Australasian Mining Review
Issue link: http://ebook.aprs.com.au/i/26056
54 Mine workers in a changed climate What will life be like for mine workers in Australia’s future climate? The Kalgoorlie workshop revealed skills and safety of mine workers are high priorities for climate adaptation. Hotter, drier conditions and more extreme weather events will have an impact on working conditions and safety for mine workers. In fact, research by CSIRO suggests that mine design and operations in our future climate may be impacted more by the effects of heat on people than by the effects of heat on equipment and machinery. Participants in the workshop raised the issues of attracting staff to inland areas with rising temperatures, and the potential impact on the workforce and mine community of changed mining practices in response, such as increased automation. Mining companies may need to deal with high turnover of staff due to unpleasant working conditions. They may also face skills shortages due to a lack of education and training for the new conditions and situations arising. Mine workers may have difficulty reaching work if transport options are disrupted by weather events. Safety issues for mine workers are related to extreme weather events, such as cyclones, storms and flooding, and health risks due to changes in the geographic occurrence of disease. These issues will also have an impact on the wider communities in mining areas. and energy, impacts on the environment and communities, implications for mine planning, and workforce issues such as safety of mining staff. Mining companies themselves were most concerned about the effects of extreme weather events, such as damage to infrastructure and safety issues including flooding, slope instability and wind-blown debris. Belinda Bastow, an environmental manager with AngloGold Ashanti Australia who attended the workshop, pointed out the potential impacts of extreme weather on mines in remote locations. “Remote sites rely on a combination of dirt roads and often unsealed airstrips and extreme weather puts more pressure on them,” she said. “If we lose our airstrip we have trouble getting staff in and out and there are implications for safety, particularly if there is an emergency, which has implications for the design criteria.” Bastow noted that the potential implications for design criteria under climate change are a major consideration. “Our design assumptions are based on a certain amount of rain, for example. If climate change comes are those design assumptions reasonable or should we be changing them?” Despite much overlap and interdependency, the difference between issues for different stakeholders at the workshop was clear. Utilities providers mainly focussed on impacts on infrastructure, including location, damage from extreme weather events and design requirements. Industry services were focussed on issues to do with business analysis and reporting, complying Gold mine in Western Australia with regulations and attracting workers to mining communities. Government agencies were concerned about the impacts on the mining industry, the community and the environment of big picture issues like increased water costs and national economic and population health impacts of climate change. “Across the different stakeholders we see a need for developing infrastructure and technologies that can more efficiently use resources, such as water and energy, as they become increasingly scarce or costly under a warmer and drier climate,” said Dr Moffat. “Overall, participants felt that climate change would require adaptation within both the mining industry and its communities to more efficiently use scarce resources, upgrade or modify infrastructure, improve mine designs and operations, and to safeguard employees, surrounding communities and the environment.” Moving toward change The workshop in WA’s Goldfields region also asked industry members about the drivers of future change and prosperity in their sector. Their answers related to the economics of doing business and the costs of adaptation, societal pressures and uncertainty around government policy on climate change. Increasing pressure from society around the environmental and social impacts on communities and the use of resources like water and energy by the mining industry is viewed as a challenge.