Safety improvement, a production increase and a commitment to innovation paid off on 1 November when Anglo American’s Capcoal Surface operations won both the Australian Coal Mine of the Year Award and the Australian Mine of the Year Award at the Mining Prospect Awards in Sydney.
Accepting both awards of behalf of the team, Capcoal Surface General Manager, Aaron Puna, said he was delighted to be recognised outside of the business at an awards ceremony attended by industry peers, and said the achievements were the result of the hard work and commitment made by every person on the mine site.
“Over the past 18 months, Capcoal Surface has experienced significant lifts in productivity thanks to our people delivering improved equipment performance, maintenance availability and reliability,” Aaron said.
“Most importantly, safety has improved dramatically because our people have shifted their focus and done all they can to help us achieve Zero Harm,” Aaron said.
“The whole team has reduced our Total Recordable Case Frequency Rate by 75 per cent since 2010, while at the same time delivering efficiencies in the way we mine and process coal and manage our equipment,” Aaron said.
“The introduction of the 4100XPB rope shovel has been a huge success, proving to be the right fit for our overburden removal requirements and allowing us to take advantage of double side loading. Anglo American is now the Australian leader in rope shovel performance,” he said.
Metallurgical Coal CEO, Seamus French congratulated Capcoal on the fantastic result, which he said was something all employees at the mine should be very proud of.
“Coal Mine of the Year and Mine of the Year are both all-rounder awards, and two wins for Capcoal Surface shows us they have the right mix for a winning team – people with a passion for safety, a world-class operation and an ability to deliver benchmark performance,” Seamus said.
In the first half of this year, Capcoal Surface Operations experienced a record metallurgical coal production, delivering the highest first half of the year Run of Mine tonnes at 3.34 million tonnes, an improvement on the previous best first half production of 28 per cent.
Head of Open Cut Operation Mark Heaton said the awards were well deserved and with this recognition, Capcoal now had an extra boost to keep their momentum going into the New Year.
“The two awards speak highly of the team’s hard work in 2012 and I’d like to congratulate all employees on this achievement,” Mark said.
“Now more than ever, it is important we continue this focus on maintaining production of our highest margin products and operating equipment as safely and efficiently as possible,” Mark said.
Capcoal wasn’t the only Metallurgical Coal star on the awards night. Anglo American was also recognised in three other categories at the Mining Prospect Awards, with Exploration Manager Andrea Rutley a finalist in the Woman of the Year and the Manager of the Year categories and Moranbah North and Capcoal CHPPs both finalists in the Minerals Processing Plant of the Year Award.
Contact: Metallurgical Coal Corporate Affairs:
Jacqui Strambi: 0439774526