HEALTH AND SAFETY •
LESSONS THE INDUSTRY CAN TAKE FROM GOLD FIELDS’ TRANSFORMATION
Contributed by Gold Fields, edited by Sharon Mdaka
Safety and health in mining remain under constant scrutiny, and mining companies are increasingly recognising that incremental improvements are no longer enough. Persistent fatalities and high-risk incidents continue to challenge the sector, prompting an in-depth reassessment of how these two elements are managed beyond systems or advanced technologies.
All images supplied by Gold Fields
Gold Fields’ recent safety transformation provides a compelling case study in how a new outlook, rather than process alone, can reshape outcomes.
In 2024, the company identified safety performance as its most critical priority focus area, following a period marked by regrettable fatalities and serious injuries. These events reinforced the urgent need to rethink the company’ s approach to safety. It became clear that achieving the company’ s aspiration, to ensure every person goes home safe and well at the end of each shift, would require more than improved systems and processes. It demanded a fundamental shift in leadership behaviour, risk ownership and organisational culture.
To support this journey, Gold Fields partnered with dss +( formerly Du Pont Sustainable Solutions), a global operations management and transformation consultancy, with expertise in operational risk, safety, leadership culture change and sustainability.
The diagnostic provided a fact‐based view of the current maturity, helping to identify quick wins that could immediately reduce risk and strengthen safety culture and performance. It also established a broader roadmap of priorities and opportunities for improvement, which informed a standardised safety transformation approach across the business. This ensured that safety improvement was not treated as a series of isolated initiatives but anchored within the operational risk management system and aligned to the broader business strategy.
This approach reflects a broader trend across the mining industry, where companies are moving beyond compliancedriven safety frameworks toward more integrated, risk-based and behaviour-led models.
In 2024, Gold Fields identified safety performance as its most critical priority focus area.
The company recognised that sustainable improvement in safety performance required a deeper shift in how leaders think about safety, how they support their teams, how risk is managed and how the organisation learns. The first step was strengthening Visible Felt Leadership and the way leaders show up through structured field engagement and coaching. Leaders are expected to engage more intentionally with frontline teams through moments that matter to reinforce the company’ s culture of care and accountability as well as shared responsibility. dss + has been supporting the transformation by building leadership capability and consistency, helping leaders lead with a risk-based mindset.
The partnership also focused on strengthening operational risk management by embedding critical risk-based decision-making into everyday work. The early emphasis was on risk containment with dss + supporting leaders in the field to identify and proactively manage risks that could lead to serious injuries or fatalities. At a systemic level, the work also highlighted the need for clearer standards and more consistent risk routines that connect strategy, governance and frontline execution. Given the mining industry’ s reliance on business partners( contractors), it was equally important that the company’ s contractors and their leadership were included in all aspects of the journey.
Already, the impact of this work is being seen at an operational level. Leaders are embedding Visible Felt Leadership into their routines, with greater field presence and more meaningful engagements focused on creating workplaces where people feel respected and safe to speak up. A 2025 cultural survey showed significant improvements, including:
• 78 % of people indicated that their line manager cares about their well-being.
• 80 % of people indicated that they are comfortable reporting incidents or feel empowered to stop work if deemed unsafe( psychological safety).
There has also been a stronger focus on learning from highpotential incidents and sharing those learnings across the operations, helping to reduce repeat events, particularly those linked to critical risks. Work is also underway to standardise the approach to risk management, strengthening how critical risks are controlled and how information is used to support more effective data-informed decision making.
The maturity shift, underpinned by leadership behaviours, contributed to the company reporting its first fatality-free financial year in 2025.
www. africanmining. co. za African Mining Publication African Mining African Mining • June 2026 • 25