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MIM's Commitment to Safety and Health
MIM gives the highest priority to the safety and health of its employees. We believe all accidents are preventable. We are committed to the safe operation of our business through the continuing enhancement of our management practices and development of a safety culture. It is disappointing to report no improvement in the Disabling Injury Frequency Rate for the year 2001/2002 and an increase in the Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate. There were however some positives in statistical trends, including more consistent reporting of workplace injuries across the group and an improved Severity Rate Frequency Rate (SRFR) which is a measure of how many days of work employees miss due to injury.
Safety Policy
At MIM our goal is an injury-free and healthy workplace. We all have a personal responsibility for our own safety and that of our workmates. We believe all injuries are preventable.
Key factors in achieving our goal
It is important that we operate on the basis that safety comes before everything else - including production.
Key expectations for success
Everyone is personally accountable for their safety and health performance and for the safety and health performance of those they manage or supervise. All employees must understand what is expected of them and actively participate in the successful improvement of our safety performance.
Expectations - Everybody
Expectations - Line Managers
Implementing MIMSafe
MIMSafe is being increasingly integrated into the management systems of every operation and is being applied uniformly throughout MIM.
MIMSafe's implementation group wide is reviewed regularly, and external audits are continuously providing internal and external benchmarks. Internal auditing is being consistently applied across all sites using a risk-based approach. The emphasis is on peer review, direct participation from line managers and coaching of employees.
MIMSafe provides the structure for our systematic approach to safety throughout MIM and following an internal review, improvements were made, including material for training and formulation of standards.
To improve the effectiveness and ownership of safety audits, internal auditing by qualified employees replaced the prior external audit function.
This process improves the transfer of good practices within MIM.
Core safety training is being further developed to support the planning and auditing processes.
MIM is committed to turning safety systems into safe behaviour.
Below are some steps the company took to improve safety performance and to make safety the number one priority for all MIM employees during 2001/2002:
Strong emphasis on safety in the leadership development programme has been introduced in Mount Isa.
Performance Report
Disabling injury frequency rate (DIFR), now established as the key performance indicator for the group, records the effect of accidents more accurately than the lost time injury frequency rate (LTIFR).
(LTIFR statistics are still kept for external reporting purposes and benchmarking within the Australian mining industry.)
Severity Rate Frequency Rate (SRFR) records the average time lost per time injury
The Ernest Henry mine in north-west Queensland was awarded the inaugural Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy Occupational Health and Safety Award in June 2002.
The mine received the award for its development of an exceptional safety and health management culture through engaging and involving the whole workforce.
Ravenswood Gold mine wins top safety award for Queensland
The Ravenswood gold mining operations won two major safety awards in 2001 for a piece of specially designed maintenance equipment.
The North Queensland mine received the Innovation Award and the People's Choice Award as part of a Queensland Mining Industry Health and Safety Conference in Townsville.
The award-winning Evans Roller Frame, named after Mechanical Supervisor Mick Evans, provides a highly cost effective way to replace conveyor rollers that is much safer than the alternative.
The Evans Roller Frame enables return rollers on a conveyor to be replaced safely from the conveyor walkway. The alternative is more hazardous and involves accessing the return of rollers by using a safety harness or the more expensive construction of an additional walkway.
Mount Isa operations introduce safe for work policy
During the year Mount Isa operations introduced a new policy to help improve the safety of employees at work. The Safe for Work policy focuses on managing fatigue, stress, drugs and alcohol use.
It includes testing for drugs and alcohol pre-employment and if accidents occur; it also uses random urine sampling to test for drugs and alcohol and introduces a risk assessment approach to managing fatigue.
The policy recognises that employees who are adversely affected by alcohol, illicit or prescription drugs, fatigue or stress put themselves and their workmates at risk and need to be managed proactively.
Reducing Exposure to Lead
The Mount Isa operation maintains a strict policy to ensure employees and the community are not exposed to harmful levels of lead.
The blood lead levels of employees who work in lead mining and processing areas are routinely tested.
As part of a policy of constant improvement, the target level of lead in employees' blood has been progressively reduced in recent years.
Several measures are in place to minimise the spread of lead from MIM's operations to the Mount Isa community. These include wheel washes at exit points, green belt buffer zones and a clean-in/clean-out policy for employees.
Lead health and hygiene initiatives are also pursued in Europe.
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