The R5,6-million safety, health, environment and communitfacilities for limestone crushingy programme that is to be rolled out by Pan African Resources in the 2010/11 financial year will focus predominantly on worker behaviour, reports CEOequipment used to crushed aggregate Jan Nelson.
At the company’s annual results presentation for the 2009/10 financial year, which was held in London at the end of August, Nelson reported that the programme would begin immediately and should be completed by the second half of the 2011 financial year.
The company’s lost-time-injury fre- quency rate dropped by 30% in 2009/10 to 4,2 for 200 000 work hours, compared with 2008/9’s figure of 6,4 for 200 000 work hours.
The company also saw a decrease in the serious injury frequency rate, which was 1,1 for 200 000 work hours as opposedportable crusher crush all construction waste to the 1,7 for 200 000 work hours recorded in 2008/09. However, the lost day severity rate increased marginally, which, Nelson explained, meant that workers were staying away longer from work to recover from their injuries.
Because of the shallow nature of its Barberton operations, Pan African Resources holds a distinct advantage over other deeper operations. However, Nelson said that the safety performance at the mines could be attributed to more than this factor.
“The company has a zero tolerance for unsafe mining practices. The workforce at Barberton Mines is mature, at an average age of over 40, so the guys will be hesitant to participate in unsafe practices. “The workforce also lives in close proxi- mity to the mine, so there is no migratory factor,” said Nelson.