Personal injury in motor accident in NSW - procedural requirements under Motor Accidents Insurance Act 1988 (NSW)

In Hooper v Robinson [2002] QDC 080 (District Court of Queensland, D 4841 of 2001, McGill DCJ, 19.4.2002) McGill DCJ considered the application of the decision in John Pfeiffer Pty Ltd v Rogerson [2000] 203 CLR 503 to notice requirements such as in s42 of NSW Motor Accident Insurance Act 1988 and concluded such provisions are now substantive.

A comparison of three models for mine water management

Water management is vital for mine sites both for production and sustainability related issues. Effective water management is a complex task since the role of water on mine sites is multifaceted. Computers models are tools that represent mine site water interaction and can be used by mine sites to inform or evaluate their water management strategies. There exist several types of models that can be used to represent mine site water interactions. This paper presents three such models: an operational model, an aggregated systems model and a generic systems model. For each model the paper provides a description and example followed by an analysis of its advantages and disadvantages. The paper hypotheses that since no model is optimal for all situations, each model should be applied in situations where it is most appropriate based upon the scale of water interactions being investigated, either unit (operation), inter-site (aggregated systems) or intra-site (generic systems).

Chemical and bioanalytical assessment of coal seam gas associated water

A comprehensive study was undertaken involving chemical (inorganic and organic) and bioanalytical (a suite of 14 in vitro bioassays) assessments of coal seam gas (coal bed methane) associated water (CSGW) in Queensland, Australia. CSGW is a by-product of the gas extraction process and is generally considered as water of poor quality. This was done to better understand what is known about the potential biological and environmental effects associated with the organic constituents of CSGW in Australia. In Queensland, large amounts of associated water must be withdrawn from coal seams to allow extraction of the gas. CSGW is disposed of via release to surface water, reinjected to groundwater or reused for irrigation of crops or pasture, supplied for power station cooling and or reinjected specifically to augment drinking water aquifers. Groundwater samples were collected from private wells tapping into the Walloon Coal Measures, the same coal aquifer exploited for coal seam gas production in the Surat Basin, Australia. The inorganic characteristics of these water samples were almost identical to the CSGW entering the nearby gas company operated Talinga-Condabri Water Treatment Facility. The water is brackish with a pH of 8 to 9, high sodium, bicarbonate and chloride concentrations but low calcium, magnesium and negligible sulphate concentrations. Only low levels of polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were detected in the water samples, and neither phenols nor volatile organic compounds were found. Results from the bioassays showed no genotoxicity, protein damage, or activation of hormone receptors (with the exception of the estrogen receptor). However, five of the 14 bioassays gave positive responses: an arylhydrocarbon-receptor gene activation assay (AhR-CAFLUX), estrogenic endocrine activity (ERα-CALUX), oxidative stress response (AREc32), interference with cytokine production (THP1-CPA) and non-specific toxicity (Microtox). The observed effects were benchmarked against known water sources and were similar to secondary treated wastewater effluent, stormwater and surface water. As mixture toxicity modelling demonstrated, the detected PAHs explained less than 5% of the observed biological effects.

Systems modelling of mine water and energy tradeoffs

In the coming decades, the mining industry faces the dual challenge of lowering both its water and energy use. This presents a difficulty since technological advances that decrease the use of one can increase the use of the other. Historically, energy and water use have been modelled independently, making it difficult to evaluate the true costs and benefits from water and energy improvements. This paper presents a hierarchical systems model that is able to represent interconnected water and energy use at a whole of site scale. In order to explore the links between water and energy four technologies advancements have been modelled: use of dust suppression additives, the adoption of thickened tailings, the transition to dry processing and the incorporation of a treatment plant. The results show a synergy between decreased water and energy use for dust suppression additives, but a trade-off for the others.

A robust methodological approach for mine site water accounting

Over the past decade, the mining industry has come to recognise the importance of water both to itself and to others. Water accounting is a formalisation of this importance that quantifies and communicates how water is used by individual sites and the industry as a whole. While there are a number of different accounting frameworks that could be used within the industry, the Minerals Council of Australia’s (MCA) Water Accounting Framework (WAF) is an industry-led approach that provides a consistent representation of mine site water interactions regardless of their operational, social or environmental context that allows for valid comparisons between sites and companies. The WAF contains definitions of offsite water sources and destinations and onsite water use, a methodology for applying the definitions and a set of metrics to measure site performance. The WAF is comprised of two models: the Input-Output Model, which represents the interactions between sites and their surrounding community and the Operational Model, which represents onsite water interactions. Members of the MCA have recently adopted the WAF’s Input-Output Model to report on their external water interactions in their Australian operations with some adopting it on a global basis. To support this adoption, there is a need for companies to better understand how to implement the WAF in their own operations. Developing a water account is non-trivial, particularly for sites unfamiliar with the WAF or for sites with the need to represent unusual features. This work describes how to build a water account for a given site using the Input-Output Model with an emphasis on how to represent challenging situations.

Improving the accuracy of mine site water balances through improved estimation of runoff volumes

A mine site water balance is important for communicating information to interested stakeholders, for reporting on water performance, and for anticipating and mitigating water-related risks through water use/demand forecasting. Gaining accuracy over the water balance is therefore crucial for sites to achieve best practice water management and to maintain their social license to operate. For sites that are located in high rainfall environments the water received to storage dams through runoff can represent a large proportion of the overall inputs to site; inaccuracies in these flows can therefore lead to inaccuracies in the overall site water balance. Hydrological models that estimate runoff flows are often incorporated into simulation models used for water use/demand forecasting. The Australian Water Balance Model (AWBM) is one example that has been widely applied in the Australian context. However, the calibration of AWBM in a mining context can be challenging. Through a detailed case study, we outline an approach that was used to calibrate and validate AWBM at a mine site. Commencing with a dataset of monitored dam levels, a mass balance approach was used to generate an observed runoff sequence. By incorporating a portion of this observed dataset into the calibration routine, we achieved a closer fit between the observed vs. simulated dataset compared with the base case. We conclude by highlighting opportunities for future research to improve the calibration fit through improving the quality of the input dataset. This will ultimately lead to better models for runoff prediction and thereby improve the accuracy of mine site water balances.

A robust methodology for developing an operational systems view of mine water interactions

The Minerals Council of Australia’s (MCA) Water Accounting Framework (WAF) is an industry lead initiative to enable cross company communication and comparisons of water management performance. The WAF consists of two models, the Input-Output Model that represents water interactions between an operation and its surrounding environment and the Operational Model that represents water interactions within an operation. Recently, MCA member companies have agreed to use the Input-Output Model to report on their external water interactions in Australian operations, with some adopting it globally. The next step will be to adopt the Operational Model. This will expand the functionality of the WAF from corporate reporting to allowing widespread identification of inefficiencies and to connect internal and external interactions. Implementing the WAF, particularly the Operational Model, is non-trivial. It can be particularly difficult for operations that are unfamiliar with the WAF definitions and methodology, lack information pertaining to flow volumes or contain unusual configurations. Therefore, there is a need to help industry with its implementation. This work presents a step-by-step guide to producing the Operational Model. It begins by describing a methodology for implementing the Operational Model by describing the identification of pertinent objects (stores, tasks and treatments), quantification of flows, aggregation of objects and production of reports. It then discusses how the Operational Model can represent a series of challenging scenarios and how it can be connected with Input-Output Model to improve water management.

An integrated modeling and risk analysis tool for mine water interactions

Poor mine water management can lead to corporate, environmental and social risks. These risks become more pronounced as mining operations move into areas of water scarcity and/or increase climatic variability while also managing increased demand, lower ore grades and increased strip ratios. Therefore, it is vital that mine sites better understand these risks in order to implement management practices to address them. Systems models provide an effective approach to understand complex networks, particularly across multiple scales. Previous work has represented mine water interactions using systems model on a mine site scale. Here, we expand on that work by present an integrated tool that uses a systems modeling approach to represent mine water interactions on a site and regional scale and then analyses the risks associated with events stemming from those interactions. A case study is presented to represent three indicative corporate, environmental and social risks associated with a mine site that exists in a water scarce region. The tool is generic and flexible, and can be used in many scenarios to provide significant potential utility to the mining industry.

The robustness of mine water accounting over a range of operating contexts and commodities

Communicating the mining industry’s water use is fundamental to maintaining its social license to operate but the majority of corporate reporting schemes list indicators. The Minerals Council of Australia’s Water Accounting Framework was designed to assist the minerals industry obtain consistency in its accounting method and in the definitions of terms used in water reporting. The significance of this paper is that it shows that the framework has been designed to be sufficiently robust to describe any mining/mineral related operation. The Water Accounting Framework was applied across four operations over three countries producing four commodities. The advantages of the framework were then evident through the presentation of the reports. The contextual statement of the framework was able to explain contrasting reuse efficiencies. The Input-Output statements showed that evaporation was a significant loss for most of the operations in the study which highlights a weakness of reporting schemes that focus on discharge volumes. The framework method promotes data reconciliation which proved the presence of flows that two operations in the study had neglected to provide. Whilst there are many advantages of the framework, the major points are that the reporting statements of the framework, when presented together, can better enable the public to understand water interactions at a site-level and allows for valid comparisons between sites, regardless of locale and commodity. With mining being a global industry, these advantages are best realised if there was international adoption of the framework.

Assessment of Geogenic Contaminants in Water Co-Produced with Coal Seam Gas Extraction in Queensland, Australia : Implications for Human Health Risk

Organic compounds in Australian coal seam gas produced water (CSG water) are poorly understood despite their environmental contamination potential. In this study, the presence of some organic substances is identified from government-held CSG water-quality data from the Bowen and Surat Basins, Queensland. These records revealed the presence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in 27% of samples of CSG water from the Walloon Coal Measures at concentrations <1 µg/L, and it is likely these compounds leached from in situ coals. PAHs identified from wells include naphthalene, phenanthrene, chrysene and dibenz[a,h]anthracene. In addition, the likelihood of coal-derived organic compounds leaching to groundwater is assessed by undertaking toxicity leaching experiments using coal rank and water chemistry as variables. These tests suggest higher molecular weight PAHs (including benzo[a]pyrene) leach from higher rank coals, whereas lower molecular weight PAHs leach at greater concentrations from lower rank coal. Some of the identified organic compounds have carcinogenic or health risk potential, but they are unlikely to be acutely toxic at the observed concentrations which are almost negligible (largely due to the hydrophobicity of such compounds). Hence, this study will be useful to practitioners assessing CSG water related environmental and health risk.

Integrated approach to optimize open-pit mine block sequencing

Critical stage in open-pit mining is to determine the optimal extraction sequence of blocks, which has significant impacts on mining profitability. In this paper, a more comprehensive block sequencing optimisation model is developed for the open-pit mines. In the model, material characteristics of blocks, grade control, excavator and block sequencing are investigated and integrated to maximise the short-term benefit of mining. Several case studies are modeled and solved by CPLEX MIP and CP engines. Numerical investigations are presented to illustrate and validate the proposed methodology.

An open pit multistage mine production scheduling model for drilling, blasting and excavating operations

This paper proposes a new multi-resource multi-stage scheduling problem for optimising the open-pit drilling, blasting and excavating operations under equipment capacity constraints. The flow process is analysed based on the real-life data from an Australian iron ore mine site. The objective of the model is to maximise the throughput and minimise the total idle times of equipment at each stage. The following comprehensive mining attributes and constraints have been considered: types of equipment; operating capacities of equipment; ready times of equipment; speeds of equipment; block-sequence-dependent movement times of equipment; equipment-assignment-dependent operation times of blocks; distances between each pair of blocks; due windows of blocks; material properties of blocks; swell factors of blocks; and slope requirements of blocks. It is formulated by mixed integer programming and solved by ILOG-CPLEX optimiser. The proposed model is validated with extensive computational experiments to improve mine production efficiency at the operational level. The model also provides an intelligent decision support tool to account for the availability and usage of equipment units for drilling, blasting and excavating stages.

The role of human factors in led outdoor activity accidents: literature review and exploratory analysis

While the exact rate of incidence is unknown (due to the paucity of exposure data), it is acknowledged that safety compromising accidents and incidents occur in the led outdoor activity domain, and that they represent an important issue. Despite this, compared to other safety critical domains, very little is currently known about the key causal factors involved in such accidents and incidents. This report presents the findings derived from a review of the literature, the aim of which was to identify the Human Factors-related issues involved in accidents and incidents occurring in this area. In addition, to demonstrate the utility of systems-based, theoretically underpinned accident analysis methodologies for identifying the systemic and human contribution to accidents and incidents occurring in the led outdoor activity domain, three case-study accidents were analysed using two such approaches. In conclusion, the review identified a range of causal factors cited in the literature; however, it was noted that the majority of the research undertaken to date lacks theoretical underpinning and focuses mainly on instructor or activity leader causal factors, as opposed to the wider system failures involved. The accident analysis presented highlighted the utility of systems-based, theoretically underpinned accident analysis methodologies for analysing and learning from accidents and incidents in the led outdoor activity sector. In closing, the need for further research in the area is articulated, in particular focussing on the development of standardised and universally accepted accident and incident reporting systems and databases, the development of data driven, theoretically underpinned causal factor taxonomies, and the development and application of systems-based accident analysis methodologies.