Riskgate: Industry Sharing Risk Controls Across Australian Coal Operations

Abstract

RISKGATE is an interactive online risk management body of knowledge developed by the Minerals Industry Safety and Health Centre, University of Queensland, to assist the mining industry in implementing continual improvement in management of major unwanted events thus maximising health, safety and operational performance. This body of knowledge generates substantive and leading edge controls to assist mining industry stakeholders in risk assessments, incident investigation, audits and training. The first 11 RISKGATE topics (Collisions, Tyres, Isolation, Strata Underground, Ground Control Open Cut, Fires, Explosions, Explosives Underground, Explosives Open Cut, Manual Tasks, Slips/Trips/Falls) were launched in December 2012. RISKGATE is the largest single Australian Coal Association Research Program occupational health and safety initiative to date. All major Australian coal mining companies are contributing topic experts to this broad industry initiative with over 400 days of industry expert time logged in action research workshops during 2011-2012 to develop the knowledge base for the first 11 topics. From a broader industry perspective, RISKGATE provides knowledge capture and knowledge exchange that will drive industry-wide innovation and best practice in the identification, assessment and management of risk. By capturing operational knowledge from industry experts, RISKGATE provides a cumulative corporate memory at a time of high personnel turnover in the coal industry. There is no reason that the RISKGATE approach and system could not be adapted to knowledge management requirements of a broad range of other high risk industries.