Britton is also expected to maintain a renewed focus on safety at the mine as part of Xstrata’s SafeCoal strategy.

Vandeventer has a total of 35 years of coal mine experience in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

He predominantly focused on underground coal mining with longwall and continuous miner operations with some truck and shovel surface mining experience and two years in mineral sands dredge mining. He has held statutory appointments as site senior executive and underground mining manager for 15 years.

He worked on numerous projects either as a full time projects engineer/consultant and/or played a leading role in steering capital replacement projects as part of his duties as business unit manager when he managed mine sites. He has spent 26 years of his career with BHP Billiton operations in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

Vandeventer worked initially at the coal face and later as supervisor and departmental manager before managing a number of coal mines and a dredging operation. He has implemented safety and health management systems as various operations. During his career he often participated in the design and development of new mines and mining equipment selections.

Key activities included operational management, business plan developments, risk assessments, mine statutory management, new mine development and mining method selections.

Key experiences included the successful implementation of productivity improvement measures at various mines and planning initiatives to add value to existing and new operations.

He also worked for an international mining consultancy in Brisbane to hone his study management skills.

Oaky North has introduced a number of measures under SafeCoal to reduce sprains and strains and meet the mine’s goal of a 50% reduction in total recordable injury frequency rate.

One measure taken in 2010 was the introduction of light weight carbon fibre ventilation tubes in roadway development, which has had a significant impact on manual handling associated injuries.

Communication, including kick-off presentations to every employee and contractor and the introduction of touch screens to work areas where employees can instantly access safety statistics and reference information, has played a key role during the launch and ongoing implementation of the SafeCoal initiative.