Safety was the key to starting off the meeting. Bill asked the audience if anyone had any safety advice facing them currently. Jerry Kinyon discussed the hazards associated with wild game on the highways and mine access roads. Employees become complacent and must make a conscious effort to keep safety on the forefront. Terry Taylor mentioned the two recent fatalities at an abandoned mine. Two three man teams were assessing conditions in the mine. These teams were trained experts in this kind of work and were still overcome. Risk taking is something that will catch up with people eventually. Don Trowbridge discussed a recent recognition for Newmont to go one year worldwide without a fatality. This recognition was delivered from the corporate level and reinforces the importance of safety.

Bill’s background…..Bill grew up on the operations side of the business. He was given the task of tightening a flange and his supervisor commented that he was not one who could fix and thus, should be one who destroys and was transferred to the operations side of the business. He talked about the historical focus on reactive maintenance and how the industry is just now focusing in on proactive maintenance. Bill has been at Bingham Canyon for about five months and feels fortunate that in his past his support network were primarily maintenance personnel. Bill has learned that not only is operating a business is important, but just as important is maintaining it. This WRMMA meeting comes at a good time for Bingham Canyon as they are now in a concentrated proactive maintenance initiative. They are striving for a "World Class Maintenance" system. They have bolted on many components of many systems to get the best of each in one program. By improving the maintenance system huge savings can be realized. Honestly, planners need to plan and in our business historically, planners are busy chasing parts, being relief supervisors, etc. The goal for Kennecott is to continually work to develop the best proactive maintenance system possible. The industry has changed and is more focused on discussing our "business" as a means of improving and sharing best practices. Sharing of experience is invaluable and his excitement for this type of meeting or gathering was clearly expressed. For us to be successful we must be able to execute what we learn. Learning is great, but if we don’t execute we can’t get the value. He asked that we share all of our experiences and learn from each other. Bill stressed the importance of operations and maintenance working together. Bill suggest bringing some of the operations personnel to these meetings. There is opportunity for different perspectives and experiences. After all they are our partners and in order to succeed the operators and maintainers must work together as a team. Bill ask that we focus on the hazards around us today. Look for the exits, fire extinguishers, tripping hazards, hot coffee that can burn etc. Hazards don’t just exist at our operations.

Meeting Ground Rules

Logistics

Start On Time

Comprehensive Notes

Stay "On Track"

Use "Parking Lot"

Don went over a brief history of where the organization has been and what we have accomplished. He also discussed the teamwork that exists between the supplies organization and the mining organizations.

Bob Frayser went over the organization’s finances showing a beginning balance of $2,294.96 and a current balance of $1,706.89. Income for the period was $1,584.05 and expenses for the same period were $2,172.12. The expenses for the November meeting were split three ways between WRMMA, WRUMMA, and WSA.

The Three organizations held an officers meeting on November 6, 2002 to discuss issues facing the groups currently and to go over the events.

Bob also gave a brief overview of the web site traffic. For the period September1, 2002 to November 5, 2002 the web site served 1,674 sessions. These sessions were primarily from North America, but other traffic from was recorded from Europe, Africa, Australia, South America, and Asia.

Twin Creeks – Larry Henman reports that they are working on their PM program and trying to improve the MTBF on the mining fleets. This work is concentrating on the proactive maintenance improvements.

East – Carlin – Mitch Geyer discussed the expansion at Gold Quarry and the associated equipment acquisitions. He states that they are struggling with the union contract and it is taking up a lot of time that would normally be spent on actual production. They have consolidated job classifications down to 6 maintenance hourly job classes. Don mentioned that Newmont has taken over the Echo Bay McCoy mine and is the operator. The Newmont "theme" for the union work that is going on is flexibility.

Cortez – Don Smales talked about the new LeTourneau 1850 33 cubic yard high lift loader that has been ordered and the newness of LeTourneau to their operations. All Placer Dome properties are working with global purchasing and it is consuming a lot of time. This pertains to bulk commodities and high volume purchases.

Getchell – Don talked about some good results of exploration and things were looking promising. They have

Luscar Coal – Robin Holma – looking to acquire another company. This acquisition would make Luscar the biggest in Canada. The Prairie mine has 5 draglines. Another two mines have 2 draglines each. So, have nine total in the immediate area. MTBF is a key measurement and they are working to improve the numbers. They have Cat, Euclid, Komatsu hauling units. Water is an issue at their mines in Canada. Don asked how and why Robin came to the WRMMA? Robin commented that he is a member of COSMET and learned of us through them. He also attended the Mining Equipment Maintenance.COM meeting and reports that it is a good meeting – no sales pitches. Western Equipment Maintenance is the website and they occasionally hold phone conferences for sharing. Robin reports that their operations are union and have 3 year contract coming up for renegotiation next month. Job classifications have been consolidated and an equipment operator is an equipment operator, not a dozer operator and a truck operator – they are all "Equipment Operators".

Apollo Gold – Kelly Alexander – Reports that they just passed the two year mark with no LTA. They are switching to Data Stream maintenance software. This is going live now at Montana Tunnels and will go to Florida Canyon. They have parked the CAT 994 loader, and are running a CAT 992G instead. They laid off 42 people October 1, 2002 and should be temporary and rehired after the first of the year.

Bald Mountain Mine – Jack Taylor – status is looking good. There was talk of lay offs and closure and now there is new opportunities that has shed some new light on longevity. Costs are in line and have overcome some chemistry problems – recovery is back where it should be. Mine management has allowed the maintenance of equipment to continue as it should and condition of equipment has not degraded during the slowdown of operations. They have a maintenance team that concentrates on loaders. There is a learning curve with LeTourneau loaders, and they make loaders that can do the job.

Bingham Canyon – Butch Bartkosky – stressed that Bill Champion was a great supported or "Maintenance" and firmly believes in its value to a mining organization. Butch is the team leader for development of the new Kennecott maintenance system. They are in the implementation phase now and have the support of corporate management. Butch says that this support has given maintenance personnel a breath of fresh air and reinvigorated the maintenance group(s). He mentioned that Kennecott is at an impasse with respect to the expired union contract. They are currently involved in Federal mediation meetings. They have historically had "pockets" in Kennecott that have done maintenance well and a goal of Bill Champion’s is to make these good practices consistent across the corporation. They have outsourced the railroad business, and have their own power plant that they currently operate. They looked at outsourcing the power plant business, but agreed to keep operating it internally. Butch states that Bill Champion is holding people accountable and if it isn’t working, will make changes.

Jerry Kinyon – talked about how it is easy to get excites about changes at the corporate level and how it is more difficult to get that excitement at the hands on level. Struggling with shovel products and support systems. They have implemented a reliability centered maintenance process. They are currently in a validation phase. They change all shovel trip hardware every PM now as a result of these new process. They are running 9 shovels now and just sold some P&H 2800s to a Powder River Basin mine. They have just put a machine back into service that has been parked for a while. The maintenance at Bingham Canyon is under one umbrella, but has different superintendents for Loading & Conveying, and Mobile Fleets. They are going from 134 job classifications to much much less.

Lone Tree – Richard Stersic – Lone Tree is concentrating on MTBF and a proactive maintenance process. They are getting operator input and doing pre-PM inspections with the operator. This includes a real work test driving.

Barrick Goldstike - Terry Taylor mentioned that he is so thankful that he does not have the union issue to deal with. A big reason that Barrick was so attractive to him was that Barrick is nonunion. Terry has been in unions in his history and even been with Ringley Brothers Circus– (laugh, joke, ha ha). They are going into the final phase of their continuous improvement process. This is the phase were they finally get the paybacks. They just purchased an EX 5500 shovel. Barrick had a EX3500 catch fire and has been since been rebuilt. Arnold Machinery has purchased a lot of components and parts from Barrick. Rich Fifield states that Barrick has been working with the CAT test developed at Empire cat in Mesa Arizona. Over a hundred people took the test for Barrick and one of our WRMMA members Larry Orton scored the highest (good job Larry). Highest tech level personnel were given 24 months to meet the criteria and if they don’t meet the criteria, then there will be regression. Luscar Coal has a very comprehensive technician development program. It is based on standards and is recognized by governments and other industries.

P&H Product - Hydraulic Snubbers – Barrick purchased 4 optima 60 buckets with hydraulic snubbers eighteen months ago. Rick Carrick was not initially convinced that this option was the way to go, but now feels that they are the way to go. Two percent of the down time was associated with snubber maintenance. Now the same maintenance work is .03% only because one shovel still has friction snubbers. Friction style are high maintenance with 200 technician hours per year applied to the maintenance. Cracking on bucket doors has been dramatically reduced. If the friction style are not kept adjusted frequently, then cracking is a big issue. The initial cost of hydraulic snubbers is extremely high, but payback comes a number of ways, such as, Increased availability, technicians able to do other work, crack and weld repairs are reduced, lower direct costs for repair parts. The hydraulic snubbers are virtually maintenance free. Rick thinks payback was less than a year. Exchange units through Encore are about a third of the cost of new. New kits range from between $60,000 to $80,000. They have switched from equalizer to bail style buckets. Kennecott is running one set and has about 18 months on them now. Their comments mirror those above by Barrick. Indication is that all mounting and pin hardware on buckets last much longer. Align boring on associated bores has been reduced to nil. Larry Henman of Newmont is coordinating a visit to Barrick to get more details of the hydraulic snubbers.

Wire Rope – Cortez is running 8 strand 2 1/4, Union wire ropes. They have had a reduction in hours, but attained the same tonnage. The 6 strand wire ropes break with out indication of an upcoming failure and conversely, 8 strand provide for some warning before failure.

Barrick – Rope life has drastically reduced as a result of the switch to the Optima 60 buckets. Barrick attributes this low life to bail style buckets. They are pushing to get 500 hours when they used to get 700 -900 hours. They are breaking ropes right above the bail where they used to break right outside of the house. Rick has asked for help in getting their rope life up. They are breaking due to bending fatigue at the bail. Some of the bend comes from the bail flopping over and then snapping them tight again.

Kennecott is using Union 2 3/8" and getting about 3.2 million tons. They are using bails with equalizers.

Twin Creeks – Using Union wire rope and see failures on equalizer style buckets at about 66 feet from the socket end of the rope. This is due in part to increased stress as the bucket is at its highest point and transfers the stress back to the drum where the rope has the highest wear and bending.

Digi-Drive – Barrick is very please with this system. Jerry Kinyon states that this design is similar to B E designs. There are fewer pads with this system. Cortez is using this system as well. Barrick is estimated 45,000 hour life on this undercarriage. The track adjustment is dramatically reduced. Operations states that the shovels propel and turn better than the old style. Barrick is getting over a year life on idlers. Upgrade cost for this system is high and Cortez cost analysis shows payback is about a year. The economics for the cost analysis is tilted due to the fact that they were able to sell back their used undercarriage that was at about 50% life remaining.

Kennecott is using the advanced design system on one shovel. They are using one set of pads from Pro Parts. These pads have 18% manganese versus 12% OEM manganese content. They have about 10,000 hours on them now. They gauge life at about 20,000 to 25,000 hours. There was discussion about serious design problems with the 4100 shovel size pads of the past.

Shovel Production Improvement and Monitoring – Barrick – Terry Taylor – The goal was to improve the productivity of the shovels. Truck were being over loaded and under loaded. P&H offers a very expensive digital drive option, or you can modify the motor fields to simulate the same effects (very inexpensive). You have to have the PLC upgrade to go to the digital drive system. Barrick used a third party (Drives and Controls Services) and some technology from dragline systems. The results are instant. Operator’s comments were positive following installation at Barrick. Target to load a truck is 3 minutes. Many loads were over this mark on the old system and virtually all of the loads came in under the 3 minute target using the new system. The truck sends a signal to the shovel as it approaches for a load. This signal tells the shovel system what size the truck is and what load it will require. This was done via a script or coding by Modular Mining. The DCS system is very accurate compared to scales. The use of the DCS system with Slick 515 in conjunction with the Slick 504 Programmable Logic Controllers – (PLC) and payload monitoring has been very successful at Goldstrike. Barrick claims that this is the best limit system on the market today. Optadig has been turned off at Kennecott. Luscar Coal is using a different payload monitoring system called Loadman and is incredibly accurate using a strain gauge type reading from a pin on the machine. They have been using it for over a year and it is taking readings real time. Robin claims that it is a total payload management system.

Kennecott - Jerry Kinyon – helped develop the P&H digital drive system and brought up a dipper drop problem. This problem is caused by a D block signal and causes a shut down resulting in a dipper drop. The dipper would drop a long way, but not ever hit the ground. P&H states that an 18 foot drop is acceptable before a digital drive fault occurs. Kennecott is not in agreement with this measurement. At 3.5 miliseconds there is about a 2 foot drop, at 4 milliseconds it is about 4 feet, and at 1 second it is an 18 foot bucket drop. Kennecott developed additional ladder logic for the PLC and installed it to reduce this problem. P&H forbid Kennecott doing this, and Kennecott’s response was……well, we own the machine and your measurement in not acceptable.

Luscar Coal has been successfully using a dry graphite lubrication system for about eight years. Robin will provide details to Bob Frayser for distribution to WRMMA. Luscar Coal claims about 2 year circle life sometimes 3 years.

Lunch 12:00 – 1:00 PM

Failure between PMs

Mean Time Between Failures

Terry asked what procedures are used at mine site of the members. Newmont uses an inert gas to evacuate the tank while welding. Some sites use water in place of inert gas.

Don reports that Newmont has serial #1 and has seen more with this model of CAT machine than most. A lot has been learned over the years and contacts at Newmont are Mitch Geyer and Brad Orr. Newmont replaced the CAT cooling systems with Mesabi cooling system. This help the cooling by about 5 degrees F. Cleaning the cooling components is an issue and to overcome this Newmont mounted the components on hinges for better access while cleaning. They removed the grease and remounted it on the rear of the machine in a location that keeps the canister warmer. They installed clear tube fro transmission dipstick tube. Added grease ports of the "A-Pins". They use rear differentials for both positions, so, they only have to stock one component part number. Modified front engine mounts for easy access to mounting bolts. Newmont replaces all cracked axle trunions – no success in repairing them. Ladder / platform access for pin work. Replace tilt links with greaseable version built by Rocky Mountain Machine Shop. Installed a screen in the oil drain lines between the torque converter and transfer case and in the rear pump drive and the transfer case. They developed troubleshooting techniques that are not in the CAT service manuals. Newmont developed a fix for the chronic bolt breakage problem at the lower articulation pin. Installed manifold behind cab for P1, P2, impeller clutch and lockup clutch. The original air dryer was replaced with the ones used on the CAT 789 haulage truck. Replaced the lower bucket pin "B-Pin" with a greaseable pin built by Rocky Mountain Machine Shop (collet style). These pins have gone over a year without service at Newmont East operations. Good results reported at the Newmont West operations as well. They also installed soft stop tilt kick-out modifications to save hoist and tilt cylinder life. Carlin had vibration problem with the front driveline and found an o-ring installed that was not in the right place.

CAT re-man turbo failures seen at very low hours at various sites. The manufacturer specified that the life of the compressor impeller wheels was designed at 10,000 hours. As a result of this problem and the manufacturer specs, CAT will no longer reuse these compressor wheels in the re-man turbochargers. Failure to fill differentials and final drive transmissions by 1" can result in starvation to the pinion bearings and extreme metal contamination. Witness marks show hot oil stains due to low levels and result in non-warrantable failure.

CAT re-man oil cooler failures have resulted in testing of non-CAT brands. This "test" cooler has a warning system designed into the cooler and in the event of a leak it will be obvious before major expense related to brake failures.

Don talked briefly about the CAT Knowledge Network and the general existence of the CAT / Newmont World Wide Alliance.

Twin Creeks relocated the case drain and transmission filters to open up the areas for better access to these crowded areas. It also facilitates easier filter replacements during PMs.

All previously open porting has been modified to include filters, "dead" Wiggins connections, caps, piping, etc. Barrick’s targets are similar to ISO recommendations.

Barrick is installing a particle counter on their filtering equipment for real time oil cleanliness data. This equipment can be equipped with alarm circuits and is not repairable. The unit is a throw away product and should be checked routinely for proper calibration. Larry Orton will give a presentation at the next WRMMA Meeting in January 2003.

Newmont West – Harvard Filtration – Larry Henman

Both off board and on board filtration processes are in use currently at Twin Creeks and Lone Tree mine sites. Twin Creeks off board filtration is filtering the bulk tanks so that restriction to hose end delivery is eliminated and also during PMs on the mining equipment.

Don Smales proposed a WRMMA Fluid Filtration Tiger Team –Team Leader Larry Orton (Barrick) Robin Holma (Luscar) Jon George (Newmont), Carlos Guzman (Cortez), Jack Taylor (Bald Mtn.)

Technician Training Tiger Team – Team Leader Terry Taylor (Barrick), Dennis Zimmerman (Newmont) Jerry Kinyon (Kennecott)

LeTourneau Tiger Team – Team Leader Scot Cochrane (Barrick), Larry Henman (Newmont West), Gary Dodson Newmont (West) Greg Grant (LeTourneau) Carlos Guzman (Cortez), Joe Zeman (Bald Mtn.)

Maintenance Systems Tiger Team – Not Viable At This Time

KPI Tiger Team – Team Leader Butch Bartkoske (Kennecott), Rich Fifield (Barrick), Don Smales (Cortez), Don Trowbridge (Newmont)

Operations Attendance – Invite someone from operations to next meeting.

SUPPLIER INVOLVEMENT QUESTION?

OK for part of the meeting

Silent Attendees in the back

No involvement at all

A few hours and have them answer questions from WRMMA

Block out some time for presentations

Let Service Technicians attend

Set up displays outside in hall

Choose a supplier for specific involvement

Surveyors of Safety (Aubrey Daniels) – Barrick Goldstrike – Employee based safety that is employee driven. Scot Cochrane is a team member of the SOS Team and presented a slide show to the group.

Most accidents are caused by behavior as opposed to conditions. This program creates a culture of safety by involving employees in the process. The "SOS" program concentrates on observing behaviors and not singling out and identifying individuals. In fact, the process requires that the name of the person being observed is not recorded on any of the observation cards. The goal is to have all employees perform safety observations and target behaviors and not individuals. The national average of accidents caused by behavior is 96%, and the average for Barrick for the year 2000 -73%, year 2001 65%, and year 2002 – 51%. This reduction is a dramatic improvement and the process is working very at Barrick Goldstrike. Barrick management supports this program and provides training, tools and resources for the core team members. This support has helped develop the employees overall skills. For example, the team members were provided with MS PowerPoint training to aid them in communicating the results of observations and the program. From March 2001 to present Barrick has achieved two million man hours with no LTA, and will achieve three million man hours sometime in May of 2003. Barrick was awarded "Safest Large Surface Operation", manager of the year –Mike Feehan, Non-supervisory employee of the year – Mike Runner by Nevada Mining Association in 2001. Barrick uses "Safety Bucks" that can be used to redeem merchandise from a catalog. For each observation one chance to win is thrown into the hat, and the person can choose an envelope of up to four different levels of merchandise.

Newmont is involved with a very similar process at the Western Newmont mine sites. At Newmont this process is called BBSI (Behavior Based Safety Initiative, and is different than Barrick’s due to an immediate observation feedback process. At Newmont, not only do they do observations, but the observer has the option to provide feedback at their discretion. Newmont uses a demerit system where each employee has a bank of points and points are deducted for infractions or incidents.

Kennecott uses an in-house software program to record "Safety Audit" information. Like Barrick’s and Newmont’s processes, Kennecott does not record names of individuals. These audits are also behavior based observations and discipline to focus on behavior must be exercised. Kennecott has reduced their accident rate by 53% using this system. Butch believes that the safety "program" needs to be changed every few years to keep people from becoming complacent.

Luscar coal uses weekly and monthly safety audits.

Anglogold underground operations use a safety element built into their production bonus and tie operations and maintenance together as a way to motivate peer pressure to improve safe behavior

Newmont East is working on a new process utilizing "Chamber Bucks" for above and beyond normal habits. They should have some data to share with the WRMMA at the January WRMMA meeting. The supervisors have the latitude to use their discretion on when these "Chamber Bucks" are awarded. The maintenance personnel have a PPA review. This process involves each supervisor to put a procedure out in front of their crews for review.

Placer Dome Cortez – Used a similar process to Barrick’s and Newmont’s, but due to the way it was rolled out, it proved unpopular and thus, not successful.

Cortez – They have a complex bonus system that revolves around the cost per ton. It also has elements of personal performance built into the payout. The bonus is paid annually and the maintenance and operations goals are combined.

Barrick – Has a bonus that is paid bi-annually and is very complex. Most do not understand all the elements that make up the bonus targets.

Kennecott – uses a multi-component system that can total up to 7%. This bonus is paid quarterly and they have averaged about 2%. There are different bonus elements for hourly and salary employees. For salary employees, 25% of their bonus is tied to their areas performance. They use the "Dupont" system and if an employee does not have a good safety record, then they are replaced. This is applied all the way up the management levels.

Underground – They have a production bonus that is multi-component and is tied to many productivity measurements.

Newmont East – Hourly bonus is a multi-component system that is based on standardized Critical Performance Indicators. This bonus is paid quarterly with the supervisor handing checks to directly to the employees.

Bald Mountain – Uses a multi-component system based on KPIs.

Florida Canyon – No bonus payout

Luscar Coal – No bonus payout

Placer Dome – Holds two sessions each year. Half of mine site is trained in the spring and the other half is trained in the fall. This training is provided by Placer Dome Safety Department.

Kennecott – Have 5 minute tool box meetings, but these do not count towards the eight hours A.R.T. They use one forty-five minute meeting each month to cover the required topics. They use makeup sessions to bring delinquent employees into compliance.

Newmont – Uses 10 monthly sessions per year provided in-house by the Safety department and other training personnel.

Barrick – Uses one session per year at an off site location.

Bald Mountain – Uses one session per year

Luscar Coal – OH&S Occupational Health & Safety – not required to have annual refresher training. They do hold weekly and monthly safety meetings.

Don T. asked if all the sites represented at the meeting were in compliance with the new Haz-Mat regulations. All but one site was in compliance.

How many meetings per year? It was consensus for three meetings per year. It was discussed that the durations should be 1 ½ days since our topics are getting pretty detailed and complex. Possible locations for future meetings discussed were Elko Nevada, Reno Nevada, Salt Lake City Utah, and Casper Wyoming. A suggestion was made to have a site tour set up for each meeting.

Next Meeting – March 2003 - Elko, Nevada – Next Meeting Sponsored and Hosted by Barrick Goldstrike and Placer Dome Cortez.

Same Dues $30 per person or $100 per 4 people from same mine

Provide Lunch on meeting day

Provide Meeting Location / Facilities

Thursday – main meeting day

Arrange Friday Tour – ½ day morning site tour (no suppliers)

Provide Lodging Options – arrange block of rooms

Hospitality Location Arrangement – Thursday night, meet someplace, BBQ, etc, etc.

Arrangement of Audio / Video / Flip Charts

The Surface WRMMA will involve suppliers as necessary for problem solving and will carry forward with meeting locations sponsored by Individual Mining Companies (see above).

The Underground WRUMMA would like to keep their current format

Note – there will be one more meeting of the Officers of the three organizations to determine how each organization will go forward.

• Technician Training Tiger Team – Team Leader Terry Taylor (Barrick), Dennis Zimmerman (Newmont) Jerry Kinyon (Kennecott)

• LeTourneau Tiger Team – Team Leader Scot Cochrane (Barrick), Larry Henman (Newmont West), Gary Dodson Newmont (West) Greg Grant (LeTourneau) Carlos Guzman (Cortez), Joe Zeman (Bald Mtn.)

• KPI Tiger Team – Team Leader Butch Bartkoske (Kennecott), Rich Fifield (Barrick), Don Smales (Cortez), Don Trowbridge (Newmont)
• Crew Scheduling
• Pit Fueling
• Contract Fueling
• Maintenance vs. Operations
• Size, rotation options, special crews

Site updates – plus each site to bring one best practice

Business

Intro

Safety

Officer Election

Close Out

• Team members
• Scope
• Costs (generalities about cost only)

• Describe Purpose

• More detail about scope or measurements

• Detailed contact information, web addresses

• Validation of Data

• Approximately 1 hour

Meeting Pre-Registration

Spent too much time on next meeting agenda

Add time lines to agenda

More presentations and better content/quality

Next WMEA Meeting in Denver Nov 14th & 15^th

Next COSMET Meeting in Dallas in January – 100^th meeting!