Anglo American’s Moranbah North mine has become the first mine in Australia to be named Coal Mine of the Year for a third time after taking out the award at the prestigious 12th annual Australian Mining Prospect Awards held in Sydney on Friday 30 October.
The mine, which previously won the award in 2009 and 2013, was this year recognised for its continuous improvement and excellence in safety, production and efficiencies.
Anglo American Coal Chief Executive Officer Seamus French said the win was an outstanding achievement for the mine and testament to the hard work, dedication and commitment to best practice by all across the mine.
“It is a tremendous honour for Moranbah North to receive this award and to be recognised by our industry peers,” Mr French said.
“Moranbah North has been on a journey of continuous improvement in safety and production for a number of years, which has seen the mine achieve industry-leading safety performance and consistently high production of 6.8 to 6.9 million tonnes annually.”
Moranbah North General Manager Craig Manz said the award was a tremendous achievement for the mine.
“Moranbah North has continued to lead the way in innovation and technology and achieve world-leading best practice longwall performance,” Mr Manz said.
“I thank the entire Moranbah workforce for their unwavering commitment to helping us achieve this ongoing success.”
Executive Head of Underground Operations Glen Britton congratulated the Moranbah North team on receiving the top honour yet again.
“A significant operational restructure in 2012 helped take the mine’s production output to the highest in its history, with the best safety results ever seen,” Mr Britton said.
“What has been truly remarkable is how the mine has continued to improve on this safety performance and underground and surface standards to achieve excellence in production output and industry leading innovation.
“This award is further testament to the mine’s position as an industry leader in safety management, innovation and production.”
Mr Britton said the mine’s current Total Recordable Injury Frequency Rate was significantly below industry average, while eight years Lost Time Injury Free (LTI) at the mine’s Coal Handling Plant and five years LTI free at the Warehouse had been achieved through initiatives that have built resilience in safety.
The award recognised the mine’s implementation of key safety and productivity innovations including a specifically designed shotcrete for strata support and reduced gas rib emissions, and the introduction of an ‘Underground Intrinsically Safe Tablet’ allowing full time access to safety management systems, engineering drawings, real time monitoring of equipment and Target Action Response Plans being immediately initiated upon a change in data points.
Notes to editors:
Anglo American is a global and diversified mining business that provides the raw materials essential for economic development and modern life. Our people are at the heart of our business. It is our people who use the latest technologies to find new resources, plan and build our mines and who mine, process and move and market our products – from bulk commodities and base metals to precious metals and diamonds (through De Beers) – to our customers around the world. Our diversified portfolio of products spans the economic development cycle and, as a responsible miner, we are the custodians of precious resources. We work together with our key partners and stakeholders to unlock the long-term value that those resources represent for our shareholders, but also for the communities and countries in which we operate – creating sustainable value and making a real difference. Our mining operations, growth projects and exploration and marketing activities extend across southern Africa, South America, Australia, North America, Asia and Europe.