Objective/Deliverable – Each participant, in each study group, to share 3 best practices from their site in regards to the study group topic. Two on cost reduction and improving efficiency, one related to safety. Each group leader will summarize the discussion and report back to the general group in the afternoon. Each study group leader has the option to utilize a vendor where applicable.

Study Group Leader(s)

1.) Fuel / Lube

It was decided to stay together as a group and not use the breakout group format

One member involved with this study group invited a number of people to discuss this topic. Representatives from Emtec Including Brett R. Davies President, and Geary Perry Manager Sales & Service and representing Octel Starreon LLC.

Dr. David A. Daniels, who is the Director of Research and Development for Octel Starreon LLC gave a presentation about fuel and lubrications. Octel Starreon LLC currently supplies about 40% of the worlds fuel additives. They deal with refineries, and Manufacturers. They currently have four major laboratories in the United States. They supply flow improvement additives. Water and wax are the two major problems with fuel. As the temperature decreases it causes wax and ice crystals to form and drop out of solution. The fuels of today are different from a few years ago. The raw materials are not as good as they used to be, combined with the increased environmental emissions requirements, more wax is dropping out of solution at higher temperature levels than before. He explained that in different regions across the country, the type of wax is different, and thus, the fuel properties are different. They have to custom blend the additive pack to match the fuel from the region needed. The wax molecules are different in size (long wax carbon molecular chains) across the region as well. Some wax molecules are longer than others and this changes the drop out and filter plugging properties of the regional fuel supply. He stated that we should have noticed that the mining companies, and other fuel users, are having more instances of filter plugging than in the recent past. Kerosene is not as effective as it used to be due to the differences in the fuel properties of today. He states the best combination is the use of fuel heaters in conjunction with an additive. The fuel of today is hydro-cracked and hydro-refined. These processes remove sulfur in order to meet the low sulfur fuel requirements. The problem is that the fuel supply is not regulated to the degree needed to effectively manage fuel properties. For example, the pipeline one day may contain 60% napthanic base stock and low parafin, and on the next day may contain 60% pafafinic base stock with low napthane content. He states that the fuel today that is supplied in the pipelines is not adequate for the equipment out there today. He claims that to properly spec out fuel for your company it is necessary to acquire the services of a person like him to help write the correct specs for the fuel we need. Dr. David A. Daniels, Thomas C. Entwistle, or anyone at Emtec would be the contact for these services. Two Nevada mine sites reported that their mines did not have fuel problems this past winter. Unanimously all other Master Mechanic representatives reported that they had substantial fuel problems at their sites. The problem out of the gulf coast supply is thermal degradation and drag reducer additive (can improve the flow through a pipeline up to 30%. In both cases this shows up as plugged filters and a black/brown sludge, some of the problem can also be rust. The residue in the filters will not seem severe, but really it is the type of sludge that is causing the plugged filters. If looked at in an electron microscope it would look like a very thin film. This acts like Seran wrap on your filters. Virtually nothing will flow through this film. These problems can be alleviated by developing the proper fuel specs. He states that we should be requesting fuel stability, and lined rail cars. The additives encapsulate the free radical ions and bind them rendering them incapable of self-propagation. This technology is very similar to the way anti-oxidants work in the human body to bind the free radical ions in our bodies to slow the effects of aging. A member asked David to talk about "Snake Oil" additives out in market. He states that there is snake oil out there and that they produce some of them. However, while some additives need a minimum amount for a "treatment" the snake oil salesman may only provide a diluted form of this effective product and render it useless and expensive, but in the right amount would be really effective. There are products available that will improve the burn rate of fuels, but the improvements are microscopic in nature yielding only a 2.3% improvement at best.

A WRMMA member also invited some people from Chevron to discuss lubrication and exhaust gas re-circulation. Mark Vertin Chevron's Lubrication Training Specialist provided a presentation and a handout on lubrication. With the new specification PC-9 / CJ-4 for 2002 for on highway vehicles the oils will be more robust allowing for the longer life of oil in the off highway applications. Eventually these specs will be effective for the off highway equipment. Bottom line at this point in the mining industry is the oil will be better. It will have properties that will disperse soot more effectively. However, with more soot concentration in the oils, filtration will be better and filters will plug quicker. Oil cost should decline, but filter cost should increase. The goal is to disperse soot and not allow it to conglomerate. PC- 10 specs can be achieved with severely hydro-cracked solvent / parafin base oils, but PC-10 will require much better base oil stock such as a blend of Hydro-cracked synthetic base oils. A member asked how much can you filter an oil and to what size before you degrade the add package of the oil. Mark stated that the additive package would not be removed unless there was water present. If there was water present, it would depend on how much and the properties of the additive package. Less than 1% or less of water content will not cause a significant degradation to the oil additive package quality. Oil begins to become cloudy at 1000-PPM water. Mark will provide on site training to maintenance personnel including best practices and general to advanced training. The handout is available in an electronic format and Mark will forward to the WRMMA Secretary for the exclusive use to Western Region Master Mechanic Association members. Kidney loop things to watch out for is depletion of the additive package by 50%. If this additive package is depleted to this level then it is time to change the oil. Kidney looping is a good process according to Mark. One member states that a Nevada site uses very powerful magnets in conjunction with the kidney loop process and has seen dramatic reduction in particle count trends.

2.) Environmental/Safety

3.) Cost Savings

He expressed that they were enthusiastic about providing support to associations like the Master Mechanics Association. Mining is under a lot of pressure from a number of areas. The main focus in our industry are cost reduction related while under the low gold price market. He stressed that safety at our operations was extremely important and that it cannot be sacrificed. He challenged our association to focus some of our efforts on enhancing safety at our sites. Don't take shortcuts and take the time to do the job right. At Placer Dome they are approaching 4 years without a LTA and almost 3 million man hours of exposure. A WRMMA member asked him what he feels contributes to this safety record. He stated that they stress not to take shortcuts. It is a more behavioral based approached as opposed to a conditional based approached. An employee suggests that their success is partly because they continually review all accidents and incidents at Cortez. He says that 40% of their bonus is safety. He asked the group, what are the sites using for business and process improvements? A representative from one site responded that they are using the Mackenzie system. Hourly personnel are involved in the process. He asked, are there quantifiable hard dollar savings that came with their improvements? He responded - definitely. Another member stated that their company is using "Gold Medal Performance" to improve the business and processes. He states that they are utilizing the knowledge and experience of the hourly personnel to develop these best practices.

A member asked Tony about things on the political front of our business that we need to be aware of now or in the near future. The federal land use issue is an important one right now. Tony states that the diesel particulate matter is becoming a big deal especially for the underground operations. There are regulations about this subject that the mining companies have lodged complaints against through the NMA, State, and Federal political systems. He spoke about the development of a fuel cell propulsion technology. This involves a hydrogen fuel source and testing is currently being done at laboratories. There is a Senate bill 661 that is a concern. This bill relates to the ability to bring in electrical power from other sources. A member asked how the new presidential administration is being received by the NMA? Tony said very well, and at times has had to try to slow them down a little bit. He thinks that we will see some mining law reform in the near future that will positively affect mining. A member asked if these presentations and communications with the NMA could continue. This would be beneficial to understand how the Master Mechanics Association can help with the issues facing us as it relates to the work of our association and the survival of the mining industry. Tony encouraged the interaction. He encouraged all sites to show our neighbors our sites and give tours to help people understand our business.

Report outs from each study group - 30 minutes Maximum. Leader of each study group to keep minutes of the study group discussion (to include the shared best practices). WRMMA secretary will compile all minutes and they will be forwarded to all attendees, posted in the WRMMA newsletter, and the WRMMA Web Site.

After Lunch Re-Cap - One of the Co-Chairman opened up with a question of how the group like the study group format thus far, and that in the future we would break out into 3 or 4 groups to present the work of each group. The members stated that it was good and that this format should continue.

One member talked about the task he had from the last meeting to explore gaining valuable information out of other organizations such as WEMA and COSMET. He was unable to make this last meeting in Canada. However, as Vice President of WEMA he is very connected and can see a real value from the information from those meetings. He went through the topics discussed at the recent WEMA meeting. He discussed MSHA hearing standards that we're all facing and how it affects work in some machines and locations.

This member talked about a recent fatality at Syncrude involving oxygen and acetylene cylinder enclosure. He discussed how WEMA uses study groups to work on issues such as safety. Slips, Trips, and Falls was a main topic, as well as, improper cable handling during the past meeting. He opened invitations to anyone from Master Mechanics to go the WEMA meeting in Reno coming up next May / June. The schedule of their meetings can be found on the WEMA website.

Presented by WRMMA Members

Please see the attachment for this presentation.

BEST PRACTICE - One member from a Nevada site talked about how their Sentinel's of Safety program has in place a "Pissin' Post" program where safety and fatal-grams are posted at every urinal. This member claims that this is very effective communication to all employees.

BEST PRACTICE - Another member from a Nevada site states that at their site they had to report out a list of near misses each quarter. They did this on a standard reporting form. These items were then topics of safety meetings. This identified real problems and issues to address in an effort to improve the safety record of the employees.

Many sites indicated that a large portion of their bonus was tied to safety. They claim that the safety portion of the bonus carried the most weight of all the factors contributing to the make up of the bonus.

The Co-Chairman suggested to the group that we as a Master Mechanics Association compile a list of near misses.

3W Action Item - all site contacts submit at least two near misses including details for publication on the Master-Mechanics.com website. We will leave out the name of the mine site, make, model, people.

RCRA act of 1972 - A member discussed excerpts from this act, including Ignitables, Toxics, Storm Water Pollution, Containment, Remediation, Spill Reports, Signage, Dust Control, Anti-mining groups, aerosol can aspiration, and the once per year MSHA environmental topic requirement.

It was noted in the discussion that different sites have different licenses for landfills and the different landfill guidelines associated with these different licenses. Many Nevada sites maintain spill control kits. It was discussed that the use of floor dry is bad for the Bio-Remediation Cells. The floor dry is a high clay content material the kills the effectiveness of the enzymes in the Bio Cells. Some sites send their contaminated floor dry to facilities that burn and destroy the contaminated floor dry. One member stated that in the Salt Lake area they have been using ground cornhusks in place of floor dry. 3W Action Item - Research the cost and availability, source for ground cornhusks.

One Nevada site uses waste profiles to combine hazardous wastes to completely fill drums to send of to the waste-handling vendors. The vendors have the option to refuse drums containing non-profiled waste. One member stated that this would help a situation at their site.

Another site uses a rag-burning machine that burns contaminated rags. The machine is called a "Smart Ash" machine and air emission permits are required. The representative of this site reports that it burns clean and is effective.

The Co-Chairman stated that he felt we all have a responsibility to talk to people that are not related to mining to educate them on our leading edge environmental practices. Discussing the fact that we are responsible operators that are concerned with the environment.

What worked? What didn’t work? Suggested changes of formats, dates, locations, frequency, newsletter, etc. Selection of vendor for company/equipment updates.