Media releases - 2026

Two breakthrough engineering solutions developed at Anglo American’s Aquila Mine have been recognised for setting new safety and innovation benchmarks for the resources sector.

The mine has been named a finalist in the Queensland Mining Industry Health and Safety Conference (QMIHSC) Safety Innovation Award for its Mini Face Bolter, a purpose-built mechanised solution designed to eliminate high-risk manual bolting in low seam mining environments.

Aquila Mine has also achieved four finalist nominations in the Queensland Mining Awards, recognising both the Mini Face Bolter and its Armadillo excavation system:

• Collaboration Award – Mini Face Bolter
• Safety Initiative Award – The Armadillo: Eliminating High-Risk Excavation over Live Conveyors
• Innovation Award – The Armadillo: Eliminating High-Risk Excavation over Live Conveyors
• Innovation Award – Mini Face Bolter

Developed in partnership with the Jet Group in Mackay, the Armadillo and the Mini Face Bolter evolved when the mine turned a complex engineering challenge into an opportunity to innovate.

Both ideas came from workers at the coalface and the innovations were developed through close collaboration with the mine’s workforce, engineers and industry partners to ensure the solutions were practical, effective and adaptable to other operations.

Aquila Mine general manager Braedon Smith said this recognition reflected the team’s commitment to challenging traditional approaches to improve safety.

“These nominations recognise the way our team approaches safety by focusing on eliminating risk, rather than just managing it,” he said.

“Both the Mini Face Bolter and the Armadillo were developed to solve safety challenges in our operation, particularly in low-seam conditions where traditional methods are not suitable.

“The Armadillo has delivered significant downtime reductions and a blueprint for safer underground excavation across the industry.

“The transferability of this first-of-its-kind system make scaling the innovation and adapting to site specific needs a value-add development for the industry.

“The Mini Face Bolter represents a genuine mining safety innovation because it resolves a long-standing industry limitation that had previously been accepted as unavoidable in these conditions.

“It has engineered out manual bolt-up activities that had accounted for about 50% of our recordable injuries for the year, establishing a new benchmark for low seam mechanisation, demonstrating historically accepted risk can be eliminated through a design that can be adapted across the industry.”

Vice President of Safety Heather Bell said the innovations demonstrated the value of engineering-led safety improvements alongside traditional methods.

She said prioritising engineering and technology-led solutions helped remove people from the line of fire and eliminate risk at its source.

“These projects demonstrate how engineering controls can fundamentally change the way high-risk work is performed,” Mrs Bell said.

“They highlight the importance of involving the workforce in designing practical solutions that reduce exposure and improve safety outcomes.”

The Queensland Mining Awards will be held on Wednesday July 22 in Mackay. QMIHSC runs from August 16-19 with the safety innovation presentations earmarked for Tuesday August 18.

Note to editors:

In Australia, Anglo American has five steelmaking coal mines in Queensland’s Bowen Basin, along with additional joint venture interests in steelmaking coal and manganese, and base metals exploration projects in Queensland.

The Armadillo is a purpose-built mobile excavation guard system enabling safe shotfiring and excavation above our underground conveyor by physically separating workers and infrastructure from blasting hazards while maintaining production continuity. The Armadillo integrates rolling covers, a pivoting tipping platform, hydraulic controls and a custom rail system – all designed to shield the conveyor while enabling safe excavation and debris removal.

The Mini Face Bolter tackles one of the most persistent safety challenges in low seam coal mining. Operating within seam heights of 1.6–1.8 metres at Aquila Mine makes traditional Rapid Face Bolting equipment, weighing 80-120kg, unsuitable for longwall face recovery activities.  This new innovation mechanises bolt installation, removing the need for workers to manually handle heavy equipment in confined conditions.

Anglo American has long prioritised engineering solutions to remove coal mine workers from potential hazards at its five operations.

Through sustained investment in automation, data and remote operations, Anglo American last year notched up amilestone 10,000 longwall mining shears from its Remote Operation Centres which run our underground mines from the surface. Since transitioning to remote operations, Anglo American has reduced exposure risk to hazardous areas by 22,500 hours and this was made possible through more than 1000 system initiative to make it a success.

Anglo American’s Capcoal Complex has also embraced remote control technology to improve operator safety on site with a remote-controlled stockpile dozer. This initiative will reduce in-cab dozer exposure time by 45,000 to 75,000 hours a year once the technology is fully deployed across all sites.

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