Employees read the safety boards before their shiftHow we manage safety
Mining is a high-risk industry and our on-site employees work in challenging conditions. We have worked consistently to understand these risks, learn from previous incidents and implement risk-mitigating processes, technologies and behaviour patterns.
Our approach to safety is outlined in the Safety Way, a comprehensive framework of roles and responsibilities supported by a set of safety principles and mandatory safety standards. This underpins the delivery of our safety strategy which outlines our risk-based approach to safety based on 10 key elements that drive/support effective safety management: leadership, risk management, culture, competence, assurance, monitoring, planning, standards, communications and learning.
All business units and sites have developed risk-based safety improvement plans which drive continuous performance improvement and are aligned with the Group's systematic and standardised approach to safety management. At the beginning of 2011 we added a new technical standard on risk management.
In February 2011 our chief executive, Cynthia Carroll, launched a strategic safety review and action plan. There are three main components to the plan: development of leading safety performance indicators; development of Group-wide site safety reviews; and development of corporatecentre action plans. Good progress was made in each of these three areas during the year.
No repeats
One of our key safety principles is 'no repeats'. It is only through understanding the causes of what happened, and by identifying and acting upon the preventative actions that we can avert similar incidents. Every loss-of-life and high-potential incident at Anglo American is subject to an in-depth incident investigation and analysis process, which we standardised in 2009. The new process follows industry best practice and allows for consistent incident investigation and reporting, and ultimately the ability to share learnings more effectively.
The outcomes of incident investigations together with our understanding of the causes of high-potential incidents has been used to identify the top five fatality-related risks within each business unit.
Visible leadership
More than their commitment alone, our leaders are required to show 'visible-felt leadership' (VFL). This means that our executives – from Board members to the mine general managers – engage in regular VFL visits, to observe people at work and talk to them about operational and safety issues. This is important as it allows leaders to recognise and reinforce safe behaviour and discuss the potential consequences of unsafe conduct. All operations have increased their focus on VFL, to which we attribute the continuing reduction in lost-time injuries (LTIs).
Working in partnership
We remain committed to working with governments, unions and our peers, to achieve a breakthrough in safety performance at Anglo American and in the mining industry at large.
In South Africa, which hosts 66% of our workforce and where on average 80% of our fatal incidents occur annually, we formally recognised the need to work more collaboratively with organised labour and the government’s Department of Mineral Resources by launching the Tripartite Safety Initiative in 2008. The initiative has grown into an immensely rewarding partnership, with a core steering committee, supported by task teams, working jointly on developing solutions that are helping transform our safety performance. We are now replicating and extending the Tripartite model at an operational level within our own South African business units.