Soft issue
Kumba’s upper
hand on safety
Anglo American’s Kumba Iron Ore has gone for three years without a fatality. The iron ore producer adopted
several measures which have yielded positive health and safety results, writes Dineo Phoshoko. African
Mining visited Kumba’s Kolomela mine in the Northern Cape, to find out how they maintained an impressive
fatality-free record at the mine during its health and safety day at work showcase.
T
he Department of Mineral Resources
(DMR) released the 2018 mine health
and safety statistics in March. The
statistics showed a 10% decline in fatalities
experienced in 2018. “Over the past 10 years
we have – working with mining companies
and labour unions ‒ made significant strides
in improving health and safety for mine
employees,” said David Msiza, chief inspector
of mines at the DMR. He added that as a
result, there was a sustainable downward trend
in occupational diseases, injuries and fatalities
over the years.
Philip Fourie, Kumba’s
executive head of safety,
health and environment.
Achieving zero harm is no easy task, especially
given the dangerous nature of mining. As
difficult as it may seem, it is possible because
several mine operations, such as Kumba, have
managed to maintain a clean fatality record.
Philip Fourie, Kumba’s executive head of
safety, health and environment, explained that
although it had been three years since Kumba
had experienced a fatality, there was still a
long way to go. Fourie talked about the iron
ore producer’s health and safety journey,
detailing how the mine’s lost time
injuries (LTIs) had decreased since
2014 – with 2018 being the best
year in terms of LTI statistics.
The last time Kumba
experienced a fatality was
in May 2016. Fourie
highlighted that emphasis
28 AFRICAN MINING JULY - AUGUST 2019
www.africanmining.co.za