The Western Australian Government has announced the appointment of seven new specialist safety inspectors to ensure the continued safety of the state’s resources industry.

The new safety specialists take the total number of Department of Mines and Petroleum inspectors to 107, including 63 mines safety inspectors, 16 petroleum safety assessors and risk analysts, and 28 dangerous goods officers.

State Mines and Petroleum Minister, Bill MArmion, said that the State Government had boosted the number of inspectors by nearlt 30 per cent since 2009, when the Reform and Development at Resources Safety (RADARS) strategy was introduced.

“RADARS was established following a series of independent inquiries and mining deaths, and continues to ensure high safety standards are being maintained at WA’s 975 operational mines and 65 petroleum sites,” Mr Marmion said.

“These new expert safety inspectors are crucial to the ongoing health and wellbeing of the State’s 98,000 resources workforce.  Last year, for the first time in a century, there wasn’t a single mining death in Western Australia - that’s a remarkable achievement and one that we would like to see repeated in 2013.”

The new safety specialists share structural, mechanical, electrical, mining and petroleum engineering expertise.

Four have been appointed to the mines safety inspectorate team, which carries out 2,400 site inspections a year.