NSW Premier Kristina Keneally last night presented the award to the Centennial team which developed the strap after judges deliberated on winners from a strong field of innovations from across the NSW mining sector.

The Centennial team developed the strap after it became clear through injury statistics that manual handling and lifting was a major issue to be addressed.

The loading and/or restocking of the roof bolter requires the availability of a MPV to deliver the strap pod to the bolter.

This also creates lost production and delays as bolting is a critical path in the Mannering colliery’s place change system of mining. Centennial places great emphasis on reducing time taken to restock roof bolters.

A strategy was established to develop a solution that allowed the machinery to do all the work to eliminate manual handling and design an efficient method of transporting straps and pods designed to suit the strap lifter.

Centennial Coal has taken out the top prize for the second year running.

The “People’s Choice” (selected by 450 miners at the conference) was awarded for a quick detach system stone dust carrier, developed at Xstrata Coal’s West Wallsend Colliery.

The innovation is a new lift attachment that provides underground miners with a safe work position for working at height, while reducing the need for awkward manual handling.

In the highly commended (safety) category, a continuous miner no-go-zone indication light developed by Xstrata Coal NSW at Baal Bone Colliery took the award.

This innovation provides workers with a visual indication of what areas are safe to enter near underground mining machinery in operation.

In the highly commended (health) category, a drill rig cable mounted pusher developed by Centennial Coal at the Angus Place Colliery took the award.

The pusher reduces the large amount of manual handling required for inserting cable bolts into the roof of underground mines, a significant innovation considering Angus Place inserts 20,000 bolts each year.

NSW Minerals Council chief executive Nikki Williams commended the high quality of the entries from both metalliferous and coal mines across NSW.

She said this year’s awards showed that the industry remained at the cutting edge of innovation to improve the health and safety of the state’s workforce.

“There is an incredible arc forming from the industry’s world leading vision on health and safety through to real safety improvements at our mine sites. These awards are a great way of officially recognising the ingenuity of our workforce at mines across NSW,” Williams said.