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Mining industry recommits to health, safety goals
Justin Brown | Johannesburg
15 June 2005 - 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
Memorial reminds all battle isn’t over
BY HEIDI ULRICHSEN
June 21, 2006 - Safety in mines has improved dramatically since the 1980s, when up to 20 miners died on the job every year, but there’s still a lot of work to be done, according to an Ontario Ministry of Labour official.
“From 2004 up until December of 2005, we went 18 months without a fatality, and then in a manner of seven months, we had four fatalities related to the mining industry. We have a long way to go yet,” says Bernie Deck.
He made the comments to about 200 people who had gathered at the Caruso Club Tuesday for a Workers’ Memorial Day ceremony.
The event is put on by the Sudbury Mine, Mill & Smelter Workers’ Union Local 598/CAW every year on June 20 in honour of four miners who lost their lives at Falconbridge Mine on that day in 1984.
A rockburst killed Sulo Korpela, Richard Chenier and Daniel Lavallee instantly. Wayne St. Michel, 22, lived for 27 hours buried in rock debris, but died before a mine rescue crew could reach him.
Deck has vivid memories of the disaster. He heard about the workers’ fate while driving home from Wawa, where he had testified at the inquest into the death of another young miner.
“I was devastated because I had just come from an inquest. I was devastated for the four workers who had lost their lives. I was devastated for their family and friends.”
Local 598/CAW president Rick Grylls echoed Deck’s comments. He pointed out that while less miners are dying in accidents, more are getting sick from industrial diseases like diesel emphysema and silicosis.
“In the 30 years I’ve been involved in the health and safety committees in our workplace, the constant resistance we face is the dollars it will cost to improve the dust control, smelter and engine emissions,” says Grylls.
“I believe we have made progress in our workplaces, and we have learned from our workplace health and safety committees. Is the system perfect? No. Does it have room to improve? Yes.”
Gary Hrytsak, who led the memorial day ceremony, will never forget the 1984 rockburst disaster. He was eating his lunch at a smelter near the mine when the incident occurred.
“The hit was hard enough that you actually got jostled off your bench that distance away. None of us knew what was happening. The dust in the smelter was just horrible because it shook the dust off the beams,” says Hrytsak, a retired miner and union member.
“We looked toward Number Five shaft, and there was a tremendous plume coming off of it, and we knew something was wrong. We didn’t know the extent of it.”
There was jubilation mixed with sadness for the dead workers when people found out St. Michel was still alive, says Hrytsak.
“He was almost rescued. It was a drama gone wild. They were talking to him and he was thirsty. The next word is he didn’t survive it. His injuries were such that upon the release from the tomb he was in, he died a very few minutes after that.”
“Unfortunately, in the last year, we’ve lost miners in our industry here in Northern Ontario. We’ve lost miners internationally in coal mines. We’ve had some miracles of survival of miners trapped for days in that darkness. These are the things that we don’t want to have happen again, he said.
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