Today, improving workforce safety is regarded high priority for the global mining industry. The mining company Kirkland Lake Gold is a gold producer with operations in Canada and Australia. Their Fosterville Gold Mine located in the State of Victoria, Australia, is one of the highest-grade gold mines in the world. Excellent safety performance is a top priority at Kirkland Lake Gold and the Fosterville Gold Mine. By pushing the boundaries on how safe a mine can be they hold a leading position within the area of mining safety.
Listen to Ben Edwards, Mine Business Improvements Engineer at Kirkland Lake Gold, Fosterville, as he shares knowledge and thoughts on how to bring mining safety to the next level.
Digitalization partners
Kirkland Lake Gold has contracted Mobilaris Mining & Civil Engineering and Epiroc Australia as partners when digitalizing the mining operations of Fosterville Gold Mine in Australia. New technology from Mobilaris Mining & Civil Engineering has been a key finding regarding safety and productivity improvement.
“The way we believe that new technology will make our mine safer is essentially through providing more information on the risks that people are exposed to. For example, is there a truck coming on the decline towards me? Is there another person on my level that there potentially can be interaction with?”, says Ben Edwards, Mine Business Improvement Engineer, Kirkland Lake Gold.
Making use of new technology
The Fosterville Gold Mine has been provided with Mobilaris Mining Intelligence™, which includes safety tools for rescue operations and real-time positioning of vehicles, machines and people. By visualizing positions and movements, workers can keep track of incoming traffic, reduce the time searching for things and, if something goes wrong, rescue teams can work faster. Also, Mobilaris Onboard™ will notify drivers well in advance about meeting traffic, making it possible to easily handle the situation before it turns in to a problem.
“Working with Mobilaris Mining Intelligence and Emergency Support, we are absolutely expecting to at least halve the time it takes to account for everybody during evacuation. We are also hoping to make decline traffic interactions between vehicles a thing of the past by using Mobilaris Onboard traffic awareness. Every vehicle in the mine will have the ability to see what is coming towards them.”, says Ben Edwards.
When an accident do happen
The reality for mining operations such as Fosterville is that accidents are going to happen. The key is what the operator does when it is time to act fast. With Mobilaris Emergency Support, the Fosterville Gold Mine now can take advantage of the power of innovation. Rescue leaders can use the application to direct the evacuation, communicate with workers and visualize who is safe and who is not.
“In the event of something goes wrong we will be able to react a lot faster because we will know where our people are and who is most at risk, so we can help them first. The technology has brought us to this new level of safety.”, finishes Ben Edwards.
Read more about how to increase mining safety: mobilaris.se/safety/