Queensland Mines and Energy Minister Tom Gilmore tonight will launch a new University of Queensland centre aimed at improving the safety performance of the Australian minerals industry.
The Minerals Industry Safety and Health Centre is expected to become the focus of safety-related education programs and research for the minerals industry.
Speakers at the Brisbane Customs House launch on March 25 at 5pm will also include University Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Ted Brown and director of the University's Sir James Foots Institute of Mineral Resources Professor Don McKee.
Professor McKee said the new centre was an initiative of the University, the Australian Minerals Industry and the Queensland Mines and Energy Department.
Foundation supporters are BHP Minerals, North Ltd, Shell Coal Australia Ltd, Rio Tinto Ltd, QCT Resources, WMC Ltd and Queensland Mines and Energy. He said the Centre and its core supporters welcomed the participation of other organisations.
Professor McKee said the Minerals Industry Safety and Health Centre was a centre within the University's Sir James Foots Institute of Mineral Resources. The Institute was responsible for co-ordinating University activities related to the mineral industry.
The University had advertised for a new professor in mining safety, who would be appointed the centre's director.
Professor McKee said the Australian mineral industry had increasingly recognised the absolute necessity of continuously improving safety performance.
'Achievement of the highest safety standards is a complex challenge, involving excellence in many factors which combine to achieve best performance. Education is one of the essential elements,' he said.
Professor McKee said the industry was concerned that although numbers of fatalities and injuries had fallen over the past 40 years, they had stabilised in the past 20 or so years.
Professor McKee said a recent Western Australian Mines study showed the lost time injury frequency rate had remained static for the past 20 years, while in Queensland, the average incidence of fatal injuries had remained constant at three per year.
'Everyone is extremely concerned these numbers are not reducing,' he said.
In late 1996 and early 1997, the industry and the University explored the concept of a centre to develop education programs for undergraduates in mining and mineral engineering and continuing education courses for the industry.
The concept was that engineers would enter the industry with a clear understanding of, and commitment to, the factors which promoted safety performance. The new centre has emerged from these discussions and concepts, and has a management committee chaired by Professor Brown and including industry, Government and University representatives.
The new centre will develop course materials which will become an integral part of the University's undergraduate curriculum. Course material will be trialled at the University this year, and courses will be offered to other institutions. It will include topics such as human behaviour, significant safety components within engineering subjects, and projects, such as thesis topics in the safety area.
Professor McKee said the University Departments of Chemical Engineering, Human Movement Studies, Occupational Therapy and Psychology had formed linkages with the centre, and were developing course components to be trialled in second semester.
'We've also taken University physiotherapists, occupational therapists and human movement studies experts out to a central Queensland mine to observe normal operational practices to assist us in developing the new course, and more of these events are in the pipeline,' he said.
The centre had formed linkages with SIMTARS, the Queensland's Government's safety, testing and research centre in Ipswich, and the Mines Inspectorate within the Queensland Mines and Energy Department.
Short courses will also be offered to industry, including courses presented at the University and other sites, and flexible delivery methods using the Internet to sites.
Professor McKee said the University would also investigate the demand for postgraduate safety qualifications and would identify research topics and undertake projects in safety.
For further information about the Minerals Industry Safety and Health Centre, contact telephone 07 3365 4059, email: a.dombrovskis@epsa.uq.edu.au or visit the website: http://www.uq.edu.au/sjfimr/
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