In his opening address on August 4, Stephen Robertson, minister for natural resources and mines said in the 13 years since the conference inception, much work has been done to improve safety.

“Looking at the accident figures from 1989 to those of 2002, we can see clearly the significant advances we have made in improving safety and health standards in the mining industry. In 1989 the Lost Time Incident Frequency Rate was 160 for underground coal mines; the Lost Time Incident Frequency Rate for underground coal mines is now 18,” he said.

Robertson said that the government has implemented all major recommendations of the 1996 Warden’s Inquiry Report into the Moura Mine disaster, with the Coal Mining Safety and Health Act 1999 and the Mining and Quarrying Safety and Health Act 1999 as the centrepiece.

“Since the successful introduction of this legislation 16 months ago, the question naturally arises - where to from here? We still have an unacceptable number of fatalities and near misses. It follows without question that our top priority over the next 12 months must be to develop and successfully implement a strategy to change this situation.

Robertson said new tools, particularly causal analysis was a technique used by the Mines Inspectorate and industry to determine causes of accidents or incidents. If applied to high potential incidents, it can determine the fundamental causes of near misses, allowing them to be analysed and removed. He said this would only be successful if all high potential incidents were reported, which did not appear to be occurring.

The minister also announced an awards system for the mines that have taken the most proactive steps to manage the risks at their operations. Outstanding performers would be acknowledged at the chief inspector’s annual meeting.

In related news Robertson said SIMTARS has just has sold its first SAFEGAS computerised mine gas monitoring system to the USA.