Held at Townsville on Tuesday and judged by a panel of industry experts, the innovation awards promote solutions for better safety on minesites, demonstrating “A New Era in Health and Safety” as the conference theme this year.

The judges found risks associated with welding had been eliminated, as it was no longer required using the tool.

Also muscle strain, pinched and crushed fingers and other injuries resulting from manual handling have been eliminated with the tool.

Downtime and labour required to service Liebherr buckets decreased as a lifting lug is no longer required. Therefore, the boilermaker is removed from the task, reducing labour from three tradespeople to two.

Costs are reduced and machine availability has improved as downtime associated with the change-outs is reduced as the welding procedure can be a lengthy task.

The conference was organised by industry, mining unions and the Queensland government.

It attracts the largest number of delegates for any mining safety conference in Australia.

Other innovation awards announced at the conference dinner included: highly commended – starter motor jig for Caterpillar 77D belly dump trucks (Rio Tinto Alcan Weipa) and the people’s choice – high-voltage electrical flashover prevention (Downer EDI Mining).

The conference media spokesperson is Queensland Mine Safety and Health Commissioner Stewart Bell.