2020

explorers to look further into the earth’s crust and lithosphere.

This would give valuable insight into new opportunities for mines and handy hints into the best places to explore and drill to unearth valuable future deposits.

“This information will be crucial in exploring for new resources in minerals, energy and groundwater and has big value for how we best explore and live with those different parts of the earth,” Hill says.

“Being aware of your own and your colleagues’ and employers’ connection to country to explore, engage and look for applications of new data as they become available helps us to connect better and use that connection to ensure a safe and productive industry.”

Mental health

(L-R) Mitchell Services general manager, people and risk Josh Bryant conducting a workplace interaction with employee Frank Mudge at Minjar Gold’s Pajingo mine in Queensland.

People as the solution: Mitchell Services changes its safety approach WHEN IT COMES TO MINE SAFETY, MANY OPERATORS FOCUS ON SERIOUS INCIDENTS FIRST. MITCHELL SERVICES GENERAL MANAGER, PEOPLE AND RISK JOSH BRYANT SPEAKS ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF REGULAR ROUTINES FOR MORE PRODUCTIVE SAFETY PROCEDURES.

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ike most mining companies, if there is an incident or accident on site, Mitchell Services will gather its people to talk through the event to form a reaction such as further training.

Mitchell Services general manager for people and risk Josh Bryant says this response resulted in many focus campaigns being launched at different mine sites, triggering the leadership team to break the cycle and find different solutions.

From there, Mitchell Services adopted approaches such as Safety Differently, Safety II and Human Organisational Performance (HOP), which are all responses formed with the mindset of seeing the company’s people as problem

solvers rather than the cause of issues.

Bryant, speaking about the company’s experience in adopting these methods at the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM) Minesafe International Digital Conference 2020, says adopting them leads to safer workplaces and happier workers, contributing to positive mental health.

“Safety is largely seen as the absence of events, such as zero injuries,” Bryant says. “Safety Differently is a shift from seeing people as a problem to control, to looking to your people as problem solvers, a solution to harness.”

This takes mine safety from simply following procedures and reacting to statistics, such as total recordable injury frequencies to looking at day-

to-day operations, and why the way people are working is creating a safer work environment.

While serious injuries are important, Bryant says they are not regular occurrences on mine sites, so while they require attention, it is important to also focus on the positives during everyday operations to help prevent potential incidents.

This is part of the difference between Safety I and Safety II, another mindset which has been adopted by Mitchell Services to improve its safety and attitudes around safety.

“Safety I always looks at humans as a liability or a hazard and that accidents are caused by failure and malfunction and you need to find the

SAFETOWORK.COM.AU 50 NOV-DEC 2020

root cause,” Bryant says.

“Safety II looks at people as resilient and flexible, and views that things happen the same way most of the time, therefore ‘Did it fail this time because something has changed?’ or ‘Let’s understand what worked well’.

“On mine sites, no person purposely aims to injure themselves.

It’s about putting controls in place to stop this from happening but also what to do to fail safely.”

With injuries make up approximately 0.2 per cent of Mitchell Services’ work, the company is seeing its workers as a resource to improve safety as they already achieve such a high rate of safe operations.

By adopting this mentality, Mitchell Services has changed the company’s mindset around human error in alignment with its own key values.

This particularly resonated with the Mitchell Services leadership team, allowing them to review how the management team responded to errors or accidents and make them part of the company’s routine to influence the entire business to make this change.

“HOP recognises that even the best people make mistakes and error

is normal,” Bryant says. “Blame fixes nothing, which is aligned to one of Mitchell Services’ key values of ‘never openly criticise’.

“Mitchell Services broke this approach down into our routine and agreed as a leadership team to do 100 small things in our own business consistently with deliberate intent to implement a new way of looking at safety to influence our people and business to make this change.”

From introducing the concept to new employees during the onboarding process to focussing on this during pre-shift meetings, Mitchell Services stopped looking at what went wrong but rather at what was successful yesterday and whether it could be improved to other areas.

By taking on feedback at all levels, from the chief executive to the staff on site, Mitchell Services has identified its key ‘Fatal 8’ risks, areas which its supervisors focus on to ensure effective controls are in place in normal routines without adding extra work.

For example, checking in on the Fatal 8 is put in the same order as normal routines such as checking drill rigs in the morning, to ensure it fits seamlessly with

(L) Mitchell Services senior health, safety and environment advisor Tim Fitch at South32’s Cannington mine.

SAFETOWORK.COM.AU 51 NOV-DEC 2020

the existing, successful operations and procedures.

“A lot of the mining industry is focussed on fatal risks,” Bryant explains.

“Majority of the things we do that result in injuries have nothing to do with fatal risk, so the upper part of the conversation is looking at normal work and what workers do to make things go right.

“We learn so much more about normal work from people, however we do this as well as concentrating on the controls and defence against fatal risks.

“We want to look at workers as a resource and understand what they are dealing with each day and what their constraints are that stop them from having things go well, so we can understand how to help, and if things do go wrong, how do you fail safely and stop yourself from getting hurt.”

By changing conversations about safe practices and preventing injuries to a positive one, Mitchell Services has implemented safer equipment and practices in a way that focusses on the positives, resulting in a stronger working culture and mental health across its workforce.

Bryant says this trust in its workforce, intent to learn from mistakes when they do occur and aiming to fail safely if an accident does happen have seen a shift in Mitchell Services’ perception of its workplace.

“We have seen a real shift in culture in the last two to three years that we have had a focus on the Safety Differently mindset,” he says.

“People feel as if our workplaces are a safe place to work, they feel supported by their teams and feel safe to speak up, which has even improved our psychological environment.

“The failing safely philosophy, rather than the preoccupation of failure is critical to resilience and safe recovery from an incident and being able to maintain control when things go wrong.”

THE MINING INDUSTRY HAS MOVED TO A NEW PHASE FOLLOWING THE MINING BOOM, ONE WHERE PRODUCTIVITY, INNOVATION AND SAFETY HAVE EMERGED AS ITS KEY PRIORITIES GOLD SPOTLIGHT SURFACE MINING VOLUME 112/10 | NOVEMBER 2020

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Automation

Australia paves way to autonomous mining BHP PRINCIPAL, MINING SYSTEMS IN TECHNOLOGY, CHIRAG SATHE EXPANDS ON THE VISION FOR AUTONOMOUS MINING TO BRING GREATER SAFETY TO MINE SITES.

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HP principal, mining systems in technology, Chirag Sathe has challenged the perspective of many when it comes to autonomous operations.

Sathe, speaking at the AusIMM Minesafe International digital conference in September, opened audiences’ eyes to the potential of bringing automation to the moon or Mars.

He believes this scenario could form part of a teleremote operation that is made up of automated or semiautomated excavators, loaders and graders in the not so distant future.

“Everything that is mobile in mining (could be) automated or semiautomated,” Sathe says.

“What’s (most likely) to happen in the next five to 10 years (is) we will have trucks and water carts, drills and dozers, graders and light vehicles … automated.”

Such vision is propped up by the number of autonomous trucks operating in the Pilbara region of Western Australia alone.

As of this year, more than 300 autonomous trucks are already running in the region, enough to make Sathe consider Pilbara to be the region with the largest number of autonomous trucks in the world.

Autonomous trucks have been mobilised by all three major iron ore companies in Western Australia, including BHP, Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals Group, making Australia a frontrunner in the world of autonomous haulage.

The shift has brought tangible health and safety benefits across the workforce, the biggest of which is a reduction in musculoskeletal injuries.

“I don’t know if you’ve ever had the experience of being in a manned haul truck, but there is so much vibration (to the body). We are definitely removing such injuries for the (operator) driving the truck for 10 hours (in) one shift seven days a week,” Sathe says.

The World Economic Forum predicted in 2017 that most mining machines would be automated by 2025.

1999 to over 800 million tonnes in 2019.

Iron ore prices have also climbed from $US13 ($18.37) tonne in 2000 to more than $US90 tonne last year.

Such favourable conditions have pushed for even greater production as demand for iron ore increases, according to Sathe.

Mining companies that are therefore eager to meet future rising demand and achieve automation will need to build an interoperable mine for their mixed fleets.

Austmine, the industry body for Australia’s mining, equipment,

Autonomous mining excavators will be part of a teleremote operation.

The organisation predicted that along with automation and digitalisation, more than 1000 lives could be saved and 44,000 injuries avoided.

“That’s massive. That’s what we’re aiming for with automation. We should reduce fatal incidents and improve productivity at the same time,” Sathe says.

The production of iron ore in Western Australia rose from 143 million tonnes in

SAFETOWORK.COM.AU 53 NOV-DEC 2020

technology and services (METS) sector, highlights interoperability as a key to the future of mining.

Although a lot of work is required for this future mine, Sathe believes the sector has already started on this journey.

The Australian mining sector is merely waiting for the interoperable mine to develop further before it becomes a reality.

Events CONFERENCES, SEMINARS & WORKSHOPS EVENT SUBMISSIONS CAN BE EMAILED TO EDITOR@SAFETOWORK.COM.AU

SMALL MINES AND QUARRIES HEALTH AND SAFETY ROADSHOW | VARIOUS NSW LOCATIONS | NOVEMBER 10-DECEMBER 16 The New South Wales Government’s Small Mines and Quarries Health and Safety Roadshow is continuing throughout November and December, visiting various New South Wales towns including: Narooma and Ballina on November 10; Queanbeyan and Port Macquarie on November 12; Wagga Wagga on November 24; Tumut on November 26; Dubbo on December 1; Orange on December 3; Wollongong on December 8; Liverpool on December 10; and Wentworth on December 16.

After visiting four mining and quarrying towns in October, the Small Mines and Quarries Health and Safety Roadshow will provide information and resources on safe mining practices to the small mines sector.

Mines will also be able to engage face to face with the state resources regulator and ask questions about health, safety and current issues.

• resourcesandgeoscience.nsw.gov.au

IMARC ONLINE | NOVEMBER 24-27 The International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC) 2020 event has been postponed due to COVID-19 and has launched a replacement online event that will be held from November 24 to 27.

IMARC Online will allow industry leaders to come together online rather than in person, discussing topics that shape the future of the mining industry, which is set to be one of the key industries re-shaping the global economy post-COVID-19.

The program will feature all the components that delegates can expect of the in-person event, including workshops, keynote presentations, networking, meetings and a virtual expo hall showcasing the latest mining projects, technology and innovations.

Additionally, IMARC Online is welcoming a series of co-located events: IMARC METS Area #LIVE, Mines and Money 5@5 and Mines and Money Online Connect.

Attendees will also be able to create their own personalised program of content, meetings and networking

events based on their interests within the longer opening hours and on demand.

• imarconline.com

MINING EMERGENCY RESPONSE COMPETITION | PERTH | NOVEMBER 28-29 The Mining Emergency Response Competition (MERC) is returning to Langley Park in Perth for its 10th anniversary.

MERC provides mining companies’ emergency response teams with the opportunity to practice their skills in a realistic emergency setting.

Their performance will be judged across seven categories, including a first aid scenario, road crash rescue, vertical rescue, firefighting, confined space rescue, hazmat and emergency response readiness.

As well as having bragging rights up for grabs, teams can learn valuable emergency response skills from one another and invite their families to watch a day in the life of their job, a particular highlight for fly-in, flyout (FIFO) workers.

This year, MERC’s chosen charity to support is mental health awareness charity, the Blue True Project.

• themerc.com.au

AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE OF OCCUPATIONAL HYGIENISTS VIRTUAL SYMPOSIUM | NOVEMBER 30-DECEMBER 3 The Australian Institute of Occupational Hygienists (AIOH) will be holding its first-ever virtual symposium at the end of November, celebrating the 40th anniversary of AIOH. The virtual event, which will be live streamed over four days, will reflect upon AIOH’s contributions and successes during the past four decades as it strived to

create healthier workplaces.

The AIOH Virtual Symposium will feature more than 40 national and international speakers and keynotes and provide attendees with an engaging program covering current and emerging occupational health and hygiene topics.

Sessions topics include respirable crystalline silica, sampling, risk management, fire and smoke exposure, chemicals respiratory protection, COVID-19, dust exposure and monitoring, noise, heat, emissions and more.

• aioh.org.au/virtual-symposium

UNDERGROUND OPERATORS CONFERENCE | PERTH | MARCH 15-17 2021 The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM)’s Underground Operators Conference is returning next year and for the first time ever will run as a hybrid event, with the in-person event in Perth running subsequently with an online digital event to allow for any travel or event restrictions that may still be in place in March 2021.

Underground Operators will bring together underground mining engineers, mine operators, technical service managers and consultants to share operational experiences and practices.

The event will feature internationally recognised keynote speakers, including BHP Olympic Dam asset president and chief geoscientist Laura Tyler, CommChain chairman Gary Zamel and Swedish Rock Engineering consultant Knut Garshol.

These speakers will cover discussion topics ranging from process transformation, innovative mining methods and practices, health and safety, to revolutionising conventional mines and more.

• undergroundoperators.ausimm.com

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