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| Review of 2003 |
| AngloGold recognises that excellence in the
management of safety and health is integral to its success as a
business entity. AngloGold is committed to working with
employees, trade unions and government representatives to
improve safety and health management across the company and has
extensive joint management and union or employee safety and
health forums, particularly in South Africa, to be able to
achieve this. Considerable resources and effort are dedicated to
identifying and implementing sound safety and health practices
across operations, as well as addressing specific problem areas
as and where these may arise. |
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| Governance and
structure |
While a Board committee oversees safety and
health reporting company-wide, the recently-revised safety and
health policy allows for country-specific principles and
guidelines to be developed in accordance with local legislation.
Guided by the policy, the COO, Dave Hodgson, is charged with the
overall management of occupational safety and health. He reports
to both the CEO, Bobby Godsell, and the Board committee on
Safety, Health and Sustainable Development, which is chaired by
non-executive Board member, Bill Nairn. The other committee
members are Deputy Chairman James Motlatsi, and CEO Bobby
Godsell. Members of management are invited to participate in the
committee?s proceedings as and when required. In addition to
reviewing the overall performance of the key indicators, the
committee sets objectives and advises on strategy. The committee
also conducts on-site inspections on matters of serious concern.
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Bobby Godsell |
Bill Nairn |
Dave Hodgson |
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Safety performance
Regrettably, 43 employees lost their lives due to injuries sustained in
mine accidents during 2003. This follows the 44 deaths that were reported
for the year ended 31 December 2002.
Of these, 40 people died on the South African operations in 31 separate
accidents. The most significant of these was a seismic-related fall of
ground incident, in which five employees lost their lives at TauTona mine on
1 April 2003. A further four deaths were caused by a second seismic event at
the mine on 26 May 2003. (See case study). Two people died in the East and West Africa region and one
person died at Cuiaba in Brazil. |
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Causes of fatal accidents
The primary cause of fatal accidents was falls of ground (74%), with
seismically induced falls of ground responsible for 39.5% of fatalities.
Particular emphasis has been placed on preventing falls of ground, and a new
Fall of Ground Management System has been initiated at the South African
operations. (See case study).
Changes in South African mining legislation have enabled the empowerment of
first-line supervisors both in examining and making safe their working areas
at the start of their shift and in withdrawing from working areas should
these be thought to be unsafe.
Following a recent survey that indicated a low level of knowledge among
first-line supervisors regarding strata control at the South African
operations, an extensive training programme has been embarked upon. To
further improve the recognition of rock-related hazards, each of the South
African operations has recruited and trained three new strata control
officers and around 10 assistant strata control officers. These teams have
been deployed across the mining panels and will provide more meaningful
information to the rock engineers on hangingwall and support conditions,
thereby facilitating better planning.
A group-wide fall of ground prevention seminar was held in South Africa in
September 2003 to develop new ideas on how to combat uncontrolled falls of
ground.
On a more positive note, there has been a significant downward trend in
accidents other than rock-related incidents since 1999. This can be ascribed
to a higher level of risk and hazard awareness training, resulting in
hazards either being eliminated or enabling preventative measures to be
taken.
The LTIFR continued in single digits for 2003, albeit slightly lower ? at
8.83 per million man hours ? than the 8.86 recorded in 2002. Particularly
notable were the performances at Sadiola and Geita mines in the East and
West Africa region and Union Reefs in Australia, where there were no lost
time injuries.
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Overcoming the challenges
Improving safety remains a crucial challenge at AngloGold. AngloGold?s
intranet and mine-based newsletters, as well as a monthly safety letter from
the COO, Dave Hodgson, are used to communicate with employees, especially
management, to maintain the emphasis on safety and health. A survey
conducted on the COO?s monthly letter indicated that it is valued by
management and various suggestions for improvement were made and introduced.
Other new safety initiatives continue to be developed and implemented across
the group. A safety and environment workshop in May 2003 brought together
professionals in the group in these fields for the first time, to share
technology and experiences from operations across the world. A number of
important aspects were highlighted at this workshop, including the role and
performance of contractors and the need to include safety, health and
environmental specifications in the pre-tender and pre-selection process in
the future.
The South Africa region remains the greatest challenge in
respect of health and safety, not only because this is the region in which
the group has the largest number of employees, but also because it is here
that there is a concentration of ultra-deep level underground mining
operations in high risk environments. Task teams are working to
bring about major improvements in a number of areas, namely:
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Safety management systems, |
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Falls of ground (See
case study) and seismicity (See
case study) |
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The effect of illness and HIV/AIDS on the
workplace and safety, and |
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Developing a safety mindset. |
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The last component, developing a safety mindset, follows
research undertaken by AngloGold in understanding what makes up a safety
mindset. Following a thorough assessment by safety experts Du Pont in
2002, an in-house team is tracking the implementation of the mindset campaign
in line with a two-phase roll-out process. Phase 1 includes education
and interrogation in respect of beliefs, views and techniques regarding
safety. Phase 2 incorporates the application of a powerful interactive
training process, the Safety Management Auditing Technique (SMAT).
In line with AngloGold’s philosophy of conducting regular external
audits, an independent expert review was concluded during 2002/2003 by
an international safety consultant. His report highlighted 19 recommendations,
including: |
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Establishing safety as a core value; |
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Consolidating line responsibility for safety; |
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Strata control training for underground and surface
mines; and |
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Communication skills for senior and middle management. |
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These recommendations have been considered at executive
level and many of them have been implemented or are in the process of being
implemented.
AngloGold believes that every manager and employee should take
responsibility for health and safety and together strive to create
workplaces which are free of occupational injury and illness. In South
Africa this is underscored by Section 23 of the Mine Health and Safety Act,
which provides for each employee?s right to leave dangerous working places.
Despite this, indications are that withdrawals are almost always at the
request of management or supervisors, and efforts to empower employees
through training will continue.
In the East and West Africa region, an external safety
audit of light vehicle and heavy mobile equipment fleets was undertaken
during the year.
Excellent progress was made at the Morila mine in improving safety
performance and much of this can be attributed to behavioural change as a
result of the mindset programme that has been put in place. (See
case study).
In addition, safety is a key consideration in the forthcoming mining of the
Geita Hill. The artesinal mining methods of the past pose a potentially
significant hazard and technologies such as ground-penetrating radar have
been used to identify hazards and minimise the risks involved. (See
case study).
The Serra Grande mine in the South American region
continued its excellent safety performance during 2003 and was recognised by
winning AngloGold?s Dick Fisher Global Safety Award and NOSA?s global award
for underground mining. Serra Grande was the first underground gold mine to
achieve 5-star status in 2002 and has maintained this ever since. The mine
has had only three lost-time injuries during the year, giving it an LTIFR of
1.94 per million man hours, which is most commendable for an underground
mine. What is particularly impressive is that Serra Grande has maintained
its safety performance even as a new mining method has been introduced to
mine the narrow vein quartzite that is now being encountered. (See
case study).
Sunrise Dam Gold Mine in Western Australia was awarded the second
AngloGold Global Safety Award for an outstanding safety performance
during 2003. The award, ratified at a meeting of the Board committee on
safety, health and sustainable development during January 2004, recognises
the improvement in both Sunrise Dam?s safety management systems and accident
rates.
The Golden Wives programme that has been so successful on the Brazilian
operations has now been introduced at Cerro Vanguardia in Argentina. In this
programme, employees? wives are encouraged to become involved in safety
matters both at work and at home. (See case
study).
In the Australia region, safety performance is now being
measured against leading indicators in addition to the traditional lagging
indicators. This means that progress is assessed in terms of the safety
initiatives being undertaken as well as levels of employee commitment and
knowledge, and not simply on past performance as indicated by accident
rates. This may well have broader application across other operations in the
future and it is a corporate objective to investigate and implement this
during the year ahead. (See case study).
As operations at Sunrise Dam move from surface to underground, AngloGold has
been working with the underground contractor on a formal risk assessment
covering a range of aspects, from resource management to human resources
issues. Over 1,600 potential hazards were identified in this process, and
appropriate controls are being put in place to deal with these. (See
case study).
At the CC&V mine in North America, the Du Pont Safety,
Training and Observation Programme (STOP) is being successfully introduced
in place of the previous five-point plan. (See
case study).
Following a group exploration workshop held in October
2003, a team of exploration managers is compiling a safety, health and
environment guideline that will assist exploration geologists in advancing
best safety and health practice in exploration activities around the globe. |
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