Annual Report 2013
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Tasmanian Minerals Council Annual Report 2013 The Tasmanian Minerals Council aims to be the organisation recognised for the leadership, effective issues management and cooperative action for the State’s minerals industry. Our mission is to promote the development of a safe, profitable and sustainable minerals sector, which operates within community standards. ACN: 009 554 616 32 Davey Street Hobart 7000 Telephone: (03) 6223 8600 Facsimile: (03) 6231 1689 Email: [email protected] Website: www.tasmanianmining.com.au Contents President’s Report ............................................... 1 OH&S Report .......................................................... 2 2013 Minerals Conference .................................. 5 2013 Minerals Business Forum ......................... 7 Communications ................................................. 8 Rally Fever .............................................................. 9 Mining Industry Communication .................. 10 Tasmanian Mining Facebook .......................... 11 We Remember Darryl Gerrity ......................... 17 Savage River: Good While It Lasted .............. 19 Mining Profiles: Peta Forster .......................... 21 AWU’s Cover Boy: Malcom Jago .................... 22 Emily McPhee’s Journey to Geology ............. 23 Tony Ferguson ..................................................... 24 Diwali ..................................................................... 26 Tasmanian Minerals Emergency Response Committee - Chairman’s Report ... 27 2013 Financials ................................................... 33 Board of Directors .............................................. 38 2013 Tasmanian Minerals Council Members .. 42 President’s Report The year in review accounts for the switch From a business perspective, we are one year in the green movement’s antagonism from further from the Global Financial Crisis, but the forestry to mining. economies of Europe and the United States are still not in good shape. In fact, some of the From that viewpoint, we had our work cut regional European communities continue to out to defend our position in the north- face weak economies and unhealthy levels of Wayne Bould, President west of the State and stake a claim for unemployment. In tandem with China coming continued economic activity in the region off the boil, prices for some of our commodities in the future. have fallen from their previously high levels By and large, we were successful. We and some, like zinc and aluminium, remain saw off an intense campaign to have the low at the time of writing. Others, like iron ore, Tarkine heritage-listed and now some copper and tin have fared a little better so it smaller mines have been approved in was a year of mixed results. the area. Mind you, we had lots of help. The safety and health of our people at work Every municipal council from Devonport remain a priority. Apart from the ongoing to Smithton went public in support of work in this area from site to site, we have balanced economic development for the maintained a dialogue with the industry region, and the Australian Workers’ union regulator Workplace Standards Tasmania to also weighed in heavily. These things were look at trends in safety at the industry-wide the catalysts for the general population level. There is further information in this report to have a say and they did that – at large on trends, but we have made improvements in rallies at Burnie, Smithton and Tullah. In key areas at the industry level. Safety is and the end, it was an impressive display of will remain a work-in-progress. people-power which won the day. As the financial year drew to a close, we We might well question why an industry were turning our attention to matters of which has a history of more than a century energy, which is important to industry and in Tasmania is fighting for its survival. We householders alike. At one time, Tasmania had work within the legislative and regulatory cheap power but those days are gone, as our frameworks. We are cognisant of the electricity bills will attest. However, industry, communities around us because we along with households, are having some are part of them. We have in the main difficulty in digesting the energy bill at present. sophisticated environmental management There have been spectacular rises in the systems and we provide a good cash-flow amount charged for our transmission services. which regional towns need to underpin We will endeavour in the coming year to have their activities and services. The answer reason descend upon energy provision, or we is the form of environmentalism some in will price ourselves out of the markets and out Tasmania have adopted, which essentially of Tasmania. Energy should be a vital enabler wants to see resource industries out of the to make the economy shine. At present, it is a State. They don’t want a balance between lead weight upon us. Change is required. industry and environment. They just want industry out, which thinking people readily Your Directors have been very busy on your realise is a formula for unemployment and behalf during the year under review. I would its attendant social consequences. So we like to thank them personally for the effort will fight the good fight, when and where they put in. My thanks also for the staff at required. the secretariat for implementing the Board’s policies. 1 Tas Minerals Annual Report 2013 OH&S Report Our collective approach to the cross- The mines are having success with industry task of providing safe workplaces specialised filters which are fitted to took a number of forms in the year under the machine exhausts, preventing the review. problem from arising in the first place. They included – On another front, government regulators and industry practitioners undertook a Matt Daly, Chair • An industry meeting to share risk-assessment of refuge chambers experiences and leading practice Occupational Health & in underground mines. These are the Safety Committee across the sites in Tasmania safety capsules which offer safe refuge • A forum with Workplace Standards to people in the event of an underground Tasmania to look at aggregated data, emergency, and in particular a fire which trends and improvements across the may generate smoke, making breathing industry and problematic. The task force identified some maintenance issues and will make • An industry-wide workshop to assess some minor amendments to procedures possible new OHS regulations in governing the use of the chambers, as Tasmania, under the harmonised well as identifying the top ten matters national OHS legislation. which could make up a standard for their use and maintenance. Each of these forums was valuable, for different reasons. A forum was held with Workplace Standards in Burnie, where the information The first of them, a meeting of the individual sites send to the regulator the Tasmanian Minerals Council’s is aggregated and analysed to identify Occupational Health and Safety industry-wide trends. In the previous Committee, provided the platform for year, the regulator identified rock falls at people working in the area of OHS to individual mines as a concern and as discuss either site-specific initiatives a result there were changes in the way or areas where there is a commonality the mines go about making stable the of approach. In the latter category, the walls and ceilings of the tunnels they are matter of diesel particulates is being working in. There were changes in the tackled in mine sites. Diesel particulates type of rock bolts used in some areas and are the very small matter emitted from the shotcrete use increased. The changes exhaust of diesel-powered machinery – led to an improvement in the number and either mobile plant or fixed machinery. severity of rock falls in the year under In the United States, these very small review. A pie chart is attached of the particulates have been classified as types of hazards encountered and the carcinogenic. Therefore, around the world percentage of “notifiable incidents” (the industry is taking action to remove them incidents which have to be reported to the from the air people breathe at work and government regulator) they make up of that includes in underground mines. The the total. particulate matter can be handled in a These Workplace Standards forums number of ways, including increasing the are very well regarded by industry airflow through mine workings. However, participants because they provide the it is also possible to tackle them at their “big picture” data which is not available to source – the exhaust of the machine. individual companies. Tas Minerals Annual Report 2013 2 OH&S Report Reported Incident Breakdown Mobile Plant, 4, 17% Other, 6, 20% Fixed Plant, 1, 4% Explosives, 0, 0% Electricity, 2, 9% Fires, 5, 22% Rockfalls, 5, 22% The third of the initiatives this year My thanks to everybody from the was a cross-industry workshop in mines and mineral processing plants Launceston, where people had who have attended these key events the chance to assess the many and to Workplace Standards for components and approaches organising the forum in Burnie. contained in the proposed new mining regulations. In government circles, these regulations are known as “Chapter 10” because they make up that chapter of the legislation. There are differing views on whether Tasmania needs “Chapter 10” at all. We have current regulations which strike a balance between the duty- of-care approach and a prescriptive approach where it is needed.