SUBMISSION ON PROPOSED NEW MINING INDUSTRY REGULATIONS SUBMISSION OF BROKEN HILLS GOLD CO. LTD (BROKEN HILLS HISTORIC MINE)

Transcription

1 SUBMISSION ON PROPOSED NEW MINING INDUSTRY REGULATIONS SUBMISSION OF BROKEN HILLS GOLD CO. LTD (BROKEN HILLS HISTORIC MINE) STUART RABONE GENERAL MANAGER 29 TH JUNE 2013 A. INTRODUCTION : SUMMARY OUTLINE OF BROKEN HILLS OPERATION A.1 Operation: 1. Broken Hills Mine operations are based on a restored historic mine located in the Puketui area of the Tairua River valley on the southeastern part of the Coromandel Peninsula. The historic mine was worked from 1899 to 1912, producing over tonnes of ore during that time. It is a typical narrow-vein hard rock underground metalliferous mine, and was worked by shrinkage stoping methods. It is characterised among other things by good ground conditions. 2. Broken Hills Gold Co. Ltd (a family group see below) applied for a mineral exploration permit over the area in 1991 and in 2000 was granted a Special Purpose Mining Permit (SPMP ) over the historic mine workings. This permit provided for mining to be carried out on a small scale using historical and traditional (essentially handheld) techniques. 3. Since 2000 up to the present time, a 13-year period, the old section of the mine has been restored and made safe, and the vein system has been further developed. The mine utilises hand-held airleg drills and haulage by 24 gauge rail network in tunnels generally metres wide and 2 metres high. The mine staff level varies according to operational requirements, from three up to six persons in total. 4. During its 13 year period of operations up to the present time the operation has had no significant (notifiable) accidents or incidents. 5. It is worth noting that there are currently three underground hard rock metalliferous mining operations in New Zealand, viz. Oceana at Macraes, Newmont at Waihi (Favona Trio), and Broken Hills at Tairua. The first two are large scale highly mechanised modern operations. Broken Hills Mine is unique in New Zealand as a small scale hard rock underground mine utilising traditional but nevertheless safe and efficient methods.

2 6. In spite of its small size Broken Hills has been a valuable contributor, both economically, and for its educational, historic interest, scientific interest and public / tourist interest values, and in that regard we submit that mining of this type deserves support and an environment in which it can operate sustainably without excessively burdensome regulation. Operations such as Broken Hills are in many respects more in the nature of tunnelling than modern mining as it is understood, and they have the potential to provide valuable training grounds for the skills that are still in demand in modern smaller scale tunnelling projects. 2. Broken Hills Group Makeup, Summary Qualifications and Experience: Broken Hills is a family group who all have or have had roles in the development and operation of the mine, including: Stuart Rabone: General Manager; MSc (Hons) Geology, PhD Geology; tertiary qualification in Engineering Geology; FAusIMM, T.IPENZ; 45 years experience in metalliferous mineral exploration and development, including Golden Cross, Waihi (Martha Correnso and Favona Moonlight); 14 years experience restoring and operating Broken Hills Mine, Tairua. Miranda Rabone: Registered Nurse, current Practising Certificate, experienced General Nurse, ICU and Surgical experience; First Aid officer at Broken Hills. Thomas Rabone: LLB / B.Com, experienced in a range of operational and management roles at Broken Hills mine and in medium-scale alluvial mining projects. Victor Rabone: BE (Civil; Geotechnical specialisation), experienced in operational roles at Broken Hills, machinery and equipment operation and maintenance, medium-scale alluvial mining operations, civil engineering projects. Murielle Rabone: MSc (Hons), assistance in operational roles, including environmental. We make the following submissions based on our experience of the industry generally, in part on behalf of the industry at large, and partly in respect of issues that are likely to be particularly relevant to sustainable continuation of the operation at Broken Hills, and to the development of other small scale underground hard-rock metalliferous operations of similar scope in the future.

3 B. SUBMISSIONS ON REGULATORY PROPOSALS B.1 Separation of Industry sectors: 1. We believe it is essential that separate regulations are developed for each of the extractives sectors, viz. Coal Mining as distinct from Underground Hard Rock Metalliferous; Tunnelling; and Quarrying. There are in particular some extreme differences in both type and level of risk and hazard between coal and non-coal mining situations. 2. We accept that the current proposals theoretically allow for this by specifying proposals that apply to coal, but the reality is that a majority of the proposals relate mainly to coal and have limited or in some cases no relevance to other situations, yet the distinction is not made. This would mean that an unnecessary burden of compliance, training and other requirements will be applied to the non-coal sectors. 3. We submit that compliance burdens are positively harmful to good risk and hazard management and workplace health and safety. They negatively impact on staff morale and place workloads on personnel who would be more constructively engaged in proactive supervision, and hazard identification. Sadly, the Pike River disaster demonstrated that paper compliance is no substitute for expertise, understanding, high quality supervision and constructive interaction through all tiers of the workforce. 4. We note our view that the different sectors should be subject to different regulations that are sector-specific is shared by others including the Institute of Quarrying in their submission, and John Walrond, a highly experienced non-coal Inspector of Mines and Quarries (retired). 5. In summary we submit the Queensland Coal Mining Safety and Health Regulations are not suited to wider application to the tunnelling, quarrying, and underground hard-rock metalliferous mine sectors of the industry. B.2 Industry Qualifications: 1. A number of issues exist with regard to qualifications: a. Board of Examiners: We agree with the intent of a Board of Examiners. We would however emphasise that for this body to be effective and credible it must be made up from highly experienced persons who have the respect of the industry. It must also include at least one member representing, and fully experienced in, each industry sector viz. coal underground, coal opencast, hard rock metalliferous underground, tunnelling, and quarrying.

4 b. Mines Inspectorate: The qualifications of the individual Mines Inspectors are of paramount importance. We submit that Inspectors must have the full complement of experience and qualifications and that these must be sector-specific. We submit it is highly inappropriate and ill advised for Inspectors who are coal experienced to inspect underground hard rock metalliferous mine situations, and vice versa. We submit that Inspectors must have a minimum of 10 years practical experience in the sector they are inspecting, and a further 10 years minimum of experience in managerial roles up to General Manager level in that sector. The Pike River disaster has graphically demonstrated the need for this level of expertise in the Inspectorate. An important part of the Inspector s role is the discretionary element (see below) and in this regard a high level of experience and qualification is essential to the proper exercise of any discretion. c. Qualifications of Industry Persons: Lifetime Tickets We submit these should be retained, subject to the holder being continuously engaged in relevant employed or contract roles and / or engaged in CPD. There is no evidence we are aware of that any lifetime ticket-holders have been deficient in their roles relative to those holding Tickets that are subject to expiry. Lifetime ticket holders have a huge fund of experience but many are now more senior, and obliging them to change may lead to extensive early retirement. This would be a serious loss of valuable experience for the industry, and also hamper the industry through a resultant shortage of qualified ticketed personnel. Duration of Tickets We submit that new Tickets should be for a 5 year term, renewable, not 3 years as proposed. The training and review system is struggling to cope even now, and the shorter the turnover the more difficult it will become. There is no reason to suggest a shorter interval is likely to be beneficial. Our view is that Ticket holders who have been in continuous (60%+) engagement in a relevant role and can demonstrate CPD should be able to renew automatically, and would only need to come for review by the Board of Examiners if they have discontinued a relevant role for more than 50% of the previous 5-year period. Levels of Training We submit that training levels need to be re-adjusted to reflect the actual situation requirements, and some Unit standards that are currently compulsory for e.g. B Grade Tunnel Manager should be elective. Many mining personnel of practical persuasion struggle with the academic content of e.g. Unit Standard 7142 (a University Degree level paper) which expects a knowledge of the CMA, RMA and HSEA that one would expect of a trained legal consultant.

5 It is our view that this is an excessive requirement for personnel who are only qualified under the said ticket to be in charge of three persons underground. We note the Institute of Quarrying on P. 2, para (i) of their Summary Submission also allude to this problem. We suggest the higher level B Grade Ticket requirements could be reviewed and transferred to elective, but retained as compulsory for A Grade level. The reason for this is that this level of qualification requirement is a barrier to training and qualification. The industry needs practically - qualified personnel who are well trained in the workings of their chosen sector, not people who know how to lodge an application for a minerals permit with NZPAM, for instance. SSE We agree with the concept of an SSE, and indeed most sites would have such a person in one form or another already. We do not think it desirable for the SSE to be involved in more than one site, unless these are geographically close, and share personnel and equipment. We see the SSE role as broad and ideally the SSE should have a Tertiary (Degree) qualification in a relevant discipline geological, geotechnical, civil engineering, mining engineering, environmental engineering, legal, managerial. The SSE should also either themselves hold the relevant C of C(s), or have on the site staff, the appropriately Ticketed person(s) for the site, depending on the nature of the operation. Or, put another way, a Ticketed person could have the role of SSE if they have the other skills and experience required, but the SSE does not in our submission necessarily need to have a Ticket, provided they have appropriate Ticketed person(s) on their site staff. There is a risk in trying to quantify the appropriate qualification for an SSE in that the role requires some subjective qualities including leadership attributes, breadth of knowledge and understanding of human factors and human behaviour. Decreeing a specific qualification level for an SSE would be like decreeing a specific qualification to be a Member of Parliament, say, or CEO of a company not really workable and potentially exclusive of those most suited to the role.

6 Qualified Mine Personnel Requirements The proposals call for a mine site to have specifically qualified personnel including a Ventilation Engineer, Electrical Engineer, Mechanical Engineer, Mine Surveyor. We submit that while this may be reasonable and viable for large operations, it would be impracticable and unsustainable and unnecessary - for small scale operations in which for instance less than 5 persons in total were engaged. We submit that for small scale underground hard rock metalliferous operations, these roles can be filled by the SSE or the appropriately Ticketed person, and that these do not need to hold specific qualifications in e.g. electrical engineering, provided that there is a procedure (within e.g. the PHMP) for routine inspection or specific installation by appropriately experienced and qualified contractors. We note the Institute of Quarrying submission (P.2 para (h) of their Summary Submission) also alludes to this aspect and that for smaller operations it can be managed by qualified contractors rather than requiring in-house qualified staff. At Broken Hills for instance we would normally progress drift development at a rate of about 3 metres per week maximum. It would be completely unnecessary to have a qualified surveyor continuously on site for such a minimal rate of tunnel development. The situation could be managed by as-required survey by the SSE and periodic survey update at appropriate intervals by a contract Registered Surveyor. We agree these positions (para 1 above) are important in any underground coal mine, but they do not require dedicated persons in a small scale hard rock underground metalliferous mine with minimal equipment and low staff numbers. Amalgamation of Certificates of Competency We consider it is completely inappropriate to amalgamate Certificates of Competency, as there are major differences as previously stated between Underground and Surface operations, and between Underground Coal and Underground Hard Rock Metalliferous. Currently for example a B Grade Tunnel Manager Ticket (C of C) does not apply to (i.e. allow the holder to exercise a supervisory role in) a coal mining situation. Amalgamation would result in applicants being obliged to gain qualifications in areas where they had no actual or potential interest. This would be both wasteful of training resources, and an unnecessary impediment to trainees.

7 B.3 Inspectorate Powers: Many of our concerns can be to some extent mitigated by restoring to the Inspectorate the discretion that was available to them under the legislation and regulations that pertained prior to the HSEA and the subsequent Mining (Underground) Regulations. These contained the clause unless otherwise approved by an Inspector. Inspectors had the power to waive regulatory requirements in situations where they were patently not meant to apply, and conversely also had the power to impose stipulations that were not specified in the regulations. We note in respect for instance of Emergency Equipment Requirements in the current proposals, the expression (if needed). The use of a term such as this goes some way to enabling the regulation to be workable in situations that are clearly outside scope, and this we submit should be included in the new regulations wherever appropriate, but giving the Inspectorate discretionary powers would also assist. We also note in the current Queensland Mining and Quarrying Health and Safety Regulation 2001, instances of the use of the clause The SSE must ensure the mine has the following as are appropriate, having regard to the nature and complexity of the mine s operations: This of course devolves responsibility onto the SSE but it also calls for discretionary judgement from the Inspector. We submit incorporation of this terminology into appropriate sections of the new Regulations will assist in alleviating the problem of regulations that are not relevant to a specific situation.

8 B.4 Human Factors: We consider human factors are an extremely important aspect of workplace safety, however they are extremely difficult to regulate. They could be at least documented as part of Hazard recognition by the SSE. Factors we consider particularly significant are: Complacency Stress levels Bonus schemes and production incentives, which can inappropriately motivate the workforce at all levels Drug and alcohol issues: regulation that supported and facilitated drug testing and supported management and the SSE in establishing a drug-free workplace would in our view be beneficial. We have no knowledge of how this could be done but believe progress has been made in this regard in the Forestry industry. We thank the Ministry for the opportunity to make this submission, S. Rabone 29 th June 2013