Energy Coal
- Johanna Nkosi, dragline operator for three years on Marion 8 at Eikeboom, Ingwe, South Africa.
Energy Coal is one of the world’s largest producers and marketers of export thermal coal that is primarily used in power generation. Energy Coal assets stretch across the globe:
- Ingwe, South Africa (100% ownership)
- Hunter Valley Energy Coal, Australia (100% ownership)
- Cerrejon Coal, South America (33.3% ownership)
- New Mexico Coal, North America (100% ownership)
- Caroona Coal Project, Australia (100% ownership)
- Exclusive agents for PT Arutmin, Indonesia
With our unique blend of export and domestic customers we aim to play a significant role in satisfying the worldwide demand for this commodity. Our global footprint and our multi-source supply strategy underpin our commitment to and capability of delivering to customer requirements.
2006 Sustainability Performance Overview
Key features of Energy Coal’s sustainability performance for the reporting period 2005/06 were:
- With great sadness, we report that Energy Coal did not achieved a fatality free year. On 24 June 2006, a contractor at Ingwe’s Rietspruits Coal Processing Plant in South Africa was fatally injured as a result of an accidental release of coal into the trainloading flask he was working in. Investigations are in progress to determine the root cause.
- We also have experienced a number of potentially serious incidents involving falls of ground in our underground mines and surface mobile equipment in our opencast mines.
- We are increasing awareness and support for our four HSEC pillars, being Fatality Prevention, Behavioural Alignment, Leadership Development and Risk Management.
- We continued to implement preventative measures in accordance with the BHP Billiton Fatal Risk Control Protocols. Current self-assessments indicate that Energy Coal sites are 91 per cent compliant with Protocol requirements, against a target of 95 per cent. The changeover from a site-based risk assessment methodology to the BHP Billiton Enterprise-Wide Risk Management methodology were noted during site audits as causing some adequacy issues.
- We did not meet our expectation for overall safety performance, with our Total Recordable Injury Frequency Rate (TRIFR) reducing by 3.6 per cent this year, against a target of 20 per cent. Reductions in TRIFR were experienced at New Mexico (24.6 per cent) and Mount Arthur Coal (15 per cent); Ingwe experienced a two per cent increase due primarily to the effect of significant restructuring initiatives.
- We achieved acceptable performance against our leading safety targets: incident reporting and workplace safety observations. Workplace safety observations involve specially trained employees conducting regular assessments of colleagues’ day-to-day workplace activities to ensure tasks are completed safely. We achieved 130 per cent of our target for workplace safety observations for the year, which amounted to some 40,000 observations across the CSG. Each observation presents an excellent opportunity to influence the behaviour of employees and to promote safe working conditions.
- All Energy Coal operations have completed baseline health studies from which BHP Billiton will set improvement targets for the next 5 years from 2007
- We achieved the target for implementation of our health, environment and community plans.
- Behaviour-based safety systems were implemented at all sites.
- One Level 3 environmental incident was reported at Ingwe’s Optimum Colliery. Significant volumes of affected water decanted into a public stream and dam after heavy rains during January and February 2006.
- All controlled sites, except Khutala Colliery, maintained their ISO 14001 certification. The certification of Khutala Colliery lapsed due to a change in certification authority and an audit could not be scheduled in time. A certification audit for Khutala is scheduled for August 2006.
- Read more: Energy Coal 2006 Environmental Data Summary.
2007 Sustainability Outlook
Looking ahead for the Energy Coal CSG, focus on the BHP Billiton Key Sustainability Challenges will include the following:
Eliminating Fatal Risks
- Continuing to foster and monitor awareness and support for our four HSEC pillars of Fatality Prevention, Behavioural Alignment, Leadership Development and Risk Management
- Embedding the Fatal Risk Control Protocols within our organisation and improving levels of compliance.
Occupational and Community Health
- Continuing to implement our occupational and community health plans to meet existing and future targets and demonstrate continuous improvement.
Sustainable Community Development and Closure of Operations
- Completing Closure Plans at all Energy Coal operations in accordance with BHP Billiton requirements and guidelines
- Demonstrating continuous improvement in the implementation of our community plans.
Access to and Management of Resources
- Monitoring the efficiency and effectiveness of our water management plans, in recognition that access to water and excess affected water presents a key sustainability challenge to our Company. Of particular interest is Ingwe, where we will be commissioning, in the near future, water treatment plants for the treatment of excess affected water from closed operations.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
- All operations have conducted baseline studies and developed plans to limit and possibly reduce their energy consumption per unit of production, which will have a positive effect on greenhouse gas emissions. Our New Mexico operations will, however, be mining deeper and into areas with higher gas concentrations; and as a result it will be extremely difficult to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emitted per unit of production. Other initiatives are currently being evaluated to address this issue.
