The annual International Labour Organisation’s World Day for Safety and Health at Work was on 28 April, bringing to mind the safety of our employees and contractors worldwide.
ERGA is committed to the safety of its employees and our safety policies and procedures are put in place to reflect our ZERO HARM vision. Mining will always carry risk. We are working towards a future where that never means serious injury or loss of life. We know what the biggest risks are and we are putting improved rules and standards in place to ensure effective management and control. Our assets continue to increase and improve reporting of, and learning from, High Potential Incidents (HPIs) as a preventative tool to improve safety performance.
Boss Mining
Boss Mining management believes that each person is responsible for his or her own safety, and the safety of his or her colleagues. Employees are encouraged to inform management of any deviations. This not only makes Boss Mining a safer environment, but each employee contributes to building a successful operation.
Boss Mining places a strong focus on housekeeping, because the team believes that a clean mine is a safe and productive mine. The safety team runs a weekly safety campaign, which the supervisor then translates into various safety topics for toolbox talks.
Frontier Mine
Frontier Mine ensures that health and safety training is conducted for all employees and contractors. The mine uses an ongoing safety awareness campaign with posters and safety topics to prevent unsafe acts and conditions. All of our assets have installed a hygiene-monitoring programme to detect early signs of occupational illness or disease, preventing workplace exposure.
Frontier Mine has also established and trained an Emergency Response Team.
Chambishi Metals
Chambishi Metals implements various programmes to ensure the implementation, maintenance and improvement of ERGA’s Safety Management System:
Weekly/Monthly Safety Slogans
Employees are constantly kept up to-date with the current happenings in the industry through weekly and monthly safety slogans. These form an integral part of the daily safety talk prior to the commencement of a shift.
Behavioural-Based Safety Training
ERGA has embarked on a behavioural-based Safety Management System Training for its employees. This is to ensure that the key personnel, especially those in safety management, are equipped with modern safety management tools.
SABOT
Great news is that SABOT has slashed its lost time injury frequency rate (LTIFR) from 2.86 percent to 0.57 percent within a year, which indicates an impressive SHERQ (Safety, Health, Environment, Risk, Quality) programme. These statistics are even more remarkable given that the company transports hazchem material across dangerous routes between South Africa, the DRC via Zimbabwe and Zambia.
SABOT’s three key safety principles are:
1. A right mindset
2. Rules simple enough for everyone to understand
3. Effective communication