Resources Safety and Health Queensland (RSHQ) is helping mines to foster a true zero-harm workplace by relying on a tried-and-true method: learning from mistakes.
The grand scale and complexity of mining operations means risk is ever-present. Unfortunately, that risk can sometimes materialise with harmful – and even fatal – consequences, but buried in every crisis is a valuable lesson for the future.
Resources Safety and Health Queensland (RSHQ) chief inspector of coal mines Jacques le Roux told Safe to Work it’s critical that the industry learns from past events.
“By studying past incidents and their underlying causes, individuals can better understand the root factors that contribute to safety lapses in mining operations,” he said.
“This awareness can serve as a foundation for implementing proactive measures to prevent future accidents and improve overall safety standards.”
To make mistakes is human, and while it can be difficult to genuinely own up to and learn from them, doing so on a mine site can be the difference between life and death.
Even the largest corporations aren’t immune from making mistakes.
After a fatal accident at its Ahafo mill expansion project in Ghana, Newmont saw the benefits of speaking up.
“After the catastrophic accident on April 7 2018 … took the lives of six colleagues, we recognised the need to have open and honest conversations with personnel across the globe on why the accident happened,” Newmont said in its case study about the accident.
“Following an in-depth investigation into the root causes, sites and office locations across our business held sessions on the accident’s critical learnings. More than 9500 employees and contractors participated in the sessions, which encouraged everyone to speak up, ask questions and provide feedback.”
The Newmont team came away from these sessions with three key lessons:
Always identify, establish and enforce barricades and exclusion zones where there is a risk of personnel being struck by falling objects
Where we rely on temporary structures in high-risk work activities, these must be designed and verified as effective at all stages of the work
When a task does not go as expected or changes occur, take time to establish what has changed and why – assess the risk and seek additional expertise, applying controls if needed, before recommencing the work
And the outcome of these lessons?
“Each site identified priority actions and developed plans to address the actions and their effectiveness,” Newmont said. “We began to develop global standards for barricading and exclusion zones to support regional standard operating procedures.
“We also identified additional critical controls associated with our top fatality risks that must be in place every time a task involving the risk is undertaken.”
It’s clear that taking the time to reflect on the accident and develop solutions to ensure it doesn’t happen again is an effective approach.
It’s for this reason that Queensland mining operators must report serious accidents and high-potential incidents to RSHQ.
From there, the wider industry has a chance to learn from the incident.
“It is important that we share information about incidents and investigations to raise awareness of risks and provide information about the events leading up to an incident and recommendations of what can be done reduce the likelihood of similar events,” RHSQ chief inspector of mineral mines and quarries Hermann Fasching said in the MMQ report for the first quarter of the 2024–25 financial year.
“RSHQ will continue to publish incident findings through summary investigation reports.”
Learning from mistakes is the ethos behind RHSQ’s new training course, ‘Learning from Disasters’.
The course is a mandatory requirement for statutory ticketholders at Queensland mines and quarries as part of their ongoing professional development in the Practising Certificate Scheme.
But it’s important to note the content is relevant to many stakeholders across the industry.
“While ‘Learning from Disasters’ was developed for statutory ticketholders, it can also benefit emerging leaders and those in supervisory positions who want to contribute towards building a safer workplace,” le Roux said.
‘Learning from Disasters’ also delves into the similarities, differences and overlapping areas between process safety and personal safety. It examines historical accident scenarios from various industries to provide insight into the complexities of managing industrial risks.
“Disaster training requires extending beyond coal mines to encompass metalliferous and quarrying sectors, as well as other industries,” Fasching said.
“This initiative reflects a proactive and holistic approach to safety and disaster preparedness.”
Learners will identify the tangible behaviours, organisational systems and social patterns that underpin a positive safety culture.
As a feature, the element ‘reporting culture’ will be discussed to identify how good reporting behaviour impacts safety culture.
The course unpacks good reporting practices and legislative requirements surrounding serious accidents and high-potential incidents. Participants will be provided with a more thorough understanding of their legislative reporting obligations.
The course also covers the importance of a ‘just culture’, where workers are encouraged to speak up and report hazards without fear of retribution. This approach is in line with the recommendations of the 2019 Brady Review, which was commissioned by the Queensland Government and looked at all fatal accidents on the state’s mines and quarries from 2000–19.
The review emphasised the need for a culture of safety and accountability across the resources industry.
‘Learning from Disasters’ is RSHQ’s latest initiative towards the goal of zero serious harm in Queensland’s recourses industry.
But it’s not just Queensland that will benefit from these initiatives.
In order to foster zero harm throughout the whole Australian mining industry, each operation must take on board the lessons learnt from any mistakes that are made, lest that accident occur again.
This feature also appears in the Januar-February issue of Safe to Work.