ISSUE 7 Friday 15th January 2016

In this weeks edition

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Safe in the Hands of Our ERT

Managing Pot Recovery PL2
2015 A Cracker of a Year
Up with the Inspections, Down with the Money
Paste Plant Persisted into a New Year

Safe in the Hands of our ERT

When an onsite fire broke out
over the weekend, our Emergency Response Team responded extremely well...
Just before 4pm on Saturday, smoke was
reported coming from the Dross Plant,
and soon after flames were seen taking
hold of the Dross Plant conveyor.
The Tomago Emergency Response Team
was dispatched immediately and were at
the fire within minutes. External Emergency Services were also called as part of
protocol, and it wasnt long before, what
seemed to be every fire truck in Newcastle, was lined up at the front gate!

number of external emergency services, it

was our own team who responded very
effectively.
This incident highlights how important it
is for us to have our Emergency Response
Teams and to ensure we invest in providing the most up to date training for them.

Well done guys, a great effort,

humbly appreciated by us all.

A huge thank you to our own Emergency

Response Team who were first on the
scene and had everything under control
by the time external services arrived.

Walton, Dan
Metcalfe, Liam Simms and our
Security Team; Wayne Palmer and
David Wilde. Despite the presence of a

ERT For the overall control of crisis

management and leadership

Maintenance Teams for getting

Trommel 1 back up and running so
that CPO could continue processing
dross (Trommel 2 was the one impacted by the event).
Overall a massive effort
across site. This goes to
show again how great our
teams are working together
and especially in an emergency.

The fire was quickly brought under control and contained to the Dross Plant incline conveyor and storage silo. External
services remained on site until it was confirmed that there was no further heat
generation in the silo.
An investigation into the root cause of the
fire will be finalised today and this information will be shared with teams as soon
as possible.

operation and empty the hot dross

into the Pacman bins whilst the plant
was out of service.

We will learn a lot from this

event and how we control
high level risk but our challenge is to prevent these
events from occurring in the
future.
Do you work in an area that
handles hot material? What
are the controls? Do we use
The Dross Plant Incline Conveyor & Storage Silo
these controls? Are they
adequate?
What
could happen if we didThere are some other teams, on behalf of
nt
follow
the
controls?
the Casthouse, to thank for their efforts:

Carbon Plant For loaning their

dump truck & excavator allowing for
the dross silo to be emptied, eliminating the risk of fire inside the silo.

LMO For loaning their Pacman bins,

enabling Cast Products to continue

Great work Kyle

Managing Pot Recovery PL2

Following the great work from Reline teams to clean up and
restart pots, the Potline process have ensured the restarted
pots returned to normal operations without incident.

Restarted pots generate a lot of extra work and require close

monitoring to maintain pot control. Through December we
have restarted 5 pots safely during summer conditions, having a positive impact on tonnes produced. A fantastic effort
from all members of the Process team, well done!
Photo Adjacent: Jamie Schreiber, Ian Hutchison
& Steve Harvey

2015 A Cracker of a Year!

Reflecting on what we achieved last year, we can honestly say that 2015 was a
cracker of a year for Tomago.

We produced 580,519 tonnes which is 4,200t better than budget, 16,500t

more than 2014 and almost 35,ooot more than 2013! .wow!

Our metal quality was fantastic, averaging 999ppm, the best in more than
5 years and setting us up to meet our 2016 target of 950ppm.

Hazard identification improved out of site. The Hazard Event Ratio was 21
last year & together with your strong commitment to Mates looking after
Mates has been instrumental in reducing the number of recordable injuries
from 6 in 2014 to just 3 last year.

The challenges of a weak market remain & the effort to elimnate waste and
reduce costs is a major focus in 2016. I encourage you all to act on your
$10K Banked ideas. The savings add up pretty quickly...and of course
well vote on best idea each month with a prize for the winners.

The number of stories we received

throughout 2015 demonstrating outstanding team work within crews
and across departments has been
inspiring and developing this Blue
Bus culture even further in 2016
will underpin an even greater &
more satisfying year.

Up with the Inspections, Down with the Money

Paste Plant Saves $45,000 per
year thanks to the ownership
of our Operators!

The Paste Plant has 19 small de-dusting

filters that are used to manage the dust
generated from our material handling
circuits. These filters are currently serviced online (or Up inspection) by an
external contractor.

The Paste Plant operational teams have

undertaken the ownership of the Up
inspection checks on the 19 de-dusting
filters. These are performed on a weekly
basis whilst conducting daily plant
checks.

Ladders and walkways

These Up inspections were costing the

Paste Plant $40,000 per year.

The Up inspection includes the following

After trialling this process within the
checks:
Paste Plant it has been identified that a
Solenoids and air lines condition
further cost saving of $45,000
Reverse Pulse timing on each filter
per year can be achieved by inbank row
ternalising this process throughout all of
Differential pressure checks
the Carbon Department.
Emissions from exhaust fan
Fan: V belts, Noise and Bearings
This is a great example of Blue Bus
temperature
culture and can-do attitude, with
Fan suction
the Paste Plant teams taking on this Department.
Inspection doors and filter casing

process to reduce costs within the

Paste Plant Persisted into a New Year

In late November last year, Paste Plant 2 was stopped for a week for scheduled maintenance. The main task was
the change out of the Buss Mixer shaft and gates. On restart of the plant, it was observed that the desired tonnage
could not be achieved as per plan. So the mixer was then opened up for inspection. From
this inspection the decision was then made to change the setup of the shaft (clearances
Buss Mixer Shaft
around the mixing teeth). From here the team were then faced with its next challenge as
Paste Plant 2 was still not reaching the desired tonnage and the scheduled 3 day outage to
work on the List Mixer in Paste Plant 1 was upon the team. The team decided to keep to
the plan and perform the maintenance on the List Mixer while still supporting Paste Plant
2 Buss Mixer low tonnage.
On completion of the List Mixer scheduled maintenance, the Paste Plant team then went
about changing out the new Buss Mixer shaft back to the old. This was to increase the
throughput back to the design rate while the OEM was engaged for support on the new
shaft at a later time. Then, two days out from News Years Day, the List Mixer stopped with
a failed baffle guide that caused considerable damage. The team worked on this for the
next 5 days to return the plant. It was also within this time that both the Paste Plant and
Potline Maintenance Teams provided support within the Rod Shop as well.

These two very testing months displayed how all involved worked together
to get the plants operational again during the festive season with reduced
labour. This is great Blue Bus culture! Everyones efforts have certainly
been noticed and a large thank you goes to the following:
PP Maintenance Teams, both day and shift
Potline Maintenance Shift 1
PP Operational Teams
PP Technical Teams
Instant Access, AES, Veolia Fabs, Boom logistics and ECL

List Mixer failed baffle