Alcoa's Bill Knight awarded Mine Manager of the Year

Alcoa of Australia’s Bill Knight has taken out top honours at the 7th Annual Australian Mining Prospect Awards in Sydney. The awards aim to encourage, recognise and reward excellence in the Australian mining industry. Knight won Mine Manager of the Year which awards a mine manager or general manager who has led a team to improve productivity, safety, environmental standards and/or reached notable milestones.

Working through most areas of Alcoa’s Western Australian operations, since joining the company as an environmental scientist in 1980, Knight was promoted to the position of WA Manager of Mines in 2005.

Knight was recognised as Mine Manager of the Year for his unwavering commitment to provide a safe workplace for all, creating an environment where people feel empowered and valued, being a visible leader, as well as his volunteering efforts in the local community.

“I am very proud that we have created a culture within the Alcoa Mining Group in which people genuinely care about each other, and they want to recognise the little extra things that we all do, every day, to help each other - apparently it was my turn to be recognised,” Knight said.

“The Alcoa Mining Group has always felt like a family to me and, as a leader, it is critical that I help foster, build and strengthen this culture.

“When we work this way we all win, and we can continue to build a great place to work for the hundreds of people who will work for Alcoa in the decades ahead.

“Alcoa really is a great company to be a part of and I’m very proud of our achievements in mining, particularly around our excellent environmental record.

“We are a recognised world leader in mine site rehabilitation and were the first mining company in the world to achieve 100% plant species richness in our rehabilitated mine site areas,” he said.

“I feel very fortunate to work in a strong values-based organisation with a wonderful team of people - it’s the people who are our success at Alcoa, so this award is as much theirs as it is mine.”

Alcoa of Australia was an award finalist in four categories this year, including Minerals Processing Plant of the Year for which Alcoa’s Pinjarra refinery received a highly commended for its blow-off tank project.

This project was delivered on time and under budget and helped Pinjarra refinery achieve record production in 2009. Blow-off tanks are flash vessels that cool pregnant liquor and recover condensate in Alcoa’s alumina refining process. The company’s original 1970s tanks were replaced with new vessels, designed and constructed with state-of-the-art safety systems and features to significantly improve the tanks’ operating and maintenance efficiency.