Case studies: South Africa

International experts review safety and health in AngloGold Ashanti

For many years, a cornerstone of AngloGold Ashanti’s approach to safety and health has been outside scrutiny of its safety and health practices by independent, internationally-known experts. Most recently, Geoff Green and Professor Jim Joy were invited to carry out such a review between 21 and 29 October 2007. Geoff Green, a retired Principal Inspector of Mines in the UK, had previously visited the company in 1999 and 2000. Jim Joy is Professor of Mining Safety and Director of the Minerals Industry Safety and Health Centre (MISHC) at the University of Queensland in Australia. The MISHC was established in 1998 with the support of seven major Australian mining companies.

“The combination of Jim’s internationally acknowledged expertise and Geoff’s previous relationship with AngloGold Ashanti was felt to be a particularly good combination for this review,” says Manager: Occupational Safety - John McEndoo. The review involved a number of personal interviews with members of the board’s safety, health and sustainable development committee, staff at executive and senior management level responsible for safety and health, and visits to Mponeng and Great Noligwa mines in South Africa. The West Wits occupational health centre, hospital and accommodation hostel were also visited. This marks a departure from the previous international audits, which focused exclusively on safety.

The review was intended as a preliminary assessment, with a possible repeat visit involving more detailed analysis being planned.

The terms of reference for the review were broad: essentially, the review comprised three key aspects:

• a review of the leadership framework in place across AngloGold Ashanti related to safety and health;
• a comparison of AngloGold Ashanti’s occupational safety and health systems against industry leading practice; and
• a comparison between stated expectations and actual implementation of safety and health systems and procedures. This was carried out through the mine and hospital visits referred to earlier.

Mr Green and Prof Joy presented their findings to the board committee on safety, health and sustainable development on 29th October 2007. A number of proposals were put forward which could be implemented in the short term, while others were tabled as requiring further consideration before implementation at a later stage.

Leadership aspects of safety and health in AngloGold Ashanti

The main recommendation in this section concerns the establishment of an executive safety and health committee with a mandate to define and manage the occupational safety and health strategy of AngloGold Ashanti.

Systems review

The review commended the selection of OHSAS18001 as a safety and health system specification on a company-wide basis, and urged that care be taken to use the system to its fullest capability, as a framework for the identification of occupational health and safety risks and the development of a programme to eliminate or mitigate risks, and to institute management controls for them.

The development of a comprehensive occupational health and safety systems and practice audit protocol, with defined roles, accountabilities and measurement at board, executive and regional level was also recommended. Whilst annual assessments are carried out currently, these are not entirely consistent with the requirements of OHSAS18001, and are not reported to the executive or board.

Health and safety activities – implementation versus outcome

The reviewers were exposed to many occupational health and safety programmes and activities across the company. It was observed that some of these, including the systematic approach to falls of ground management appear to be world-class. Recommendations were made for AngloGold Ashanti to review these occupational health and safety initiatives within the new occupational health and safety management system by establishing clear intended outcomes and applications, including quality expectations. Activities in the areas of risk assessment, investigation and control and monitoring / auditing should be included in this review as they are the three key activity areas for the dynamic management of occupational health and safety risks at the site and in the company.

A detailed investigation into possible causes of poor compliance with health and safety standards and procedures was also suggested, for example through supporting the proposed research project into workforce compliance issues by Professor Petri Schutte of North West University. To assess the level at which disconnection occurs between stated expectation and actual outcome, it was suggested that consideration be given to proposing an extension of this study directed at supervisory level staff.

In an early response to this review and its recommendations, AngloGold Ashanti has established an executive level occupational health and safety committee, chaired by the CEO. This newly-established committee will be considering these recommendations in detail with a view to resourcing appropriately to give effect to them.