The Australian Government’s Mining Equipment, Technology and Services (METS) Growth Centre Ignited Project will invest around A$1.14m into four Bowen Basin mining projects in the Queensland city of Mackay.
Over a quarter of the money – A$312,000 – will go towards a project that aims to protect the mental and emotional wellbeing of workers, alongside their physical safety, through a safety training programme that covers all areas of the mining industry. The project will also investigate the link between worker wellbeing and broader safety performance within the Bowen Basin.
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The basin, an area covering 60,000km2, is one of the largest coal reserves in Australia and provided 60% of the country’s exported coking coal in 2006. Around 18,000 people of a total population of 41,000 are employed in the basin’s 43 operating coal mines, so the four projects receiving funding expect to make a significant contribution to the region’s economy.
“The commercialisation of innovation through programmes like this will ensure that the METS sector – already worth $86bn to the Australian economy – continues to grow and provide jobs for regions like Mackay,” said METS Ignited chief executive Ric Gros.
The other projects have a similar focus on improving mine safety and efficiency. MyneSight, an initiative backed by mining contracting firm Mastermyne and AI company MIRI, is developing a simulation of a Mackay mine that will be used to train new mine workers. A prototype of the simulation has reduced the time taken for an inexperienced miner to be skilled enough to work at the mine by 30% and is a pilot for the planned Australian Training and Research Underground Mining Simulator.
The two other initiatives are a spray-on product used on conveyor belts that reduces carryback, a process where dust falls off belts and can be inhaled, and a prototype solution enabling mining operations to access infrastructure without the need for expensive commercial services or risky individual investments.
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By GlobalDataThe Ignited Project has now raised over A$18m, including over A$1m invested into drone technology used for environmental mapping works, to modernise and improve the Australian mining sector.
