South Africa plans high-tech mine safety training for 40 000
South Africa last year delivered its best mine safety improvement in seven years, according to the Chamber of Mines.
The 24% reduction in fatalities in 2010 to 128 is the best since 2003, the Chamber told a media conference.
Forty fewer died last year than the 168 of 2009, it reported.
“We’re very sad about the 128 mineworkers who lost their lives in 2010, and we’re confident that the number is going to be lower in 2011,” new Chamber CEO Bheki Sibiya predicted, after observing a moment’s silence for the deceased and reiterating the Chamber’s vision of every mineworker returning home unharmed every day.
“The noble goal of zero harm is what we need to pursue,” Sibiya added.
In 2003, the Chamber, government and labour gave itself ten years to make South Africa as safe as the rest of the mining world by 2013, though improving at a rate of 20% a year over ten years, which this year’s 24% exceeds.
The international mine-safety benchmark countries include Australia, Canada and the US, with measurement based on fatalities per million hours worked.
The Chamber’s plan for 2011 is to continue to work closely with the unions and government in order to accelerate the implementation of their tripartite action plan, developed by the Mine Health and Safety Council, which advises Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu on health and safety matters.
The action plan currently forms part of the Revised Mining Charter, with which all mining companies are legally obliged to comply, irrespective of whether or not they are Chamber members.
The plan is prioritising a culture transformation framework, which includes the training of 40 000 health and safety representatives and union shop stewards by 2013.
These officials are being given an in-depth understanding of workplace risk management and being exposed to innovative training courses, into which the infusion of high-tech simulation and computer-aided training techniques is anticipated within an envisaged centre of safety excellence.
Pockets of excellence in individual mines are being analysed for migration across the entire industry.
During 2011, case studies reflecting safety excellence will be shared with the media through site visits.
While an investment of some R150-million over years has led to a dramatic reduction in the number of seismicity-related fatalities, there is still no technology that can accurately predict where, when and how seismicity will manifest itself, Mining Weekly Online can report.
This article was originally posted on South Africa Business Communities
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