Extract republished with permission from Barminco - http://www.barminco.com.au

Read the full article published in Barminco's INSIGHTpublication

The UG360 simulator enables Barminco to simulate a range of emergency scenarios with incredible realism without any risk exposure to people or equipment.

Barminco boosted our training capacity and reinforced our approach to safety in April 2011 with the purchase of a UG360 Advanced Equipment Simulator from the mining industry's leading simulator supplier, Immersive Technologies.

The acquisition includes a transportable UG360 simulator, three modular Conversion Kits (equipment modules) and a virtual Custom Mine Site training environment.

Our CEO Neil Warburton said the advanced operator training solution would support Barminco’s ‘Safety First – Safety Foremost’ commitment to our employees and drive the improvements in unscheduled maintenance costs and operator efficiencies.

“This is a significant addition to our training capacity and we are looking forward to passing the benefits realised through this process onto our clients.”

“Maintaining a high standard of training is vital for ensuring high safety standards across all of our projects.”

The simulator arrived at Barminco Hazelmere headquarters. Commissioning began and the first group of trainees completed their training in May with all scenarios successfully completed.

Matt Baker, Sunrise Dam and Kane Young, Agnew assisted Trevor Steinhauser, Simulator Project Coordinator in the development stages of the scenarios and the initial testing and setting up of the simulator. According to Trevor, Matt and Kane’s help was invaluable at this stage of the process.

Over 50 green employees have since completed the training scenarios in the simulator and it’s already paying dividends.

Tremayne Etto, a truck operator at the Gwalia mine site completed the simulated CMS and emergency training and gave the following feedback, ”I had my truck engine (catch) fire the day after getting my ticket on site, and what you taught me really helped in coping with it with a fast reaction time. Thanks.”

Leicester Day, EHS&T Coordinator, Marvel Loch commented, “New truck operators do benefit from the simulators with a recent incident highlighting how the training that the operator had received was critical. During an emergency (fire) while operating his truck, he remembered his training and went through the process accordingly. This inadvertently saved what could have been Marvel Loch’s first major underground fire and the loss of a truck. Does it help – sure does!”