GRT cements its reputation as a world leader in the battle against air pollution

Press Release: 18 May 2020

Over the course of the last 12-months, leading Australian resource sector and civil services firm Global Road Technology (GRT) has experienced a surge in enquiries from the mining, construction and agricultural sectors after a nationwide tightening of legislation in the wake of recent deaths from silicosis and Coal Workers’ Pneumoconiosis (CWP) caused by airborne diseases resulted in new government legislation requiring companies to reduce air pollution caused by their activities. 

This surge in demand follows a renewed focus by the Australian federal and state governments that have placed an impetus on the strengthening of legislation for the purpose of ensuring firms have comprehensive dust control management strategies to meet the new exposure standards for coal and silica dust. This has required a greater focus on compliance from the mining, construction and agricultural sectors to ensure that dust management strategies are a core focus to reduce the impact that air pollution has on both workers and communities. 

Safe Work Australia, the national policy body responsible for Workplace Health and Safety (WHS) laws, has instructed Australia’s state governments to halve the occupational exposure limits (OEL) for silica dust to 0.05 mg/m3 and further reduce the OEL for other mineral dust from 2.5 mg/m3 to 1.5 mg/m3.

For the Managing Director of GRT, Troy Adams, the surge in growth the firm has experienced over the past two years validates the significant, decade-long investment the company has made in solutions and services specifically designed to mitigate the impact of air pollution from the mining, construction and agricultural sectors and meet the requirements of Safe Work Australia. 

“Our firm’s products, applications and services are nearly all developed within Australia for the purpose of adhering to or exceeding Australian government guidelines on dust suppression and are developed to the highest standards for the purpose of aiding our clients in compliance to safeguard their workers and avoid fines or other legal penalties,” said Mr Adams. 

“We made a decision as a business some time ago that wanted to be seen as a global leader in our field and this has meant that our focus when developing a new product or providing a service follows the set of principles outlined particularly well by the Queensland government when they updated their legislation in 2018. This means that our approach is based around implementing engineering controls (chemistry and hardware) to assist clients in generating less dust, suppressing or capturing it at the point of generation. An example of this is our product GRT: Activate UG that ‘super-activates water’ to overcome the ability of coal and silica dust to escape by coating airborne particles, forcing them to drop out of suspension in the air.”

GRT is a world leader in the development of infrastructure and process solutions for the mining, civil and agricultural sectors that minimise safety issues, the environmental impact of road building and can be applied across various soil types – making it extremely adaptable – a major reason for its usage within the Australian mining sector. 

GRT has developed a range of innovative chemical additives – GRT: Haul-Loc, GRT: Activate, GRT: Ore-Loc, and GRT: Wet-Loc designed specifically for managing and containing dust for the purpose of protecting workers on mining sites and nearby residents and landholders from airborne dust pollution and disease. For countries with largely resource-based economies like Australia, these solutions are in high-demand it allows clients to operate more efficiently whilst protecting staff, communities and the local environment. 

GRT General Manager Mr Daniel Grundy outlines that the firm’s core focus on becoming an industry leader in supporting the mining sector is based around adhering to one core focus – reducing the risk of workers being exposed to hazardous dust particles. 

“Our products and services are designed for the purpose of reducing the impact of airborne dust on people and operations,” Mr Grundy said. 

The Queensland state governments legislation in relation to hazard reduction lines up with the way we develop our own solutions – what is the most effective way to eliminate this hazard. For example – you can’t change the nature of coal, but changing the nature of the water sprayed for dust suppression is something GRT can do! This captures dust, eliminates the hazard, and also has the added benefit of saving water in many of the often dry parts of Australia that much of our mining activity occurs.”

Source: USA Today