Safety is our number one priority. We are committed to safe production and to the proactive management of risks facing our people.
Working safely on our site is everyone’s responsibility. As a processing plant, we require a consistent and holistic approach to improving both health and safety. We believe that all incidents and injuries are preventable and want to ensure our employees, contractors and visitors share our vision of zero injuries or incidents.
View more health and safety information on the Nyrstar global site.
Under the Tasmanian Work, Health and Safety Act 2012 (WHS Act), Nyrstar Hobart is a licenced ‘Major Hazard Facility’ due to the type and quantity of hazardous chemicals on site.
Under this licence, we have conducted a full review of substances held or generated on site and identified five potential major incidents. A ‘major incident’ is a term used in the legislation to describe a major event or failure that results in a loss of containment of a substance and potentially ‘exposes a person to a serious risk to health or safety’. A summary of these is provided below:
- Uncontrolled discharge of sulphur trioxide (SO3) from the Acid Plant and Roasters
- Loss of control of chlorine dosing chemicals
- Hydrogen explosion in Leach/Purification plants
- Loss of control of hydrogen peroxide
- LPG fire or explosion.
All these risks have been subject to a thorough review of control systems and processes to ensure their ongoing effectiveness to prevent an incident from occurring, and guide us in reducing the consequences in the unlikely event that any did occur. Nyrstar Hobart has an integrated management system in place which is based on continuous improvement and reducing risks in a systematic and sustainable way. All these risks have been subject to thorough review to ensure the ongoing effectiveness of our controls that prevent an incident from occurring. In the unlikely event, an incident occurs, our well-trained Emergency Response Team can effectively reduce the consequences of such an event.
Site alarms and what they mean
From time to time you may hear alarms or sirens from our site.
The purpose of our alarms is to inform our workforce that the workplace is to be vacated to an assembly area. The table below describes the department sirens and what they mean. It also shows the time of the weekly department siren test.
The important thing for all our neighbours to remember is that if you hear an alarm do not be alarmed but do not approach the site either. Emergency services (Police, Fire or SES) will contact neighbours in the event that you need to take action such as staying indoors.
| Roast Alarm: | |
| What it sounds like: | An oscillating siren, very similar to an air raid siren |
| Weekly test: | Wednesdays between 12:30pm – 1:00pm |
| Leach/Purification Alarm: | |
| What it sounds like: | LEACH: An oscillating siren, very similar to an air raid siren PURIFICATION: Continuous ringing bell |
| Weekly test: | Wednesdays between 12:30pm – 1:00pm |
| Electrolysis Alarm: | |
| What it sounds like: | An oscillating siren, very similar to an air raid siren |
| Weekly test: | Wednesdays between 12:30pm – 1:00pm |
| Casting Alarm: | |
| What it sounds like: | A continuous high pitched siren |
| Weekly test: | Wednesdays between 12:30pm – 1:00pm |