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Mines seeking to ensure safe, productive operations

SAFETY SPOTLIGHT Cultural changes within organisations are imperative to drive actual improvement in safety standards at mines

JOHAN VAN DER WESTHUYZEN Safety and productivity is often viewed as a contradiction for many companies, but the fact is there can be no production without genuine safety protocols in place

14th April 2017

By: Ilan Solomons

Creamer Media Staff Writer

     

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Amid the scramble to acquire capital for reinvestment in the mining industry, a group of executives participated in a recent roundtable discussion on ways of escaping the ‘boom and bust’ cycle endemic to the mining industry.

The panel discussion was hosted by global safety and sustainability consulting firm DuPont Sustainable Solutions at this year’s Investing in African Mining Indaba, in Cape Town.

“First, we need to agree that I am sick. I have been diagnosed and I should see that I need a doctor so that I can really get better. You must come to this point of realisation. As long as there is denial and you think you are doing well, then you see no need to change your behaviour and practices,” said dual-listed Harmony Gold COO Phillip Tobias.

DuPont Sustainable Solutions Turkey, Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa MD Johan van der Westhuyzen, who facilitated the panel discussion, emphasised that cultural changes within organisations were imperative to drive actual improvement. “Introducing new technologies or new processes is simply not enough,” he stated.

Van der Westhuyzen said that safety and productivity were often viewed as a contradiction for many companies, but he argued that, often, when accidents occurred, it was because the company was only focused on production results, while neglecting safety concerns.

“There cannot be productivity without safety. It is not only about production. It is about safe production. If one looks at statistics in the mining industry, everyone will agree there is more we can do.

“There is more we need to do to manage this better. The level of risk that we accept and the understanding of risk in the mining industry are [issues] that we would like to discuss more,” Van der Westhuyzen commented.

He stated that with greater complexity came greater risk. “I believe the silo approach of not communicating between divisions, when there are a lot of things happening, particularly when the commodity prices are low, increases the risk,” Van der Westhuyzen contended.

Meanwhile, Tobias said that leadership changes had to take place through management influencing all levels of operation. “For us, mining is still a people’s business. Regardless of the smart idea you are going to put out on the table, make sure the people in the front line, those who are going to execute, see what you see. “Let them become passionate about what I am passionate about. There cannot be a disconnect with the man at the coalface.”

He remarked that concepts miners adopt include the intensive care unit (ICU) approach, where one identifies the bottom third performers, and “adopt them, get close to them and provide them with tender loving care”. Tobias highlighted that a person in ICU needed special care and the nurse had to check the person’s pulse regularly, not just once every few months. These are some of the concepts we use, where management gets very close, identifies the gaps and then provides the service that is needed.”

He pointed that out that there had been “huge safety improvement success” in the mining sector over the past few years.

“We will not rest until we achieve that zero-harm objective. One just needs to look [at] where the mining industry has come from, with over 400 fatalities a year not long ago, down to over 200 and now fewer than 100. However, it is still 73 employees too many, but we believe we are making good progress.”

Diversified mining major Anglo American safety and sustainable development head Tracey Kerr added that significant efforts had been made over the past two years to simplify operational and safety procedures. “Part of the problem was overcomplicating the standards and procedures,” she said.

Multidisciplinary management, engineering and development consultancy Hatch operational performance regional director Cornelia Holtzhausen said safety started with people.

She stressed that technology adoption was not a plug-and-play action to be automated. “What is first required is a focus on safety, because, if companies get their safety basics in place, productivity will likely follow,” Holtzhausen concluded.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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