| BMA's Blackwater Mine (Dynamic Brake Testing Package) | |
BMA's (BHP Mitsubishi Alliance) Blackwater Mine won the Judges' Award for devising a procedure for dynamic brake testing.
Peter Townson, Maintenance Manager at Blackwater Mine, said that four enterprising Blackwater employees identifi ed the need for a fully defi ned procedure for dynamic brake testing.
“The Australian standard only had criteria for testing a loaded truck,” Peter explained.
“Our trucks are much larger and when they are fully loaded weigh around 400 tonnes. As you can imagine, applying the brake as hard as you can at 75km per hour can be risky.”
The Blackwater Mine team comprising Dave Kirk, Greg Mann, Jack Sainsbury and Sam Lycos developed an entire brake testing package which was backed up by an extensive risk assessment.
Under the new brake testing process, the trucks are initially tested while empty, then if they pass they can be tested fully loaded.
“The Queensland Mines Inspectorate consider the package to be leading practice and now want it to be used on all mine sites,” Peter said.
“The word is out, and we have been inundated with enquiries about the system from other mines and major mining contractors.
“Certainly we want to share this across the industry.”
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