Western Australia
Road safety
on mine sites
Long tradition
of mine rescue
.................page 6
Addressing
worklife balance .........page 23
In this issue
An article by State Mining Engineer Martin Knee about what the term safety
culture might mean for the mining industry leads this bumper nal issue of
MineSafe for 2006.
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In this issue
Safety culture
Chiefs meet
Mine rescuers in real life scenarios
Diverse competitors travel distance to learn
Scenarios based on actual reports
Long tradition of mine rescue
Mount Charlotte tops
Road safety on mine sites Part 1
Mines Safety Roadshow 2006
About Labour Relations
Bowler urges focus on workplace safety
Ask an inspector
Work Safety Award winners lead the way
Safe Work Australia Week a success
Whats in your dust?
Nick is a safe driver
Changes to Dangerous Goods Safety Act
Review of paste and thickened tailings guide
Working hours code of practice
Addressing worklife balance
MIACs rst anniversary
Oil-lled circuit breaker failure
New technology for emergency
response monitoring
26. Training for new technologies
27. Signicant incident report
28. Whats new on the web
There are also reports on the formal activities that Resources Safety is
engaged in, such as the Conference of Chief Inspectors of Mines and Mining
Industry Advisory Committee.
We have articles and pictorial spreads on the Underground Mine Emergency
Response Competition, held recently in Kalgoorlie, and the Mines Safety
Roadshow 2006. Participants feedback on the Roadshow is included.
Working hours and worklife balance were important discussion topics during
the Roadshow. In this issue, we present information on the recently released
code of practice and include a report on a talk by Professor Linda Duxbury, a
worklife balance expert.
In response to requests for information, we have started a themed section
on road safety on mine sites. The aim is to alert readers to the availability
of information and what is happening in this eld, and generate discussion
topics, especially with the inclusion of selected summaries from Resources
Safetys incidents database.
We continue the series on the functions of other divisions in the Department
of Consumer and Employment Protection with an overview of Labour
Relations. To round out the series, Resources Safety will feature in the next
issue of MineSafe.
In the safety and health representatives section, we introduce you to Dino
Busuladzic, who is based in Perth. We also cover some of the activities that
happened in Safe Work Australia Week. Readers are encouraged to check out
the Resources Safety website regularly to nd out whats new updates and
new information are posted there rst, including toolbox presentations from
the Roadshow.
There is also news relating to dangerous goods safety and a review of a locally
published paste and thickened tailings book that might interest readers.
Do you know if your ore contains heavy metals? In this issue we ask Whats
in your dust? and provide information on how to reduce exposure to toxic
metals.
We also report on some safety innovations and awards, as well as passing
on safety alerts released by other organisations but relevant to the Western
Australian scene. Specic safety advice is included in the signicant incident
report on a service truck tyre failure.
As 2006 draws to a close, I wish MineSafe readers and their families a safe
and happy new year, and thank you for your interest and support throughout
the year.
Alan Gooch
Acting Executive Director, Resources Safety
Department of Consumer and Employment Protection
Co e s
Safety culture
The safety culture of an organisation
is the product of individual and group
values, attitudes, competencies and
patterns of behaviour that determine
the commitment to, and the style and
prociency of, an organisations health
and safety programmes. Organisations
with a positive safety culture are
characterised by communications
founded on mutual trust, by shared
perceptions of the importance of safety
and by condence in the efcacy of
preventive measures.
A simpler and certainly a more
honest denition might be:
What people at all levels in an
organisation do and say when their
commitment to safety is not being
scrutinised.
Organisations with good safety
cultures commonly exhibit a collective
mindfulness or risk awareness a
realisation that they may be only a
heartbeat away from a major accident.
They are constantly, and at all levels,
asking the question, What is the worst
thing that could happen here?
Other organisations are less proactive
in seeking out ways in which their safety
management systems might fail. While
risk awareness may seem intuitive,
there may be in-built reasons why red
ags or indicators of risk are ignored.
The rst is the belief that it cant
happen here, based on conicting
trusted, yet incorrect, information.
Similarly, slowly building warning signs
can be dismissed as just part of the
normal routine until, nally, something
gives way catastrophically or such
signs may appear only intermittently
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. George Santayana, 18631952, The Life of Reason, 1905.
Left to right: Bill McKay (Cwlth), Simon Ridge (SA), Sue Kruze (Cwlth), Alan Gooch (WA), Kathy Harman (Cwlth), Mike Downs (Qld), John
Mitas (Vic), Martin Knee (WA), Clive Brown (WA), Rob Regan (NSW), Bill Taylor (NZ), Roger Billingham (Qld), Tim Gosling (NT), Rod Morrison
(NSW), Kee Hah (NT), Greg Marshall (SA)
Chiefs meet
Honour Board
The Barrick Lawlers team took top
honours at the annual Underground
Mine Emergency Response Competition,
winning the award for best team.
Barrick Kanowna was runner up, with
third place going to Oxiana Golden Grove.
Awards
Team Skills:
Barrick Lawlers
Search and Rescue:
Barrick Lawlers
Fire Fighting:
Barrick Lawlers
First Aid:
Barrick Granny Smith
Members of the Barrick Lawlers team with their Best Team Awards
Driver fatigue
10
Elsewhere (www.spinneypress.com.
au/204_book_desc.html), it has been
estimated that the risk of a crash is four
times greater after missing a night of
sleep the same as driving with a BAC
of 0.08%.
Particularly noteworthy for many mining
operations is the observation that shift
workers face a greater risk than other
workers because of driving when they
would normally be asleep, and getting
insufcient or poor quality sleep.
Regardless of which statistics are
quoted, the effects of fatigue on road
safety are well known. In crashes
caused by fatigue, the driver has either
fallen asleep at the wheel or been so
exhausted that he or she has made
serious or fatal driving errors. The
NOVA: Science in the News website
(www.science.org.au/nova) has a wealth
of information and related links under
the topic Driver fatigue an accident
waiting to happen.
Driver alert
Research started by a team at The
Australian National University in 1997
has led to the development of faceLAB,
information and communications
technology (ICT) that can be used to
track the movement of a drivers head,
including head position and orientation,
and which way the eyes are looking and
blinking rate.
To commercialise the results, Seeing
Machines Ltd (www.seeingmachines.
com) was set up in 2000. In 2005,
the company entered a research
on site are:
11
Belt up
12
Visibility project
Anil Atri
Denis Brown
Dino Busuladzic
Email: aatri@docep.wa.gov.au
Phone: 9222 3290
Fax:
9325 2280
Email: dbrown@docep.wa.gov.au
Phone: 9222 3546
Fax:
9325 2280
Email: dbusuladzic@docep.wa.gov.au
Phone: 9222 3538
Fax:
9325 2280
13
Investigations
- Role of Resources Safety
inspectors
- Role of Safety and Health
Representatives
- Round-table discussions of
investigation scenarios
14
Information sources
Inspectorate notices
Consultation and
communication
Safety practices
Road safety
Dangerous goods
Kalgoorlie
Bunbury
Bunbury
Kalgoorlie
Karratha
Karratha
Perth
Tom Price
Newman
15
continuously promote safety as we strive The Minister said it was only by working
together, talking about safety and then
for fairer, safer and more productive
putting ideas into action that workplaces
workplaces, Mr Bowler said.
could reach their safety goals.
Workers and their families should
During Safe Work Australia Week, people
not have to experience the pain and
networked and exchanged work safety
suffering due to work place injuries.
information, ideas and initiatives with a
Safety in the workplace must be the
wide range of industries and businesses.
number one priority of industry and
They were also able to learn from what
small business.
others had put in place to reduce the
As part of the National Safety at Work
Week, information on the latest safety
initiatives were shared during the Work
Safe 2006 Forum in Perth.
Ask an inspector
Mine managers
should ensure
they receive
comprehensive
details of all
relevant safety
and health
information
provided by
designers,
manufacturers
and suppliers of
plant, according to mines inspector
Dino Busuladzic.
Dino is the Senior Mechanical
Inspector and oversees the machinery
section of Resources Safety
throughout Western Australia.
There is a duty of care for suppliers,
manufacturers, designers, importers
and installers under the Mines Safety
and Inspection Act, and they should
be more proactive in warning about
incorrect use of plant and provide
relevant information on correct
usage, Dino said.
In our regulations, manufacturers,
suppliers et cetera must identify
all hazards and specify any known
problems. When we investigate
incidents we rely on feedback
from suppliers as well as the mine
manager to determine the cause.
He said as an inspector he would
like to see the mine manager source
more information from suppliers and
the sharing of knowledge with other
mines when there are issues with the
quality of products or problems.
While everybody is trying to save
money, the costs of incidents can
Did you
know?
Dinos top
safety tips
1 Small incidents can
become big incidents, so
investigate thoroughly and
try to get to the bottom of
things so you understand
the nature of incidents and
the reasons they occur.
17
18
Native mercury on
rock from California
19
20
Changes to
Dangerous
Goods Safety Act
One of the hot topics at the recent
Mines Safety Roadshow was a
session by Resources Safetys
Rhonda Jogia on what changes to
the Dangerous Goods Safety Act 2004
mean for the mining industry.
Responses to the public
comment period will be placed on
the Resources Safety website early
in the new year, while it is expected
that the proclamation of the new
dangerous goods legislation will
occur during the rst half of 2007.
Current regulations hail back to the
1960s and the legislative reforms
aim to incorporate national concerns
about security and terrorism.
The new legislation will see a shift
from telling people and businesses
what to do to a performance-based
risk management approach for
dangerous goods safety.
Under the changes, responsibility
for managing dangerous goods
safety will rest with the risk
generator.
The new regulations will
cover security risk substances
(SRS), including some forms
of ammonium nitrate (as per
national guidelines), and a cradleto-grave approach to the import,
manufacture, storage, transport,
sale and use of explosives and
ammonium nitrate.
Legislative changes will result
in new security clearance
requirements for all explosives and
SRS licence holders, introduction
of a security card for all people
with unsupervised access to
explosives and SRS, new regulations
to cover major hazard facilities
and provisions for explosives
management plans and shotring
plans.
thickeners.
They note that
sizing paste thickeners
is largely based on experience
with similar installations. The various
types of lters used to produce
paste are described with the relative
advantages and disadvantages of
each type. Useful indicative costs are
provided for thickeners and lters.
The transport chapter discusses
the ow behaviour of paste and
thickened tailings in pipelines. The
relative advantages and limitations of
centrifugal and positive displacement
pumps are reviewed, and the author
notes that life-cycle costs must be
evaluated when selecting the pump
type. Transport of paste by truck
and conveyor is discussed, although
these modes are not widely used for
surface tailings disposal. The chapter
concludes with a review of aspects
to consider when undertaking an
economic evaluation or comparison of
transport systems.
A balanced assessment of the
advantages and disadvantages of
surface disposal of paste or thickened
tailings compared with conventional
tailings is presented in the above
ground disposal chapter. The author
notes that although the concept
of high density tailings disposal
technology was rst implemented
over 30 years ago, the adoption of
the technology for surface has been
slow. This is ascribed to the lack
of reliable methods for producing
Continued on page 22...
21
...from page 21
and transporting tailings. With the
recent advances in these areas, it is
expected that implementation rate of
paste and thickened tailings systems
will accelerate. The chapter details
considerations for design, operation
and management.
The mine backll chapter discusses
the interdependence of backll
composition, underground benets and
legal compliance. This is illustrated
by considering the benets of
underground paste disposal for base
metal, coal, gold and platinum mines.
The author reviews underground
rock mechanics requirements,
environmental requirements and
considerations for ensuring successful
paste transport. Examples of two
underground paste disposal projects
want money
and career
development,
while the
boomers have
been there,
done that
and started
looking at the
organisation in
terms of whats
in it for them.
Generation Y
23
Rob Watson
The Chamber of Minerals and
Energy Western Australia
Henry Rozmianiec
UnionsWA
Gary Wood
UnionsWA
Martin Knee
State Mining Engineer,
Resources Safety Division ,
Department of Consumer and
Employment Protection
24
Dr Peter Lilly
Expert member
Composition of MIAC
Kathryn Heiler
Expert member
Achievements since
2005 inception
Nicole Roocke
The Chamber of Minerals and
Energy Western Australia
Recommendations
follow manufacturers
maintenance procedures;
Codeof Practice
WORKING HOURS 2006
25
New technology
for emergency response monitoring
26
Cnr Welcome Rd and Hedland Plc, Karratha WA 6714 (PO Box 518)
Email: karratha.inspectorate@docep.wa.gov.au
Phone: 9186 8888
Fax: 9186 8889
Service truck
tyre failure
Incident
Recently, a tter in a park-up area
escaped with minor injuries when
a service truck tyre burst two to
three metres away. The tter noticed
smoke coming from a wheel and had
alighted from the service truck to
investigate what he suspected to be a
dragging brake. Believing the S-cam
brake was jammed, he hit it with a
hammer. He stepped back to reassess
the situation, knowing the tyre was
hot and the S-cam was not jammed.
The tyre on the truck then burst,
with the resulting air-blast lifting
Occupational Health
Email: contammanager@docep.wa.gov.au
Phone: 9222 3443
Fax:
9325 3441
Certicates of Competency
Email: cleong@docep.wa.gov.au (Chris Leong)
Phone: 9222 3683
Fax:
9222 3525
Engineering Safety
Email: resourcessafety@docep.wa.gov.au
Phone: 9222 3050
Fax:
9325 2280
General Enquiries
Email: resourcessafety@docep.wa.gov.au
Phone: 9222 3438
Fax:
9325 2280
27
Whats
new
on the web
www.docep.wa.gov.au/ResourcesSafety
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