2018
SAFETY
Nigel Bain
Turquoise Ridge’s
performance. Pollard said
he’d never seen the man
raise his voice in the five
years they worked together.
“He’s not a confrontational
leader,” he said. “You don’t
see him barking at people.
He leads by strength of character.”
igel Bain recently retired as Executive
Director Nevada with Barrick. When he
was Turquoise Ridge General Manager,
N
he was the 2016 winner of the International
Society of Mine Safety Professionals’
Leadership Award. In addition to recognising
Bain, the Society bestowed a ‘Recognition for
Internal Achievement Award’ on the entire
Turquoise Ridge mine.
“Turquoise Ridge has worked hard to change
its safety culture and it’s very satisfying to
receive this recognition,” Bain said at the time.
Turquoise Ridge, an underground operation
located in northern Nevada, is situated on
terrain that is difficult to mine. The ground is
highly fractured and rock quality is poor, making
safety a challenge. At one point in its history,
the operation was included among a group of
Nevada mines known as ‘widow makers’ due to
the high number of fatalities that had occurred
at them.
Bain became General Manager in mid-2011
and quickly set about revamping the mine’s
safety culture. “One of the things you notice
about him very quickly is that he maintains a
very high field presence,” said Simon Pollard,
Safety and Health Superintendent at Turquoise
Ridge. “He gets down into the mine, asks
questions and treats people with respect. He’s
just a very genuine person.”
That authenticity and the fact that Bain so
obviously cared for the well-being of his people
helped him earn their trust. So when he began
to make changes to enhance safety, the
workforce understood he had their best
interests at heart. “With Nigel it’s never about
trying to make the place look good so that he
looks good,” Pollard said. “He wants the place
to do well because he’s part of our team and he
wants the team to do well; safety is just the
most important aspect of that.”
One of the bigger changes that Bain oversaw
at Turquoise Ridge was the transition from jack
leg drills to fully-mechanised mining. Fickle and
difficult to handle, the hand-held drills require
miners to work directly beside or underneath
the rock face—a risky proposition at Turquoise
Ridge. Yet the transition, which began several
months after Bain became GM, raised concerns.
The miners were comfortable with jack legs,
enjoyed the challenge of operating them and
feared production would suffer if the drills were
phased out. Production did indeed suffer
initially and Bain encountered some resistance.
He never wavered.
“Nigel, like every General Manager, has
production pressures,” Pollard explained. “But
he didn’t bend. I remember him saying, ‘If we
give an inch on this, we show that we don’t
really care about safety.’ That’s the kind of
leader he is. He doesn’t buckle to pressure from
above or below, or take the easy way out. He
does the hard thing, the right thing.” Turquoise Ridge’s track record during Bain’s
tenure speaks volumes about the safety culture
that he helped instil. The operation recently
celebrated its third consecutive year with no
lost-time injuries. In one 12-month stretch
during this period, the mine had no injuries at
all. In 2010, Turquoise Ridge’s total reportable
injury frequency rate was 2.5.* It has since been
brought down to 0.32. That stellar safety
performance did not come at the expense of
production as Turquoise Ridge delivered its best
production ever in 2015.
For his part, Bain says it’s critical to stick with
a plan when you’re convinced you’ve made the
right choice. “You’ve got to remain true to your
vision,” he said. “People really do see that
actions speak louder than words.” “We’ve seen a remarkable change in the
safety culture at Turquoise Ridge,” said Bob
Dechant, Director of Safety and Health at
Barrick. “All of the folks at the operation
deserve credit, but Nigel has certainly led his
team towards a different understanding of how
to conduct their business, and safety has been
at the forefront. I don’t want to exclude our
other general managers and sites because
they’re doing some exceptional things as well,
but when you look at the turnaround at
Turquoise Ridge, I think the leadership that
Nigel has shown has just been exemplary.”
While he sticks to his guns when he believes
he’s made the right choice, Bain was always
open to different views. Indeed, he expected to
be challenged by his people and allowed his
leaders to lead. “He understands he can’t do it
all himself,” said Jon Laird, Mine Operations
Superintendent at Turquoise Ridge. “He listens,
follows up, asks for
opinions and acts quickly
when convinced those
opinions are correct. It’s
one of the things that make
him very, very strong.”
Bain has a calm,
understated manner
about him that belies a
passion and enthusiasm
to continuously improve
HoF 4 International Mining | JUNE 2019 Supplement
Bain believes fervently that strong safety
performance and strong production are not
mutually exclusive. Indeed, he believes they go
hand in hand, noting that success in both areas
rests on the ability to consistently make good
decisions, particularly when a crisis occurs. One
of Barrick’s core values is to act with urgency, a
notion that encapsulates Bain’s expectations of
his people. “Acting with urgency doesn’t mean
rush and hurry up,” he says. “It means make
rapid, thoughtful decisions—and thoughtful is
the key part—rather than charging ahead when
things go wrong or the pressure is on.”
Jon Laird, Underground Mine Operations
Superintendent at Barrick Hemlo, adds that
Bain’s achievements “support the theory of ‘If
you get the safety right the rest will follow.’ In
addition to the safety improvement gold
production also roughly doubled during Nigel’s
time at TR.”
*Total reportable injury frequency rate is a
ratio calculated as follows: number of
reportable injuries multiplied by 200,000 hours
divided by the total number of hours worked.
Reportable injuries include fatalities, lost time
injuries, restricted duty injuries, and medically
treated injuries.