WINNING
S
outh Africa’s mining history
dates back over 150 years,
and over that time significant
advances have been made in
improving health and safety standards
throughout the industry. Working in a
high-risk sector with a history of accidents
and fatalities adds a significant amount
of pressure for those whose job it is to
ensure high occupational health and safety
standards are maintained.
While quarrying and surface mining in
some ways carry less of an inherent risk
than underground mining, it is nevertheless
incumbent on all involved to ensure
that any risk is minimised as much as
possible. Since quarries fall under the Mine
Health and Safety Act (MHSA), the ISHE
(Integrated Health, Safety and Education)
audit carried out annually on Aspasa
member quarries by occupational health
and safety consultant Marius van Deventer,
aims to ensure that the operations comply
with all applicable legislative requirements
and industry standards.
Aspasa’s requirement that its members
undergo an annual health and safety audit
is to ensure a high standard of compliance
in the surface mining industry that it
represents, according to Aspasa director,
Nico Pienaar. “Having shared the audit
document with similar bodies across the
world, we have confirmed that both the
document, which we have developed over
the past 19 years, and the audit process
itself are uni que and offer measurable
value to the industry as a whole,” he says.
Van Deventer undertakes in the region
of 120 operations audits each year under
his contract with Aspasa, with each audit
“The ISHE audit carried
out annually on Aspasa
member quarries aims
to ensure that the
operations comply with
all applicable legislative
requirements and
industry standards.”
QUARRY SA | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018 _ 21