Modern Mining October 2023

promulgated Mine Health and Safety regulation on trackless mobile machinery, which requires supervi sors to effectively manage the smooth flow of man and machine. “It is paramount that operators know how to main tain their equipment and how to respond and behave when warning signals are issued. Equally important is that pedestrians at mine sites (workers) know the areas to avoid in high traffic or hazardous zones.” Following the enforcement of the regulation, which came into effect in December 2022, MRTA is tracking a significant demand for training related to mining equipment and product maintenance. Speaking of the third key component of the Licence to Supervise programme – neuroscience – Pretorius says these days supervisors are faced with a completely different set of challenges from those of a decade ago, when the focus was on technical production and related safety issues. “The supervisor in today’s world has to under stand the nuances of diversity, culture and customs, amongst others, to effectively lead his or her team. Our neuroscience programme is specifi cally designed to teach supervisors how the brain receives and interprets information and that emo tions triggered by our thoughts are a predominant driver of behaviour. We provide our supervisors with the toolkits and an understanding of how to deal with and influence what they are saying and how they say it,” says Risk Executive, Trevor Schultz.

hazardous situations in the workplace. Moreover, these teaching methodologies extend to our super visors and operators of trackless equipment and engineering support services, and cover all main and sub activities across the full mining cycle of work,” explains Pretorius. Speaking of the technical and supervisory aspects of the programme, Pretorius explains that the focus is to upskill supervisors on how to oversee people and operators, especially in caring for equip ment and managing traffic flow between equipment, material and personnel, in heavy traffic areas. As part of the training, MRTA monitors operator competencies across three levels: foundational, reflexive, and practical. “Our extended reality framework was designed against the backdrop of the situational leadership model and ensures all areas of competencies are addressed, namely foundational, reflexive, practical and workplace experience.” Reflexive competencies refer to the “what if” aspects of the job and deal with potential risks that may be faced. There are three facets to reflexive competencies, namely, health and safety consid erations of an operation, machine appreciation to ensure that equipment doesn’t suffer premature failure, and workplace productivity enhancement to determine whether an individual is able to meet the demands of the workplace. The programme also aligns to the recently

Above: The blended learning environment at MRTA, including the use of VR. Left: E-learning is a foundational building block of the MRTA programmes.

Left: Training at MRTA incorporates an extended reality framework. Below: An investment in simulators provides an immersive learning environment at MRTA.

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