Employee profile – Simon Coleman

It’s been 18 months since Simon Coleman swapped Ford XR8s for 400 tonne dump trucks, and he hasn’t looked back.

“Working at the Ford Motor Company certainly had its similarities to mining,” Simon said.

“Although the machinery is now much bigger and I’m able to get outdoors, there is a strong global safety culture in both companies.”

The health and safety specialist at Mount Thorley Warkworth (MTW) has joined a site with a multi-award winning safety culture.

“There are a quite a number of safety innovators on site, particularly in the maintenance team, which has been behind most of the innovations that have won awards from the New South Wales Minerals Council over the past few years,” Simon said.

“I think what makes this group particularly innovative is that team members have gone against the thinking that people who have been in their role for a number of years become complacent about their safety while performing every day tasks.

“Some of these people have been with MTW for more than 15 years, and are consistently looking for safer, more efficient ways of completing their work.”

Most recently, MTW received a commendation in the 2009 New South Wales Minerals Council Safety Innovation Awards for a new fire system which was designed and implemented on site.

Simon said one of the reasons he joined Rio Tinto was its good name for safety Group-wide.

“There is certainly a fantastic collaborative culture, I am often on the phone with sites in Queensland and here in the Hunter Valley,” Simon said.

“Within our Health and Safety team at MTW we have people who have transferred from Rio Tinto Iron Ore, Energy Resources Australia, and from Rio Tinto Coal Australia in Queensland, so we’ve been able to maintain a good communication network to see what kinds of systems other sites and business units have that we can adopt here.”

Simon said collaboration is a big part of RTCA’s strategy to make health and safety more uniform across its operations.

“I’ve been working on the MTW implementation of a number of RTCA-wide initiatives in the last 18 months, such as the safety leadership development programme (SLDP), Achieve Health and the health, safety and environment quality management system (HSEQ),” Simon said.

“The best part of these initiatives is that, more than ever, the health and safety programme at Blair Athol Mine or Bengalla is similar to what we are doing here at MTW and we collaborate more effectively in making our operations safer.”

ON THE SPOT

In 20 words or less, what does your job entail?
Working with my team and everyone on site to continually improve health and safety at MTW.

What do you do for fun?
Spend time with my wife and two daughters (pictured), head to the beach, surf or go camping.

What character are you most like and why?
After I started here, I got the nickname Charlie, as in Charlie’s Angels.

Tell us one interesting thing about you your colleagues don't know.
I studied Japanese and was an exchange student living and studying in Japan in 1989.

Read our other employee profile for June - Kestrel Mine’s Doug and Alan Willis.