Agustus 16, 2023 – In an environment marked by shovels the size of buildings and trucks carrying millions of tons of ore, AMMAN, the operator of the Batu Hijau mine, has made workplace safety as its guiding star.
The cornerstone of this workplace safety culture is human capital development and continual upgrades in safety-related mine technology. At Batu Hijau, new hires are given their first of many safety orientation videos and training programs even before passing through the main gate. Leaders, both supervisors and team mentors, are regularly assessed for safety awareness. Understanding how work is performed is another step forward in creating capacity for things to go well. We actively seek to learn from our people, and provide opportunities for those doing the work to build our process together from the ground up.
The mine invests heavily in high-technology solutions to enhance workplace safety. Daily, vehicles fitted with high-precision GPS links and laser imaging traverses the pit to measure slope gradients and safety berm height compliance. Any deviation from specifications are logged, and the mine support team is deployed to rectify the non-conforming areas.
Cameras and other sensors throughout the operational area monitor the movements of every major piece of equipment. Key employees carry a GPS-enabled identification card providing real-time location tracking, with automatic monitoring to flag anomalies such as sudden stoppage or excessive speed while riding a transport vehicle. This technology also has an ability to initiate an ‘SOS’ feature in the event that people require emergency or medical response, a critical tool to support any remote worker activities.
With operations running 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, Batu Hijau never sleeps. We recognize the importance of effective fatigue management to ensure our workforce can continue to deliver safe production outcomes each shift. In addition to education, awareness and fitness programs, we have hot seat crews at various locations that allow operators to cycle through and be swapped out at any point during their shift should they require additional breaks.
These initiatives and many more position Batu Hijau in holding globally competitive positive safety performance. From catastrophic risk management and the critical controls system verifications through to everyday work-as-done, the teams remain committed to safe productivity and the discussion on risk is a daily occurrence.
President Director of PT Amman Mineral Nusa Tenggara (the subsidiary of PT Amman Mineral Internasional Tbk., operating the Batu Hijau Mine) Rachmat Makkasau underscores the interplay of technology and vigilance. “We cannot rely on technology alone to maintain workplace safety, as technical equipment might fail. In the end, every worker’s safety heavily depends on his/her ability to combine all lessons gathered from training programs with their situational awareness,” he said.
