HSEC Award Finalists 2026
Aurelia Metals
Dustlight – Personal Dust Monitoring
Dustlight Personal Dust Monitoring is a real-time wearable dust monitoring initiative trialled by Aurelia Metals to give workers immediate visibility of respirable dust exposure during their shifts.
The lightweight monitors, worn in the breathing zone, continuously measure dust levels in mg/m³ and display results through a simple traffic-light system. The devices enable workers to see exposure as it happens, respond instantly by adjusting controls or using respiratory protective equipment (RPE), and shift dust management from a post-shift review activity to an active, task-based process.
Personal Dustlight Monitoring was driven by the limitations of traditional gravimetric dust sampling, which delivers accurate but delayed laboratory results that make it difficult for workers to connect their day-to-day tasks with actual exposure levels.
Dustlight monitors were added across the operation as a complement to existing prevention, monitoring and medical surveillance programs.
Data from the devices was reviewed alongside three years of historical hygiene records to identify high-exposure tasks and build an evidence-based dusty task register. By providing immediate feedback and supporting targeted interventions the initiative has strengthened on-the-ground risk management and improved health outcomes.
Hunter Valley Operations
The Salhy Workforce Hydration Monitoring Program
The Salhy Workforce Hydration Monitoring Program is a saliva-based hydration testing system developed by NSW start-up IhydRATE in partnership with Glencore’s Health, Safety and Training (HST) teams at Hunter Valley Operations (HVO) and Mangoola Coal.
The initiative was driven by the persistent risk of dehydration in mining. Even mild dehydration impairs reaction speed, decision-making and physical performance long before thirst is felt.
Industry research shows up to 60% of NSW mine workers start shifts inadequately hydrated, despite widespread reminders, fluid provision and electrolyte supplies. Traditional urine testing — the most common monitoring method — is invasive, impractical and unpopular, leading many sites to avoid it altogether.
To address this, HVO worked with IHhydRATE to roll out the ‘Salhy test’ on site. The Salhy test is a non-invasive, portable alternative to traditional methods: workers simply place the single-use test on their tongue for a few seconds, scan it with any smartphone or tablet and receive instant results. The test simultaneously measures overall fluid levels, electrolyte balance, and early indicators of heat stress or fatigue. The Salhy system improves worker health by enabling early, actionable detection of dehydration, electrolyte imbalance and heat-stress risk in a single, worker-friendly test.
Pilot results showed 83% of tests indicated workers were well hydrated — markedly better than the ~58% dehydration rate in broader NSW mining studies — while identifying the small percentage of cases needing electrolyte support or fatigue management.
Participants reported greater focus on pre-shift hydration and hydrating the night before demanding shifts.
Quarry Mining
Longwall Mantis Sprag
The Longwall Mantis Sprag (LWMS) is an innovative portable pneumatic roof support system developed through collaboration between Mandalong Mine and Quarry Mining to transform a high-risk longwall maintenance task.
Designed as a higher-order engineering control, the LWMS is a higher-order engineering control which provides immediate, stable temporary roof support during cutter drum pick changes on longwall equipment.
This eliminates the need for workers to install manual roof bolts in unsupported conditions, replacing a hazardous, labour-intensive process with a safer, repeatable, and significantly faster solution that has now become standard practice at Mandalong Mine.
The project was driven by persistent safety and operational challenges in underground coal mining. Historically, changing worn cutter drum picks required crews to work under unsupported roof and face conditions in low-height environments. This manual bolting process was time-consuming, requiring costly production downtime.
Quarry Mining, leveraging its Mantis system heritage and input from former underground operators, engineered the LWMS with practical frontline needs in mind.
Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group
The Working in Right Places System
The Working in Right Places system is a practical, technology-enabled safety control developed by Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group (NCIG) to prevent workers from commencing tasks on incorrect equipment or isolations — one of the most critical risks in complex industrial environments.
By integrating QR code verification into existing Permit to Work and isolation processes, the system provides positive confirmation that personnel are on the right permit, the right isolation, and in the right physical location before work begins.
NCIG launched the project to address findings raised through incident investigations including cases where workers inadvertently locked onto incorrect isolation plans or lockboxes and began work on equipment that were not isolated, creating a risk of serious injury or fatality.
Through collaboration involving Engineering, Health & Safety, IT, Maintenance, Operations, and frontline workers via the Health & Safety Consultation Committee, NCIG developed a QR code-based system integrated into its existing Health & Safety mobile application (TESS) and electronic maintenance planning system (WIP). Workers scan codes linked to the permit, isolation plans, and physical equipment location, with verification status visible in real time to supervisors and Area Controllers.
Since its site-wide implementation in July 2025, the initiative has achieved zero incidents involving incorrect isolations or work on the wrong equipment, embedding a reliable verification step into daily operations and strengthening critical control effectiveness.
Glencore (Ulan) + Peabody (Wilpinjong) + Yancoal (Moolarben)
Doctors 4 Mudgee Region
Doctors 4 Mudgee Region (D4MR) is a six-year, community-led initiative jointly funded by Glencore Coal, Peabody and Yancoal that has rapidly transformed healthcare access in the Mid-Western Local Government Area.
The project was driven by a deepening healthcare crisis that was affecting daily life across the Mid-Western region. With population growth accelerating due to major infrastructure projects, the existing GP shortage had reached critical levels.
In just nine months, the program has attracted five new General Practitioners to a region facing a GP-to-resident ratio more than double the national average, successfully reopened Gulgong Medical Centre after twelve months without a doctor, and enabled Mudgee Medical Centre to reopen its books to new patients after an eighteen-month closure.
The project has also secured six GP registrars in training, creating a sustainable pipeline for future medical workforce capacity. Governed by an independent not-for-profit community board, D4MR combines financial incentives with a personalised whole-of-family concierge service and targeted marketing to position the region as a compelling destination for medical professionals.
For the mining industry, D4MR exemplifies genuine, measurable, long-term community investment that improves health equity and reinforces the industry’s role as a committed partner in regional sustainability. The model’s community-governed structure and replicable concierge approach offer a proven blueprint for other regional communities facing healthcare workforce challenges.
Idemitsu Boggabri Coal
Glentarkie Home for the Aged
Glentarkie Home for the Aged – Boggabri is a purpose-built aged care accommodation project delivered by Boggabri Coal Operations in late 2025. The company fully funded and completed nine new modern independent living units plus upgrades to existing facilities at the Glentarkie site on the edge of town.
Through community consultation, Bogabri identified a concern that the local ageing population, combined with constrained housing supply, meant many older residents were at risk of having to leave their community to access suitable long-term accommodation.
The original Glentarkie units, built in the early 1970s, were no longer meeting demand or new legislative requirements for aged care. Boggabri Coal, which has maintained a long-term presence in the town, recognised both its responsibility to address cumulative social impacts and an opportunity to deliver meaningful, lasting community infrastructure rather than simply meeting consent conditions.
On completion, the units were occupied immediately at full capacity, providing high-quality, self-sufficient accommodation that meets current aged care standards.The development has been widely praised as a showcase for the town and has directly eased pressure on Boggabri’s limited housing stock by enabling older residents to move into purpose-designed units while freeing existing homes for the broader community.
GM3
Thermal Drones and Threatened Species Project
In partnership with Symbio Wildlife Park, the University of Wollongong, Conservation Partners and government agencies, GM3 deployed night-time thermal drone surveys across 47 sites covering more than 1,175 hectares to survey koala and greater glider populations across the Illawarra escarpment.
Traditional wildlife surveying has faced significant challenges when attempting to monitor threatened arboreal species in steep, densely vegetated escarpment terrain near active and historical mining operations. Traditional spotlighting and ground surveys are labour-intensive, expose personnel to significant safety risks at night, and often produce low detection rates, leaving critical gaps in baseline data.
To overcome these barriers to accurate surveying, GM3 used thermal imaging, aerial verification and statistical modelling to detect and estimate populations of endangered koalas and southern greater gliders.
In doing so, GM3 has delivered the first peer-reviewed, large-scale abundance estimates for both species simultaneously using this technology and confirmed the presence of stable koala populations in areas previously thought to be locally extinct.
By confirming that koalas persist at stable densities alongside greater gliders, GM3 has reframed the Illawarra Escarpment as an active conservation landscape and demonstrated that mining and biodiversity outcomes can successfully coexist with appropriate management.
Centennial Coal
From Uncertainty to Innovation: Protecting the Blue Mountains Water Skink
Centennial Coal’s Springvale Mine has maintained a long term biodiversity management to help protect the endangered Blue Mountains Water Skink, and demonstrate that conservation and mining can coexist. Centennial achieved this through an integrated Before-After-Control-Impact (BACI) Monitoring and Genomics for Defensible Biodiversity Management, to allow an adaptive management approach to protecting the skink.
The Newnes Plateau’s upland swamps provide critical habitat for the Blue Mountains Water Skink, which is sensitive to changes in hydrology and post-fire recovery. Without robust quantitative data, it was difficult to distinguish mining effects from natural variability driven by drought and fire, limiting confidence in impact attribution and timely management responses.
Over more than a decade, the program has enabled evidence-based, site-specific management decisions that demonstrably protect the species while supporting mining operations.
Monitoring at key sites such as Paddy’s Creek has shown post-fire recovery with no sustained decline attributable to mining, confirming the effectiveness of adaptive planning in maintaining negligible impacts.
Overall, the program has strengthened environmental outcomes, reduced regulatory and operational risk, and enhanced Centennial’s reputation for scientifically rigorous biodiversity management.
