"We're the first unionized company in North America to give performance reviews to our unionized workers, and we're finding that the majority are quite happy with this. They are now able to sit down with their supervisor and hear what is going well and where there are opportunities for improvement.

"We've made a lot of progress to date. A good example would be the 'hot seat change' project at the mine, which was developed by a team of employees including the operators themselves.

"The result of all this is that so far in 2005 we've achieved record production levels, whether you take weekly, monthly, quarterly, first half or, I hope, yearly figures. As we end the third quarter with yet another record, we are producing ten per cent better. That sounds a small gain, but we are talking huge numbers - ten per cent equates to a million tonnes of product."

Mike would certainly agree with Andrew Taplin, GM Primary Ore, when he stresses that all the new equipment is useless unless people are engaged and on board.

"We are fortunate that our employees are a capable, proud bunch of people. The working environment here is unique, with many longstanding employees. IOC is regarded as the best employer in the area with people proud to work here who take a lot of ownership. These long serving employees are people who are familiar with the way we work, they know how the equipment works, they know how they fixed a problem in the past so if it happens again they know how to fix it safely and effectively.

"Our achievements depend on leadership and continuous improvement, and we're working hard to embed both in our culture. We work to very high standards. An example of the sort of planning we need is that we can't do major maintenance in the middle of winter - it's just too cold. So we begin maintenance as soon as the thaw starts and finish at the end of October so that everything is in tip top condition going into winter."