Kettlebell swing challenge to raise funds
FOR BREAST CANCER RESEARCH
Recently more than 200 people,
including many Nyrstar employees
paid to swing their arms until they
were about to fall off in a 24 hour
kettlebell swing challenge.
The event was held at Van Demon
Fitness Centre and was organised by
Nyrstar electrician and personal trainer
Clinton Leaman and gym owner Heath
Barwick.
“There are a few people at the gym who
have suffered from breast cancer and
we thought it would be good to raise
some money to help,” Clinton said.
looked like they had been gripping
barbed wire!” he said.
Participants paid a $10 donation at the
door and this entitled them to swing for
as long as they could.
The event raised over $6000 for breast
cancer research and the duo plan on
doing it all again next year.
nyr to you
Resources for a changing world
Just for fun they added in a 500 kg tyre
flip activity every hour, on the hour.
“One person swung the kettlebell for
2.5 hours which was 5500 thousand
times! When she finished her hands
NYRSTAR NEWSLETTER A U T U M N
2 0 1 5
Groundwater Interception
BORE COMPLETION
Nyrstar Hobart has completed a major groundwater
remediation project at the northern end of the site.
ABOVE LEFT: The Group in action.
ABOVE RIGHT: Clinton Leaman and Heath Barwick taking a break from the
tyre flipping.
RIGHT: Michael Leaman showing how it is done.
BELOW: Supermen Joe Potter and Clinton Leaman.
Community Consultation Meeting
We would like to keep you up to date
with what’s happening at Nyrstar and
hear from you about any ideas,
suggestions and issues you may have
regarding the zinc works.
To do that, we’d like to invite you to a
community meeting.
We will hold the meeting in the
Administration Building on site.
There is ample car parking space in front
of the Administration building.
We will be starting the meeting at
6.00pm and refreshments will be served
at the commencement of the meeting.
Date: Wednesday 18th March 2015
Time: 6:00pm – 7:00pm
If you’d like to attend please RSVP :
Location: Nyrstar Administration
[email protected]
Building, Risdon Road Lutana
By Monday 15th March 2015.
Nyrstar Reception on 6278 4444 or
Feedback
Feedback and suggestions for the newsletter are welcome...
Please contact Communications and Community Relations Advisor, Sharni Driessen
Tel: 6278 4444
Email: [email protected]
Nyrstar Hobart Smelter, Risdon Road, Lutana, Tasmania 7009
www.nyrstarhobart.com
Nyrstar_Autumn 2015.indd 1-3
Agenda
6pm to 7pm
Welcome and Introduction –
Sharni Driessen –
Communications Advisor
Plant Manager’s
Business Update –
Richard Curtis – Plant Manager
Environmental Program
Update –
Sophie Buttery – Acting
Environment Superintendent
26TEN and Nyrstar –
Tammy Reeves –
Training Coordinator
Questions and Discussions –
All
Acting Environment
Superintendent Sophie Buttery
advised Nyr to You that the
project is aimed at reducing
metal loads to the Derwent
Estuary by capturing
contaminated groundwater.
“The $400,000 project means a
further reduction in heavy metal
loads to the Derwent River and
completes the first stage of
‘isolating’ the site from the river,”
Sophie said.
across the site plus a network of
95 monitoring bores which are
used to assess the success of
remediation activities.”
In the past five years Nyrstar has
invested around $20 million in
significant environmental
projects and continues its strong
financial support for the
Derwent Estuary Program.
Rock core being removed.
The system consists of a 230m
sub-surface horizontal drainagewell, with an entry point from
the neighbouring Incat ship
builders. A 15m vertical
extraction-well allows
groundwater to be pumped
through to the site’s water
treatment plant.
Sophie said the drilling proved
to be a very challenging task as
the new bore is just 80mm wide
and had to be drilled through 10
meters of solid rock to intercept
with an existing bore that is
150mm wide.
“It was like trying to find a needle
in a haystack,” she said.
” Nyrstar Hobart currently has
seven similar extraction systems
Preparing to drill the bore.
18/02/2015 4:00 pm
Accessing new markets
THROUGH NEW NYRSTAR PRODUCT
2015 will be a defining year for Nyrstar Hobart as we prepare
our site to operate following the closure of one of our major raw
materials suppliers, the Century Mine, later in 2015. This will
present both challenge and opportunity.
Concentrates from the Century
Mine in northern Queensland
comprise around 70% of our raw
materials feed, and with new
concentrates bearing different
characteristics, we have to be
prepared for higher iron and other
metals in our feed which means
undertaking technical modifications
to lift process constraints. The
change in concentrates is also part
of Nyrstar’s global Metals
Processing transformation strategy
– targeting feed with a wider range
of valuable metals which can be
recovered through technical
concentrating and recovery
processes.
Nyrstar undertook a broad review
of its global smelting assets and
identified a significant number of
growth projects which would
support the business’ fundamental
shift from being purely a volumefocused zinc business to a business
focused on recovering all value-infeed.
In 2014 a number of these
important growth projects
commenced, including the $514m
redevelopment of the Port Pirie
facility to a poly-metallic recovery
centre. This facility is fundamental
to Nyrstar’s transformation strategy
and presents excellent
opportunities for Hobart through
unique product-recycling loops
with the Port Pirie operation. This
will create the opportunity to
produce higher value concentrates
and recover valuable minor and
precious metals.
Nyrstar_Autumn 2015.indd 4-6
To support the transformation
strategy, there are a small number
of growth projects earmarked for
Hobart, with a funding solution
currently being identified.
As a major employer in the state
with around 3,500 jobs relying on
our operation, our business
sustainability is critical to many
Tasmanian families, businesses,
local suppliers and service
providers.
The Big Picture Tasmania campaign
is still going strong with MMG,
Veolia, Nubco, Lloyds North and
Elphinstone joining Norske Skog,
Nyrstar, Bell Bay Aluminium and
Grange Resources in raising the
profile of the important value
industry in Tasmania creates.
This year we will be continuing our
focus on school engagement
activities to support improved
educational outcomes, by providing
opportunity for students to
experience and understand how
vital industry operations are in
terms of social and economic
benefits.
I hope you can join us at our next
regular community consultation
meeting on Wednesday 18th
March.
ABOVE: Marg Neilson from Performance Growth
and Tammy Reeves working on the new templates.
Strengthening
safety with plain
English and 26TEN
The commitment Nyrstar has for employee
safety is further enhanced by the decision to
provide Induction Booklets, Standard
Operating Procedures (SOP) and Maintenance
Procedures in a plain English format.
Nyrstar Training Coordinator, Tammy Reeves,
became involved in the 26TEN program in
2013. Tammy could see the benefits of
incorporating the principles of plain English
into the site’s instruction documents.
“I arranged for a number of senior employees
to attend a workshop on the principles of
writing in plain English. Everyone was
enthusiastic about the concept, but with over
14,000 procedures across our site to be
addressed, the task is overwhelming,” Tammy
said.
“We successfully applied for a LINC grant that
has provided us with the additional resources
needed to get the process started by creating
templates we could populate.”
Tammy said the language of the revised
Induction Booklet is clear.
“The booklet is now in the final stages of
checking before being used and the SOP
template has undergone trials with a small
group of employees.”
Margaret Neilsen and Georgina Cane from
Performance Growth have been working with
Tammy on the templates and both said they
have found Nyrstar an inspiring company to
work with
Environment Superintendent James Burke, Environment Advisor Sophie Buttery, Safety Superintendent Steve Black, Senior Safety Advisor
Craig Reid and Emergency Response Officer Daniel Sloane working through the new questions at the pre-start meeting.
Human Performance
Nysrtar Hobart is continuing to work towards achieving a
world-class safety culture with all employees now having
taken part in the highly sophisticated program – Human
Performance .
Safety, Health, Environment and Quality Manager Todd
Milne said Human Performance is a continuation of our
existing safety leadership program, focused on employee
responsibility for safety and intervention to reduce the risk
of human error.
“Even the best make mistakes - but errors are predictable,
manageable and preventable if we can recognise them,
understand the cause of them and apply the lessons
learned from them,” Todd said.
“Everyone across the site is to be congratulated for their
commitment to strengthening our site’s safety capabilities
by embracing the Human Performance tools, but special
thanks must go to the employees who as certified Human
Todd said the challenge is to turn what has been learned
into everyday behaviour and ensure the language and tools
are part of how we perform our jobs.
Safety Superintendent Steve Black is in the process of
rolling out a new structure for pre-start meetings that is
based on Human Performance methodology.
“At the start of each shift teams will work through a series
of questions on a white board, this engages everyone to be
thinking about the tasks ahead of them and proactively
identifying traps and triggers that lead to incidents before
they occur,” Steve said.
An awareness video is also being created, enabling all new
employees to gain a basic understanding of what safety
means at Nyrstar Hobart prior to them undergoing the
formal Human Performance training.
TAKE A LOOK AT
THE BIG PICTURE.
bigpicturetas.com.au
RICHARD CURTIS
Performance trainers did a fantastic job in delivering over
50 training sessions throughout 2014.”
AND SPREAD
THE WORD
Casting Production Support Team Leader Terry Hinds and Casting Superintendent Mick Davis.
Hobart has produced a trial batch
of zinc aluminium manganese,
otherwise known as ZAM!
ZAM is a new generation speciality high grade
product. It is more durable and resilient than
traditional zinc products used in the
construction and automotive industries.
TAKE A LOOK AT
THE BIG PICTURE.
Sales Representative Stuart Mackley said this
24-tonne trial batch is the result of excellent
collaboration between Nyrstar’s Commercial
team and Hobart’s Casting department.
bigpicturetas.com.au
“This achievement is a shining example of what
it means to be a value-focussed business and
will open new market opportunities for
Nyrstar,” Stuart said.
Hobart Production Manager Kevin Halbe said
the Casting team lead by Superintendent Mick
Davis is to be congratulated for their drive and
flexibility in trialling a new product with
minimal disruption to the planned production
schedule.
“Our team has demonstrated we have the
capabilities to be nimble in responding to
market demands, and we look forward to
taking on the challenge of trialling more
technically complex, high premium product
mixes in the future,” he said.
BIGP11343_A_rj
Message from the Plant Manager
Richard Curtis
You may know these people, or you may know someone who knows them. They are proud to
work for some of Tasmania’s largest employers, producing products that may surprise you.
Big industries are important to Tasmania. They employ a lot of people, use a lot of local contractors
and suppliers, and put a lot back into the community.
Take a look at the big picture. Visit this website for more: bigpicturetas.com.au
Or visit us on Facebook: facebook.com/BigPictureTas
Boyer
18/02/2015 4:00 pm