Eleven of South African miner Impala Platinum’s (Implats’) 
employees died at work during the financial year ended June 30, 
2009, with a further nine losing their lives in a major fall-of-ground incident during the current year

“Safety remains the highest 
priority for Implats, and we are committed to achieving our 
vision of zero harm. 
It is a tragedy that 11 employees 
lost their lives at work during the year, and a further nine were killed in a fall-of-ground 
incident at the company’s 14 
shaft in July this year,” stated Implats CEO David Brown at the company’s annual results presentation, last week.

The group’s safety performance did, nevertheless, improve marginally during the 2009 
financial year. 
The improvement in the 
fatality rate, however, belies the disappointing safety records of the Rustenburg and Marula 
operations, Brown commented.

Ten of the company’s 2008/9 fatalities occurred at Rustenburg, and one at Marula. 
The lost-time-injury frequency rate for the group was maintained at 2,92 for every million work hours.

In Rustenburg, nine employees lost their lives in a massive fall-of-ground incident in one of the mechanised sections. 
A tripartite investigation, 
involving Implats, the Depart-ment of Mineral Resources (DMR) and the unions, together with an independent review, was conducted.

In order to significantly reduce the operational risks, the decision was taken to reduce bord widths to 6 m across all Rusten-burg mechanised sections.

Brown noted that the reconfiguration would reduce the output of the mine by 50 000 platinum ounces in the 2010 financial year.

He said that it was of great concern to the company that safety performance was well below the targets set, and a number of other safety initiatives, developed jointly with unions, were rolled out during the year.

These included creating and promoting a safety culture within every employee at Implats; safety 
communication using SMSes, 
email, posters and billboards, and the company’s safety, health and environment quality structures; compliance with its new Platinum Rules; and visible safety leadership using behaviour-based safety programmes and recognition of outstanding safety leaders and achievers in the company.

The company stated that it was using its increased understanding of the causes of accidents to improve its performance going forward. 
“Increased cooperation 
between management and 
employees will enable the further development of strategies to mitigate future incidents.”

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