The African mining industry is increasing its demand for integrated safety and security solutions, as more companies value health and safety and regard the installation of new systems and the modifications of existing ones as a core operational concern, says security solutions provider Tyco Integrated Fire & Security.

Sales leader for sub-Saharan Africa Cedric Greeves tells Mining Weekly that, while safety and security solutions were traditionally regarded as grudge purchases, companies are becoming more “progressively minded”, realising that the losses incurred as a result of fire and theft outweigh the cost of implementing new safety and security systems.

He adds that these types of losses are “entirely avoidable” if companies implement the appropriate policies and procedures, staff protocol and technologies.

“The industry’s apparent mind-shift is certainly improving sales figures and is strengthening relations between mining companies and safety and security service providers,” he says.

Greeves further attributes the growing demand for integrated fire and safety solutions to companies’ not wanting to address several systems providers when obtaining information about a particular incident.

“Customers have discovered that it is simpler, faster and significantly more cost effective to get the required information from one company,” he states.

Greeves adds that companies are also integrating their existing systems with new ones supplied by Tyco.

“We offer a range of integration solutions for existing systems, from basic input and output integration to sophisticated software integrations.”

The company has deployed integrated and standalone fire and security solutions in over 20 African countries, across several sectors, including the mining and petrochemicals industries.

Tyco’s African operational headquarters are in Johannesburg, South Africa.