Mineral Exploration

Working in teams – a good strategy for the core shack. 20 Mineral Exploration | amebc.ca ENVIRONMENT HEALTH & SAFETY PHOTO: GARY WESAAME Tales From the Field Use anecdotes and personal accounts to make your safety message compelling By PETER CAULFIELD H ectoring your employees and contractors about safety doesn't work; nobody likes being told what to do. But brief and simple personal anecdotes describing how somebody averted disaster by playing it safe – or came to grief by taking an unnecessary chance – will grab and hold listeners' attention. And get the safety message across. Gather round, everyone, and listen carefully. Bill Mercer, vice-president of exploration at Avalon Advanced Materials Inc., is going to tell us all a story about safety and helicopters: My first summer in the bush – it was probably in the mid-1970s and I wasn't with my present employer – I was in charge of a camp in northern Saskatchewan. It was during the uranium exploration boom, and we were looking for uranium. We had a helicopter, which came with a pilot and an engineer, full time in the camp. The engineer was very young and inexperienced. The other geologists in camp came to me and said I had to do something about him because he was throwing buckets of aviation fuel onto the evening campfire. The fuel caused huge explosions and alarmed the other guys. So I spoke to the engineer. He told me he had to use up the gas left in the bottom of the drums because it was dirty. I told him not to do it. But he did it again. And I did nothing serious to stop him. A month later, the camp broke up and the helicopter flew oƒ with both pilot and engineer. Later on, in a diƒerent camp, we needed a helicopter for one week. As soon as the machine had flown in, we could see that the pilot was none other than the problem engineer, who now had his pilot's licence. My crew told me straight oƒ they wouldn't fly with him. "Give him time," I said. "Anyway, it's only for one week." And quite a week it was. One day, when he was landing in a swamp to pick up two of us, the 'copter's blades hit a dead tree and one of the blade tips flew oƒ. The helicopter was barely able to fly because of the imbalance between the blades. The engineer/pilot removed the tip oƒ the other blade so the helicopter could fly in balance again. But of course, the blades no longer had their protective tips. A few years later, he was flying south from Prince George in early winter. The passengers were senior executives of a timber and pulp mill company. A snowstorm came up and the helicopter went into the side of a mountain. Everyone was killed. Mercer says his experience with the unfortunate engineer/pilot was a learning experience. And, naturally, he relates his lessons learned in the form of a story. As a young geologist in charge of a camp, I did not understand my responsibility or my authority. I also knew almost nothing about helicopter safety. Before that first season in the field, I had never flown in one. What I learned is that you cannot have bad attitudes and procedures with helicopters; they're dangerous machines. I also realized the young man's early activities were indicators of what would happen at the end. As soon as I found him burning aviation fuel in the campfire, I should have called the helicopter charter company and said I was dismissing him and expected a replacement immediately, or it no longer had our contract. When I tell this story to young geologists going into the field, I tell them to learn from my experience and not make my mistakes. They should take action if there's a problem, and the result could be lives saved. Another safety expert who uses storytelling to good e‹ect is Holly Keyes, health, safety, environment and community co-ordinator at Rio Tinto Exploration Canada Inc. Here is a story Keyes often tells:

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