South Africa’s major mining companies on Wednesday signed a commitment to achieve the sector’s previously established health and safety targets — which aim for zero fatalities and injuries as well as the elimination of silicosis and hearing loss.
The targets were established at a mine health and safety summit held in 2003.
The signing took place at the Chamber of Mines’ first Occupational Health and Safety Summit.
In 2004, 246 people died in South Africa’s mining industry.
The commitment signed by the mining industry demonstrates the sector’s desire to bring health and safety to acceptable standards, Chamber of Mines president Con Fauconnier said.
By 2013, the mining sector aims to at least achieve safety performance levels equivalent to the average of the Australian, Canadian and United States mining industries in 2003.
The keynote speaker at the summit was Professor Peter McKie, an expert on health and safety, who highlighted the need for visible, “felt” leadership to achieve improvements and eliminate health and safety hazards.
McKie defined “felt” leadership as leadership that demonstrates an unrelenting passion for health and safety by personal example and by being a role model for others in the organisation to follow.
McKie said leadership in the safety sphere needed to be exercised at all levels and in all roles and there was also a need for operational discipline to routinely assessed, he added.
Health and safety needed to be managed, as both were a moral and legal responsibility, good for business and would increase customer value, McKie stated.
The four strategic aspects of health and safety management are: leadership, people, systems and processes as well as equipment, he added.
The chief executive officer of any mining company should also be the group’s chief safety officer, as the person who managers all the other key business aspects, needs also to be the manager of safety.
He said executive directors need to answer how high health and safety are on the group’s priority list, how much time was spent on health and safety and whether the executive believed zero injuries could be achieved.
Two-way communication between executives and their employees is vital to achieving improvements in health and safety, McKie said.
Chamber of Mines Safety and Sustainable Development adviser Sietse van der Woude said that while there had been a solid improvement in the past 10 years in the South African mining industry’s safety record, there would have to be a dramatic improvement for the sector’s targets to be achieved.
The number of accidents that claimed more than four lives had fallen from 12 such accidents in 1994, where 78 lives were lost, to two accidents in 2004, where 16 lives were lost, he said.
In terms of specific commodities, the diamond sector has improved its performance by 6% over the past 10 years, platinum by 19%, coal by 21%, other commodities by 30% and gold mining by 52%.
To achieve the targeted safety improvements by 2013, the gold sector will have to see a 46% improvement, platinum 62%, coal 58%, diamonds 76% and other commodities 62%.
“Dramatic improvements are required to achieve the safety milestones,” Van der Woude said.
Regarding silicosis and hearing loss, a chamber representative said there was a need for action.
“Silicosis and hearing loss can be reduced and eliminated, but it is a long-term process,” he added.
The companies that signed the health and safety commitment on Wednesday were: Kumba Resources, De Beers, Harmony Gold, Anglo American, Xstrata, Sasol Mining, Mvelaphanda Resources, AngloGold Ashanti, Eyesizwe Coal, Gold Fields, Tran Hex, BHP Billiton, African Rainbow Minerals, Impala Platinum and Placer Dome. ‒ I-Net Bridge