NSW Mining HSEC Awards Winners 2024
Photo: David McCormick, HST Manager Metropolitan Mine, Peabody
Health Excellence
Peabody, Metropolitan Mine
Spring Panther
Spring Panther is a low-cost, high-return initiative combining a spring balancer with a lightweight monorail system to eliminate substantial manual handling risks from using hand bolters.
Previously, the workforce at Metropolitan manually operated heavy hand bolters to carry out highly repetitive daily tasks. Manual operation of hand bolters over time leads to increased muscle tension and related ailments, decreasing the quality of life of Peabody’s workforce and their ongoing productivity.
Spring Panther has modernised practices, while protecting workers from acute and chronic injuries. Peabody has seen a positive boost to production, reduced long-term injuries, and lost labour.
The Spring Panther is easily portable, and has been shown to be transferable between sites, making it easy for any mine or equivalent industry to use.
Photo: Aaron Johansen, Chief Executive Officer, Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group
Safety Excellence
Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group
Leading an Empowered Culture of Safety
NCIG faced the challenge of effectively measuring safety performance due to the limitations of traditional lag indicators, especially given its low injury record. In response, NCIG developed the Safety Culture Score (SCS). The SCS integrates lead safety indicators across four key dimensions—Environment, Practices, People, and Leadership.
The introduction of SCS has yielded tangible benefits, notably a 10% increase in SCS over the FY21-23 period correlates with a reduction of 34% in total incidents and 50% in recorded injuries.
The SCS is integrated into monthly reporting, creating transparency and accountability. This reinforces NCIG's commitment to safety but also facilitates informed decision-making and strategic alignment.
The SCS framework offers a standardised approach that can be adopted to any organisation. By leveraging theory-backed metrics and industry best practices, NCIG has set a precedent for enhancing safety performance reporting globally.
Photo: Kieren Bennetts, Manager Environment & Community Wilpinjong Mine, Peabody (left) &
James Heesterman, Environmental Advisor Wilpinjong Mine, Peabody (right)
Environmental Excellence
Peabody, Wilpinjong Mine
Mine Adit Restoration for Microbats
During an environmental assessment at the Wilpinjong Mine, a historical oil shale mine adit within the proposed extension area was discovered to be home to two threatened species of microbats.
Old timber beams supported the adit, however there was evidence of rock falls at the entrance and concerns that blasting for a future extension project within 150 metres could accelerate the adits likely eventual collapse.
Wilpinjong Environmental Department collaborated with a bat specialist to design a cost-effective, innovative adit support structure which protects the microbat colony - an effective solution for habitat preservation applicable to natural or manmade overhangs across the mining industry.
Photo: Kurt Gidley, NSW Business Development Manager, Protech Group (left) &
Steven Fordham, Managing Director, Blackrock Industries (right)
Community Excellence
Dreampath
Dreampath Recruitment
Dreampath Recruitment identified that a major barrier to indigenous people entering mining was a lack of appropriate pre-employment training. They consulted with community leaders, industry partners, and regulatory bodies to design a program to address these barriers.
The result is the Dreampath program. Dreampath is an immersive pre-employment experience, combining advanced simulator training with classroom theory, practical demonstrations, and life skills coaching, equipping candidates with over 80 hours of accredited training.
The program is already having an impact with 25 of 50 candidates securing a CERT III Surface Extraction Traineeship. Development of the project was supported significantly by MACH Energy and its Aboriginal Community Development Fund.