Mining chamber champions mining safety best practice

Mining chamber champions mining safety best practice. Mining News of 22 September 2008. 'An initiative by South Africa's Chamber of Mines (COM), the Mine Occupational Safety and Health (Mosh) Best Practice Adoption System, is currently engaged in a pilot project, that seeks to facilitate the adoption of improved health and safety best practice in the mining sector, COM deputy communications advisor Jabu Maphalala tells Engineering News. Maphalala says that the mandate of the Mosh Task Force, established by the executive council of the COM, is to study the reasons for the mining industry's failure to achieve targets and milestones set at the third Mine Health and Safety Council (MHSC) Summit held in October 2003 and to consider sustainable industry strategies aimed at ensuring that these targets are met by 2013. The COM drafted a list of occupational safety and health targets and milestones, which was to be attained by the industry over a ten-year period from 2003 to 2013. Maphalala says that given the differences in the nature of the different mining sectors and their individual safety records, the milestones and targets set at the MHSC Summit, were divided into two groups. The first group includes traditional deep-mining operations or gold mining sites, while the other group consists of platinum, coal and other mining operations, which operate at a more shallow level below the surface. Despite the challenges brought about by the nature of the South African deep-level mining sector, as well as the associated seismic and rockburst events, the gold sector was expected to at least achieve safety performance levels equivalent to prevailing international norms for underground metalliferous mines in chrome, copper, gold, iron ore and platinum by 2013, reports the COM. Platinum, coal and other sectors were expected to at least achieve constant and continuous improvements equivalent to prevailing international benchmarks by 2013. In practice, this meant that an annual 20% reduction in fatalities was achieved from the 2003 industry figures set against international safety performance, states Maphala. "This percentage is calculated from the yearly fatality frequency rates, which are expressed as the number of fatalities for every million hours worked, thus not affected by changes in the number of people employed," he explains. Maphalala adds that the occupational health targets agreed by mining industry stakeholders and leaders at the 2003 MHSC Summit included the elimination of the occurrence of new cases of silicosis and noise induced hearing loss by 2013. "In the process of executing its mandate, members of the Mosh Task Force visited a number of operating mines to identify how each operation approached issues of health and safety in general, and the effectiveness of such intervention," states Maphala. In a report delivered at the 2007 Employer Health and Safety Summit, the Mosh Task Force states that there were certain cases of occupational health and safety best practice, which directly contributed to improved health and safety performance. The report further asserted that industry performance on health and safety could improve markedly, if health and safety best practice was adopted by the less performing mining operations. Maphalala says that the task force then proposed the implementation of a adoption system, which is designed to shift industry from sharing technology and best practice to widespread implementation across industry. He mentions that four adoption teams were, subsequently, created by the task force in January this year, consisting of eight individuals employed on a full-time basis to implement the initiative. "The focus areas of these Adoption Teams would be leadership, noise, dust and falls of ground, which were identified by the task force as key challenge areas in the mining industry," states Maphalala. He adds that the adoption teams will implement the adoption system by identifying best practice and then developing protocols that would help others to overcome the barriers to adoption. "They are to do this by interacting widely throughout the mining industry to identify best practice and technology to address priority areas and to work with key staff on mines to foster the eager adoption of demonstrated solutions, and a culture of continuous improvement and visible, felt leadership," explains Maphalala. The function of the Adoption Teams does not involve taking over mining operations or to teach management and leaders how to do their work, states Maphalala. Maphalala says that the adoption team will facilitate the adoption of proven health and safety best practice, which is aimed improving the health and safety performance of the overall industry. He adds that the adoption teams have the full-support of senior industry leaders in achieving greater health and safety best practice in the industry by 2013. The success of the adoption teams in implementing the system depends on the support of all levels of management to provide leadership, as well as the cooperation of employees, who need to adopt the best practices introduced," indicates Maphalala. He says that the support from mine managers is dependent on proper understanding of the objectives of the system by those in positions to facilitate access, as well as positive attitudes towards the objectives of the COM's occupational health and safety initiative. Appropriate communication at all levels is critical to the success of the adoption system, which is being piloted throughout the 2008 calendar year, reports Maphalala.