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SAFE AND EFFECTIVE PEOPLE WHO RESPECT AND CARE
safety

A new zero-harm incentive scheme was implemented that divides the incentive equally between safety and production

Developments during the year

Following is an overview of the progress made during the year on some of the key strategic initiatives under each pillar of our safety strategy.

Person

Culture:

• We continued to implement the industry's Mine Health and Safety Council's (MHSC) cultural transformation framework and embed the Mining Charter's health and safety commitments.

Leadership:

• Our overarching objective to develop the right safety culture through leadership is being driven by the CEO, who led the executive team's visible personal commitment to addressing safety.
• 104 E-level management and 10 board members attended a three-day Zero Incident Process for Leaders (ZIP) training session. The ZIP planned for all D-level production employees has been deferred and will be reviewed in the current year.
• All Implats Exco and E-level production managers underwent the 360° health and safety leadership assessment using the Mining Charter's health and safety leadership assessment tool. Participants gained an insight into how their individual safety behaviour is viewed by their peers.

Motivation:

• A new zero-harm incentive scheme was implemented that divides the incentive equally between safety and production. The safety component comprises the leading requirement that nets and bolts be installed on all panels and development ends, as well as the lagging measure of the teams' lost-time injuries. Management is measured on lost time and restricted work injuries. Safety officers and rock engineers have observed good levels of compliance since the introduction of the incentive.

Team mobilisation:

• We have introduced a five-day team-mobilisation training programme for all our underground stoping teams, to enhance the team functionality. This programme was suspended during the strike.

Practices

Risk management system:

• An online hazard identification and rectification system is being implemented across the Group. During the reporting period, baseline risks were populated into our ISOMETRIX system. Further development work will be undertaken in 2015 to ensure that the risks reflect the right hierarchical structure.
• We have reached the final development stages of our Triggered Action Response Plan (TARP) – a set of documented and known hazards that need to be checked for in the workplace. This enhancement programme forms part of our workplace entry examination and safe declaration procedure. Training material for TARP was completed and will be used during the test phase, following the strike. An internal team has been appointed to customise TARP to manage fall of ground (FOG) hazards in the workplace.
• A formal risk assessment addressing physical risks to women and female-specific occupational disorders was initiated and will continue following the strike.
• Steps were taken during the strike period to assess and improve an emergency preparedness and response plan at Rustenburg and Marula, specifically relating to proto teams, control rooms, refuge bays and self-contained self-rescuers that were areas of concern following the major fire and disaster at Harmony's Doornkop Mine in February 2014.
• Prior to resuming the Rustenburg operations, mine overseers, ventilation officers and rock engineers conducted regular audits of all working places at the mine to assess the support conditions and ascertain if the ground conditions had deteriorated. The levels of risks identified were monitored, and informed the start-up plan.

Standards and procedures:

• An important focus during the strike was to use the non-production time to update the Impala safety standards and procedures with a specific focus on the major hazard control standards. These represent current best practice in the control of the specific identified fatal hazards and have been derived from detailed risk assessments, investigations into fatal incidents and the experiences of other industry leaders. During the year:
  • All mining and processing major hazard control documents were completed in allocating the metadata;
  • 75% of all engineering standards and procedures have allocated metadata; and
  • A document review and update process is under way of the control documents for the top five major safety hazards: fire, rock fall, irrespirable atmosphere, mobile machinery and unguarded machinery.

Safety training:

• A six-day training programme for miners, shift supervisors and mine overseers is now fully functional and entrenched. (1 219 employees attended during the year). The Group CEO regularly makes an attendance to show his support and commitment.
• Progress was made in training safety representatives to the MQA qualification as required by the Mining Charter. We are on track to achieve the charter's targets before the end of calendar year 2014.
• Safe production rules were developed and rolled out through training.