Published in the June 2010 Australian Longwall Magazine

In the 21st century its challenges are different but after a recent upgrade it is well equipped.

The station’s $9.2 million extension has brought it into the cyber age, with the capacity for simulated training and rescue using virtual reality and other controlled means.

Australian Longwall toured the station with Hunter Valley Mines Rescue regional manager David Connell, who is experienced in underground and longwall mining operations, having worked at the Dartbrook mine and Moonee colliery in NSW.

The station is now a modern facility in which the growing number of coal mining operations in the Hunter region can converge and skill up in order to maintain their safety standards, as well as being a centre for rescue operations.

The investment in the facility and the virtual reality training equipment has been high but the returns have been extraordinary: NSW has one of the lowest coal mine accident and fatality rates in Australia and the world.

Connell sees this as being a result of the culture of safety awareness and preparedness that is fostered at the Hunter Valley Mine Rescue station.

“As far as rescue goes, we pretty much want to put ourselves out of business,” he said.

“The aim is to prevent accidents before they happen.”

Mines Rescue is a wholly owned subsidiary of Coal Services and is a registered training organisation.

Coal Services is jointly owned by the Minerals Council of NSW, representing mine operators, and the Mining and Energy Division of the Construction Mining Forestry Energy Union, representing the mine workers.

Coal Services operates under its own legislation, the NSW Coal Industry Act 2001, and provides workers compensation, occupational health and safety, and welfare as well as mines rescue services to the state’s coal industry.

Connell sees the station’s role as providing quality integrated training to mining and other industries, incorporating the latest virtual reality techniques.

The level of expertise at Hunter Valley Mines Rescue is spread across underground and open cut mining as well as emergency services.

There are 12 personnel at the station: the manager, three coordinators, four training officers and two cadets with administrative staff making up the rest.

The station’s medical trainer, Jim Delaney, is a former NSW ambulance superintendent and rescue paramedic who is completing a degree in the emergency management field.

Former Mines Rescue general manager Murray Bird recognised that there was an ageing workforce developing in mines rescue, so a cadet system was introduced that gives the cadet two years training in mine rescue.

“The quality of the people coming through this system is tremendous. Hopefully in 10 years time this will lead to continuity of highly skilled executive personnel in place at the stations,” Connell said.

More broadly across the entire resources sector, the skills shortage is going to place pressure on mining companies to impart the necessary skills and safety training in an accelerated way without compromising the high standards required by NSW statutory authorities and current industry benchmarks.

The major resources projects due to come onstream across Australia over the next five years are expected to create additional demand for skilled labour and training facilities in the industry.

There will be an estimated 9000 “cleanskins” entering the industry who have never been in a coal mine and will need to be trained up.

Additional training opportunities will need to be made available to increase the number of skilled workers in an efficient and timely way.

Mines Rescue is uniquely positioned to help with this transition, Connell said.

“We specialise in training for underground and open cut mining; training mines rescue brigadesmen in emergency response, search and recovery, and fire fighting; mine worker induction and refresher training, including training in breathing apparatus and in unaided escape; conduct of mines rescue competitions utilising VR facilities; and integrating VR applications into routine training, including outbursts, spontaneous combustion and emergency evacuations,” he said.

“More than 22,500 coal industry employees have attended Mines Rescue-delivered training over the last three years.”

In a typical training scenario, groups of 12 are given statutory training, confined space training, safe working at heights training and isolations.

For example, at the station’s underground gallery, large gas-powered fires can be created which are remotely controlled.

“The value of this is that it is repeatable and the risks posed by smoke and dangerous gases are controlled,” Connell said.

As part of the station’s training regime, trainees are instilled with guidelines and procedures but flexibility of thinking is encouraged.

“We’re not going to be looking over their shoulders. They have to be able to apply their basic principles: in self-escape, know your gear, know your procedures and know where to go,” Connell said.

Virtual reality

Mines Rescue sees VR training as a way of ensuring higher levels of learner engagement and greater consistency in the quality of training.

Training using VR has been shown to have a positive impact on spatial awareness, problem solving, hazard perception and team training. Such an advanced training tool can also provide for more efficient and flexible delivery of training programs.

One element of increased flexibility is the interactive nature of VR. It also provides a memorable learning experience for trainees who may find it difficult to visualise emergency scenarios from written textbook accounts.

Because the virtual environment allows trainees to view an event or area from various perspectives, their scope of the event is extended well beyond what is physically possible, which greatly enhances understanding of abstract concepts and improves recall of the learning experience.

VR is ideal for the training of mine workers and operators who are required to perform potentially dangerous tasks and often in hazardous environments, Connell said.

Once introduced to the task in the traditional classroom learning set-up, the trainee is given training and allowed to practise in a VR environment. In this way, the trainee may be exposed to high-risk or life-threatening scenarios, but in a safe and controlled environment.

In an increasingly technological society, the appeal of VR as a training tool is its familiarity for many young workers who are used to various day-to-day computer-based interactions, such as online banking and games.

Connell believes there are also benefits from the trainer’s perspective, with quick and easy transfer of trainees from the “real” learning environment to a virtual worksite in a matter of minutes and with minimal travel and set-up required.

“Scenarios can be repeated with the press of a button with flexibility to vary their location within the mine, which ensures ongoing relevance of the VR training tool for refresher training,” he said.

“Additionally, assessment of trainees’ level of understanding can be ascertained throughout and upon completion of the VR session with the use of electronic handheld answer pads, to ensure the learning needs of all trainees can be tracked and catered for.”

The VR “whole of mine” environments for underground mining and open cut mining have been developed, fully tested and are in use at Mines Rescue’s training facilities. Coal mining safety modules cover hazard awareness, unaided self-escape, rib and roof stability, isolation, outburst, spontaneous combustion, gas and ventilation, longwall operation and truck inspection.

Coal Services completed research and development and proof of concept on the first-generation virtual reality training systems that were implemented three years ago.

It has now progressed to a next-generation product. Innovations have been designed and implemented, taking VR training to an even higher level – including improved fidelity and interaction.

Hunter Valley Mines Rescue and Coal Services generally receive support from mining companies and original equipment manufacturers through the supply of design information, equipment and consumables.

“Bucyrus came to the party with CAD [computer-aided design] drawings for the VR longwall,” Connell said.

“It is so life-like the pans push out and the shields drop down. The only thing you don’t have to worry about is dust management.”

Connell says he is amazed that senior mining personnel who are placed in virtual reality settings can vicariously experience incidents they have not experienced onsite despite years on the job.

“Take the case of outbursts: since 1994 miners who work in outburst-prone pits have had to have training. Before, it was basically a written exercise. But with the VR training they actually experienced the conditions,” he said.

“It’s the immersion and interaction with VR. Once they are lost in the moment they are for all intents and purposes back in the pit.

“The Health and Safety Trust has commissioned a study on how effective VR training is but anecdotally I can see it in the people that come through. It is also good fun, which is important for learning as well.”