A Papua New Guinea Mine improves on-site sanitation and hygiene with a proactive underground toilet service plan.
Regular service and maintenance are critical to all machinery, including underground toilets. Without servicing, equipment may not be ready to use when needed.
Machinery in the resource industry is exposed to harsh environmental conditions that affect their componentry. This environment presents a challenge to organisations who are trying to maintain a high operational standard of equipment.
Ensuring Hygiene and Safety Site
A service plan is a versatile solution to ensure equipment is routinely checked. The plan outlines the timing and type of services required to ensure industrial toilets are clean and always prepared. In some cases, companies can seek the expertise of external contractors to provide specialised assistance.
One Oceanic site was looking to upgrade its hygiene and safety operations by implementing a routine service schedule. The metalliferous mining operation in Papua New Guinea (PNG) has been in production since the early ’90s. Utilising open-pit and underground mining, the site has established itself as one of the world’s leading suppliers of gold and silver.
Site Challenges and Solutions
Challenges
- Ensure the large fleet of underground toilets is always ready for use.
- Maintain the company’s high standards towards hygiene underground.
- Improve practices within the service division to be more proactive.
Solutions
- Proactive maintenance through a service plan.
- Simplify toilet maintenance to sustain high sanitation levels.
Proactive Maintenance Through an Underground Toilet Service Plan
Routine servicing involves keeping equipment and machinery in optimal working condition. Industrial toilets are routinely used pieces of equipment; these mechanisms require regular care to ensure they continue to operate in underground conditions.
The PNG site felt a tailored service plan was the ideal solution. After inspection, MineARC provided key recommendations to the site, which included consumables, parts and service periods. The two-year contract outlined fixed intervals where MineARC’s Technicians would provide a service, travel and labour estimates and parts requirements.
Simplify Toilet Maintenance to Sustain High Sanitation Levels
Maintaining high sanitation levels in a tropical climate is crucial to the health of personnel on-site. Mine toilets, whether above or below ground need to be routinely serviced to ensure they are performing at their optimal level and process waste efficiently. The PNG site uses MineARC’s EnviroLAV Toilets as their primary hygiene solution through the underground drifts. These mine toilets have been installed in workshops and high traffic areas in the drives.
In conjunction with the refuge chambers, a regular servicing schedule was developed to ensure the reliability of these self-processing systems. A full service on the fleet entails the replacement of critical parts, service components and consumables.
If assets such as underground toilets fail, it can put peoples health at risk. One solution is a service plan; a predetermined schedule of service checks which ensures mine toilets are reviewed regularly and meet required safety standards.
Servicing and maintenance are essential; generating value through cost control, asset utilisation and resource allocation. More importantly, servicing ensures toilets are in optimal status to sanitation support to all staff.