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Friday, 24th November 2006 (4398 views)

Instilling health and safety as a central value in the mining industry emerged as one of the key points of last week's International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) meeting.

Hundreds of mining industry representatives convened at the health and safety conference in Johannesburg last week to discuss the future of the industry, including representatives from Newmont Mining, AngloGold Ashanti, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton.

Wayne Murdy, Newmont's CEO, claimed that personal initiatives for employees were key to achieving the ICMM's goal of eradicating fatalities, injury and disease in the mining sector, but also that employers need to fully integrate health and safety into all business decisions.

He suggested an "outrage factor" was needed to improve the culture of risk-free working in mining, which meant focusing on emerging markets such as China and India, where health and safety issues are often not considered as important to employers there as in developed countries.

BHP Billiton president Peter Beaven agreed that zero harm in the industry is a continuous process and that "victory can never be declared in any one area".

However, some of the main concerns focused on the increasing cost of mining, which is putting pressure on firms to not only maintain their health and safety programmes, but also to expand them.

Other firms at the conference highlighted their extensive investment and research into the risks of the industry, with AngloGold Ashanti detailing its extensive efforts to tackle seismic activity in its deep-level mines and its continuing improvement in related technology.

 

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