Team awarded for eliminating high-risk routine task at Hillside Aluminium

This safety improvement has won Team 2 - Potline 2 and Reduction Services, the title of Q2 Safety Guarantee Champions – the second consecutive win for Hillside Aluminium in FY26. Our Safety Guarantee Awards program recognises the people and teams across South32 who go above and beyond to make sure everyone goes home safe and well.

Previously performed up to 10 times per day in the pot rooms, the task posed a daily risk to these teams and it had been performed that way for decades.

At the centre of the improvement are the six anode beam raisers, which play a critical role in restoring anode beams to their correct operating position across the smelter’s 720 reduction cells. This adjustment is required based on electrolytic consumption of the anodes and is essential to maintaining consistent aluminium production.

Until now, the anode beam raising task required our people to manually raise collapsible handrails and climb an elevated platform. Once on the platform, they would connect electrical plugs and pneumatic hoses to 29-tonne hooks, which meant exposure to working at heights and manual handling risks.

Recognising the opportunity for hazard elimination, the team redesigned the work method so that all electrical and pneumatic connections can now be made at ground level. This removed the need for anyone to climb the platform or interact with collapsible handrails, fundamentally changing how the task is performed and eliminating the risk.

Thanks to the team’s commitment to living our safety guarantee and continuously striving for improvement, a high-risk daily task has been transformed into a safer, ergonomically improved, ground-based activity.

Presenting the award to the team, Chief Operating Officer Southern Africa Noel Pillay praised the team’s innovation and commitment to striving for better.

“There’s a culture here of recognition, continuous improvement and collaboration, and a real desire to keep doing better,” Noel said. “We see that reflected in the many safety improvement ideas that come through from our people.”

Congratulations to the team for leading by example and demonstrating that when we challenge the way we work, especially routine tasks, we can make South32 a place where everyone goes home safe and well, every day.