The conference will be held at the Townsville Entertainment and Convention Centre and at Jupiters Townsville on August 22-25.

Up to 700 people converge on Townsville each August for the four-day event, which this year has the theme Simple Solutions to Complex Problems.

Confirmed speakers include UK Health and Safety Laboratory chief executive Eddie Morland and US Office of Mine Safety and Health Research principal engineer Tom Noval.

The event also includes the annual innovation awards, where inventive mine employees are recognised for their efforts to improve the safety of their workplaces.

Conference chairperson Greg Dalliston said that, though mine health and safety performance had improved in Queensland over the past 10 years, the industry still had not achieved its goal of zero harm.

“This conference is a valuable forum for the sharing of ideas and for the industry to refocus its efforts to ensure the health and safety of workers,” he said.

“It’s also an example of how the government, industry and unions are working together to improve safety and health performance.”