Safety

Key features

• Regrettably, 13 people died at work at Implats operations
• Marginal deterioration in group LTIFR to 3.48 per million manhours
• Revised emphasis on safety and health, particularly on falls of ground
• Excellent safety performance at Impala Refineries and at Zimplats

Policy and governance

Safety is an integral part of the responsibility of line management at all of Implats’ operations. Issues relating to safety are dealt with by management committees at an operational level, and, at a corporate level, by the group’s Executive Committee (Exco) and at quarterly meetings of the SHE Audit Committee. Specialist safety personnel are employed at all operations to support line management in managing safety issues, to monitor and audit performance, to undertake regulatory reporting and to develop specific programmes in response to identified needs.

Formally constituted safety and health committees are a requirement of the South African Mine Health and Safety Act and their effective functioning underpins the joint responsibility for safety and health at an operational level. Committees are in place at all Implats’ operations. The functioning of these committees is regulated by the health and safety agreements that have been entered into with the representative trade unions which deal with a broad range of safety issues, including:

• the election of full–time health and safety representatives, as well as safety stewards, and the functions that they should fulfil;
• procedures for employees to exercise their rights to withdraw from circumstances that they perceive to be dangerous;
• training of safety and health representatives;
• procedures for the resolution of disputes relating to safety and health;
• participation in incident investigations; and
• any other issues relating to safety and health which may arise.

By virtue of the collective bargaining agreements in place in South Africa and worker committees in Zimbabwe, all employees are represented in these safety and health forums at an operational level.

Performance during FY2007

The group’s safety performance during FY2007 was extremely disappointing, with 13 employees losing their lives through work–related injuries during the year (FY2006: 7). Nine of these fatalities were at our Rustenburg operations, three at Mimosa and one at Marula. The board and management of the group extend their sympathies to the families and friends of those who have died. Another fatality occurred at a non–managed group operation, Two Rivers Platinum, during the year. (This is not included in Implats’ statistics.)

The primary cause of fatal accidents remains falls of ground (62%), followed by explosives (23%) and gassing (15%). Fatalities as a result of gassing are rare but, tragically in FY2007, two employees died from this cause at Mimosa.

The group’s LTIFR deteriorated marginally to 3.48 per million manhours while the all injury frequency rate rose by 5% to 22.95 per million manhours. The primary cause of lost–time injuries is also falls of ground (29%), followed by equipment and material handling (25%), slips and falls (11%), scraper–related injuries (9%), and trucks and tramming (8%).

Both Zimplats and the Impala Platinum Refineries recorded excellent safety performances, despite the fact that both of these operations undertook significant expansions during the year.

It is of particular concern to us that the significant progress made in recent years in improving safety performance has not been maintained and the specific targets set for FY2007 have not been met. Intensive efforts are being made to address safety performance and these include:

• the implementation of a new incident investigation system at Implats to assist in understanding the root causes of injuries;
• the re–introduction of a strata control course to improve employees’ knowledge of geological features. A task team was formed at our Rustenburg operations in light of the fact that the majority of fatal and serious injuries are caused by falls of ground. The task team identified six key themes, with 18 projects planned to address the issues identified based on accident analyses and audits. A project champion has been assigned to each project and tasked with formulating initiatives and action plans to minimise the risk associated with each theme;
• a safety roadshow was conducted at our Rustenburg operations to heighten safety awareness and to reinforce the mindset that mining can be undertaken without injury;
• enhancement of the functioning of the safety and health committees, particularly at our Rustenburg operations and Marula;
• a review of procedures on the handling of noxious gases at Mimosa;
• improving the management and control of explosives at all operations; and
• a focus on training, particularly in respect of basic hazard identification. A key shortcoming identified at Impala’s mining operations during the year was the high turnover experienced among supervisory staff, which had an impact on safety performance. At Marula, the continued ramp–up of operations has required ongoing recruitment and the local employee base’s lack of experience in mining, has necessitated a significant amount of additional training.

Employees who died at work during FY2007

Date of fatal accident	Operation	Full name of individual	Town and country of residence	Occupation	Cause of accident
7 July 2006	Impala Rustenburg 11 shaft	Owen Livingstone Smavo	Rustenburg, South Africa	Stope rock drill operator	Fall of ground
8 August 2006	Impala Rustenburg, 12 shaft	Otsile William Moncho	Luka Village, North West Province, South Africa	Stope rock drill operator	Fall of ground
4 September 2006	Impala Rustenburg, 1 shaft	Joao Manuel Timana	Maputo, Mozambique	Stope rock drill operator	Fall of ground
17 October 2006	Mimosa	Shadreck Dombe	Karoi, Zimbabwe	Acting drilling team leader	Fall of ground
31 October 2006	Impala Rustenburg, 4 shaft	William Gabaediwe	Bafokeng District, North West Province, South Africa	Scraper winch operator	Fall of ground
18 December 2006	Impala Rustenburg, 16 shaft	Montso Moketsepe	Qwa Qwa, Lesotho	Drill team leader	Fall of ground
18 December 2006	Impala Rustenburg, 14 shaft	Gojabaeng Ranku	Gonku Village, Kweneng, Botswana	Stope rock drill operator	Fall of ground
13 January 2007	Marula	Saul Motsamai Morema	Diphale Village,Driekop, Mphumalanga Province, South Africa	Drill rig operator	Explosives
14 March 2007	Impala Rustenburg, 1 shaft	Paulus Phethoka	Hlotse, Lesotho	Equipping helper	Explosives
21 April 2007	Impala Rustenburg, 9 shaft	Martin Barekeng	Vryburg, North West Province, South Africa	Scraper winch operator	Fall of ground
12 May 2007	Impala Rustenburg, 14 shaft	Jongikaya Maqovu	Sondela Village, Rustenburg, South Africa	Stope rock drill operator	Explosives
18 May 2007	Mimosa	Justus Dhlamini	Gokwe, Zimbabwe	Safety officer	Gassing
18 May 2007	Mimosa	Eliot Mazadzise	Masilo, Zimbabwe	Acting vent officer	Gassing

Increased use of risk assessment as a tool in safety management

This has been used to particularly good effect at Zimplats where baseline and issue–based risk assessments have been undertaken in all departments. In addition, increasing use has been made of pre–task risk assessment.

Progress continues to be made towards the implementation of OHSAS18001 although an evaluation of this occupational health and safety management system is still being undertaken at our Rustenburg operations. Mimosa Platinum achieved OHSAS certification in May 2007, while the Impala Refineries is on track to implement the system in FY2008. Gap audits are currently being undertaken at Zimplats.

Objectives for FY2008

Our long–term goal of achieving ‘zero harm’ remains in place and will be pursued with renewed vigour in FY2008. In addition, we aim to introduce OHSAS18001 as the group safety management system by 2010.

Specifically, in FY2008, Implats’ primary objectives in terms of safety are as follows:

• to achieve zero fatalities at all operations;
• to reduce the group LTIFR to below two per million man–hours, an improvement of 43% on FY2007;
• to reinforce the concept of ‘visible felt leadership’ (where leaders coach people at work and demonstrate zero tolerance for unsafe acts or conditions) and to empower employees so that they accept responsibility for their own safety;
• to improve incident root cause investigations and reporting;
• to develop leading indicators that will indicate the effectiveness of our safety systems; and
• to develop risk–related Platinum Rules for every department and area within the group.