Western Region

Treasures Report

Steve explained to the group that we have increased our meeting fees to $40 per person or $140 for four or more people from the same mine. Steve continued to explain where the funds are used, they are used for meeting expenses such as room rentals, lunch, coffee & doughnuts, etc. We also hold an occasional meeting in Reno which is very expensive. The due are also used to cover expenses for publicity functions at the Elko Mine Expo. It was also mentioned that we need to work towards expanding our organization to increase the value and solvency of our group.

Another order of business was the Chairman position. Bud Lauderback will be leaving the area and must resign his position as Chairman. We will need to elect an new chairman at the next meeting. If anyone would like to be nominated or make a nomination for this position please let us know. You can contact Ben Lupercio at blupercio@barrick.com or you can call Ben at 775-778-8902.

Best Practices

We again started this meeting with a best practice share. We hope that people don’t take this too literal, the statement “best practice”, is simply an opportunity for everyone to share with the group any area of maintenance that they feel is working well for their respective companies. It is also an opportunity to just let the group know of any new happenings at your mine. It also provides the group and opportunity to ask questions and perhaps gain some in-sight for things that could be implemented at different sites. As we come across subjects that stir a lot of conversation, we will ask that person to prepare a presentation on the topic at the next meeting.

A brief discussion on DPM was held, NIOSH is working directly with Queenstake on DPM issues. It was also mentioned that several mines have started to re-train the miners about using DPM tags to down equipment if they feel the equipment is putting out excessive smoke. In general, most all people have been reviewing their individual practices around this issue as MSHA has made a final ruling to change the current regulation to say we are to meet 308 micrograms of carbon immediately and it will be reduced further to 160 micrograms in January. With this change, most people feel we can expect that some form of enforcement will follow shortly and we all want to be as prepared as we can be.

It was reported that one mine has purchased a piece of equipment that is specifically for tire handling. The results have been questionable as the unit is too large to change tires in the heading where the tires always fail. It was offered by others, that a crane truck has been pretty effective at their mine and may be a better solution.

A question was asked about the transition from a supplier controlled maintenance program to a mine controlled maintenance program at Midas. The transition was tough because the contract maintenance techs knew this was going to happen and several elected to seek employment somewhere else. As a result, manpower was difficult to come by and the equipment suffered a bit.

The mine felt it was in the best interest of the company to take over maintenance activity on the mobile equipment fleet.

One of the mine reported that they are involving some hourly technicians as well as salary staff for employment interviews. They feel the results have been very positive.

It was reported that several mines using a near miss report for safety incidents which could have resulted in an accident. The reports are being used in an effort to raise awareness of potential accidents and look for opportunities to eliminate the potential. It was reported that Queenstake has worked 1.7 million manhours without a medical reportable accident (good on you), and they are using this type of report as well. The program tends to keep safety on everybody’s mind and in the forefront of production.

Place Dome has recently tied a similar program to their bonus system. The supervisors must fill out a certain number of reports or the bonus will be affected. They have recently had a fatality and have refocused more effort towards safety.

Place Dome also reported that their shop is now up and running, the includes a Mohawk lift. They have a lot of new employees, not only new to the company, but also new to the industry. They have been sending people to a week long training course prior to coming to work.

This topic stirred quite a bit of conversation, some felt that training is good, but people tend to forget very soon after training unless given the opportunity to use the training. It was suggested that we should try to include our maintenance techs when hiring an equipment specialist from our suppliers when repairs are being made. This is the most opportune time for training. Place Dome is also working on a jumbo mock up panel which would have all the jumbo controls on the panel and could be used for troubleshooting training. Also, when providing training, it is best to keep the group small so all can participate.

It was mentioned that Great Basin College is a very good place to get some basic training in several areas. There has also been talk of the college starting a “mine academy” in which they would set up a mock mine site and train both operations and maintenance techs.

This topic created such a conversation, we will be asking Great Basin College to attend our next meeting and give us a specific presentation on available training and potential new course. Additionally, we hope to have a presentation from Place Dome on the results of the jumbo test board project.

The group suggested we invite more of our hourly maintenance techs to our next meeting. Additionally, we should invite our electrical techs to join the meeting as we all work very closely with this group. It was mentioned that these people have a great deal of ideas and can provide input. We should also share as much cost information with these people as they also have a great deal of control in this area and they don’t realize it.

We had invited George Schnakenberg, from NIOSH, to attend our meeting. George has an expansive background in DPM issues as well as some in-site for noise reduction. He gave the group a history lesson on NIOSH and how it is differs from MSHA. NIOSH was formed from the Bureau of Mines and has held consistent with the function of research to improve health and safety for miners. Whereas MSHA is in the business of enforcement of the law. NIOSH tries to bring an unbiased opinion, based on fact, to help mines comply with safety and health regulations. We did not give NIOSH enough notice to get a “noise specialist” to our meeting this month. They are willing to give a noise presentation at the next meeting provided we can give them enough notice and get enough attendance. We will work towards this for next month.

Soot Traps

We had some late attendance confirmations and as a result, we ended up with presentations on soot traps from two suppliers. Hicham Agha representing Emission Control Products gave us a presentation on his company’s products. Hicham can be contacted at (905) 607-2259. His presentation is attached to the email. We also had a presentation from Cesar Baumann from Engine Control Systems. His presentation is also attached to this email. Cesar can be reached at (905) 853-5500.

Atlas Copco

Clay Gremmel gave the group on update on Atlas Copco. He talked about the history of the company and their latest acquisition of Ingersol-Rand. Clay talked about the service available at the Elko store including parts support as well as mechanical support of the product. The Elko store has been expanding the maintenance shop as well as the warehouse. We spent quite a bit of time talking about Atlas Copco’s Advance Boom Control system. This is a computerized boom control system for drilling, it is flexible enough to be used as a manual controlled boom or as an automatic boom controlled machine. The drilling pattern must first be loaded on to some software and downloaded to the machine. Once the machine computer has the pattern specifications and has been set up in drift properly, it will drill out the pattern on its own. It is Atlas Copco’s opinion that the hardware required to do this has proven to be reliable and easy to work on. It is also very transferable from one machine to another and the controls can be expanded easily.

Tire Maintenance

D&D tire gave the group a presentation on tires. We talked about tire safety and the importance of inspections for both the tire and wheel. This inspection should continue even when the tire has been removed from the wheel as there are many parts to most of our wheels. We talked about team work to keep everyone in tires and reduce tire cost. Mine designs need to be such that we get an adequate roadway to start with. The roadways need to be kept clear of excessive debris and holes. We should be performing tire flip rotations and ensuring our tires are matching. Tires need to be regularly inspected for wear, pressure and damage so that scheduled work can take place at a cost effective time.

Next Meeting Vendor List

Northern Nevada Equipment – Bobcat vehicles

NIOSH

Next Meeting Presentations

Jumbo control training panel – Turquoise Ridge