The dangers faced by miners every day are too numerous and too varied to be addressed by point solutions. Poor visibility, blind spots, fatigue, distraction and slope instability – to name a few of the risks – can only be mitigated by a comprehensive safety response combining technology and a commitment to zero-harm culture.
Zero harm is the goal of the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM). Membership comprises 27 of the world’s biggest mining and metals companies and more than 35 national, regional and commodity association members.
After three years of improved safety performance among its members, the ICMM’s 2019 Safety Data benchmarking report recorded 287 fatalities, compared to 50 in 2018. Of the 287 fatalities recorded, 250 occurred as a result of the Brumadinho tailings storage dam collapse in January 2019. The second highest cause of fatalities in 2019, according to ICMM, was from mobile mining equipment and transportation.
“One fatality is one too many,” Tom Butler, CEO of ICMM, told media. The 2019 figures were, said Butler, “a stark reminder that while the mining and metals industry has come a long way in improving how it operates, there is still much more to do to safeguard lives, improve performance and demonstrate transparency”.
So how can technology help?
Benefits of a comprehensive mine safety portfolio
In our recent 12 Days of Mining Safety campaign, we highlighted risk scenarios familiar to miners: traffic awareness, over-speeding, fatigue, distraction, unstable slopes and blind spots at intersections, corners and parking lots. For each scenario, we created a short video showing how Hexagon’s MineProtect portfolio can help identify and mitigate risk, minimize nuisance alarms and get people home safely.
Also available are videos for operator alertness and vehicle intervention.
MineProtect integrates systems for collision avoidance, operator alertness, personal protection, vehicle intervention and slope monitoring. Most recently, we introduced the industry’s first straightforward integration of systems for safety and radar-based slope stability hazards.
Integrating solutions for safety and radar-based slope stability hazards
Working with sister-company IDS GeoRadar, we created a single platform in a newly released version of MineProtect Collision Avoidance (CAS) – currently used in more than 40,000 vehicles and equipment worldwide.
The new CAS allows mines to receive real-time equipment visualization with timely alerts about hazardous areas for people and machinery. Workers and equipment are protected from injury-threatening events by being forewarned of no-go zones.
Miners are now automatically forewarned of no-go zones by a solution integrating systems for safety and radar-based slope stability hazards.
No-go zones are identified in IDS GeoRadar’s IBIS Guardian software, which creates geofenced zones and hazard maps, and is correlated with radar alarms. Guardian’s integration with CAS and complementary MineProtect solutions, Personal Alert and Tracking Radar, ensures that alarms are automatically triggered when a no-go zone is approached.
The additional layer of information created by the integration means better risk evaluation and is one more way to ensure everyone gets home safely. It also embodies Hexagon’s autonomous connected ecosystems strategy – connecting previously siloed processes in one platform that will save lives.
Vehicles and machinery are visualized in real time on the 3D radar displacement map and consequently traffic management, based on slope hazards, can be further optimized through real-time monitoring data from IDS GeoRadar’s complementary solutions, Hydra-X, IBIS-FM and IBIS-ArcSAR.
No-go zones are identified in IDS GeoRadar’s IBIS Guardian software, which creates geofenced zones and hazard maps, and is correlated with radar alarms. Guardian’s integration with CAS and complementary MineProtect solutions, Personal Alert and Tracking Radar, ensures that alarms are automatically triggered when a no-go zone is approached.
The additional layer of information created by the integration means better risk evaluation and is one more way to ensure everyone gets home safely. It also embodies Hexagon’s autonomous connected ecosystems strategy – connecting previously siloed processes in one platform that will save lives.
Vehicles and machinery are visualized in real time on the 3D radar displacement map and consequently traffic management, based on slope hazards, can be further optimized through real-time monitoring data from IDS GeoRadar’s complementary solutions, Hydra-X, IBIS-FM and IBIS-ArcSAR.
Change management: Embedding a safety culture in mining
Technology is only as sound as the people operating it. Change management and a culture of safety are integral to technology’s effectiveness in managing, monitoring and reinforcing a zero-harm approach.
Hexagon’s analytics portfolio, MineEnterprise is proving to be highly effective in this approach because it provides people with the right data at the right time, allowing them to take action and make improvements.
Mine management using MineEnterprise CAS Analytics wields the visualization tools needed to monitor safety targets defined as expected business outcomes.
MineEnterprise CAS Analytics is a module for data visualization and analytics. It provides mine management with the visualization tools to monitor the targets defined as expected business outcomes and the means to control critical risk events via replies, heatmaps and live dashboards. It provides a window into all aspects of traffic management safety and its related solutions for fleet management, fatigue detection, vehicle intervention and personal protection.
It integrates all data into a single platform to be accessed by different users, allowing maintenance to create the repairs’ schedule for all devices in vehicles, mine managers to observe productivity and safety trends and take action, and supervisors to understand the current status and location of their workforce.
Combining mine safety technology and change management in Mexico
Used in conjunction with a proven change management methodology, CAS Analytics has been invaluable at one large Mexican gold mine.
According to the Harvard Business Review, changing people’s behavior is one of the toughest challenges a company can face. So, before implementing CAS Analytics on-site, Hexagon and the mine management team undertook a thorough assessment of safety culture in the mine. After a series of discussions, the team created key performance indicators and objective key results as the foundation of a positive shift in the mine’s workplace. The mine developed a matrix of roles and responsibilities to ensure every action is communicated consistently to the workforce, shift by shift, week by week, month by month.
The key piece of monitoring, enforcement and communication is CAS Analytics, which helps monitor and control all critical data, such as near misses and over-speeding events in real time and trend visualization. As a starting point, a baseline is created to understand the status quo for the mine site – identifying the current risk exposition, which then can be compared with the set targets of weekly and monthly reduction, thus driving improvement. For example, a target of near-miss or critical event reduction of 15% month over month would drive to a reduction of 50% of mine incidents.
Not only quantitative data is presented. CAS Analytics provides heat maps to pinpoint risky areas for improvement on where controls might not be followed; a risky road design; or where an administrative or hard barrier has yet to be implemented. This all helps the organization to identify root causes of events and to take action.
One of Hexagon’s biggest customers in Mexico, a gold mine, saw a 31% reduction in critical events within the first two months of CAS and CAS Analytics being fully operational and, in the months following go-live, a 15% reduction in critical risk interactions per month. This is not only driven by the on-board tools, but the monitoring and enforcement of the controls via data analysis, and a strong change management policy to ensure information is communicated to all relevant stakeholders in a timely manner.
Serious about mining safety and zero harm
Hexagon and its customers believe that the most important assets coming out of a mine are the people who make mining possible. To take zero harm seriously, mines need a comprehensive, integrated safety portfolio to mitigate numerous risks; underpinned by an enterprise solution to transform safety data into actionable intelligence; backed by a proven change management methodology to ensure a meaningful safety culture prevails.