The vehicle safety standard at Exxaro has also been
revised, setting a minimum standard with which all vehicles
should comply to operate on company property or be used
for company business.
Exxaro has also embarked on a formal ‘visible
felt leadership’ programme at al lbusiness units
to ensure improved communication and understanding of
key safety risks between management and employees with
the main aim of improving risk awareness and proactively
addressing and mitigating safety risks on the floor before
incidents occur.
Although the fatality frequency rate per million man-hours
worked improved from 0.18 in 2006 to 0.14 in 2007 (figure
B), it is still too high as any fatality is regarded
as unacceptable. Regrettably, and despite excellent safety
achievements at several mines, we lost five colleagues
during the reporting period. Two fatalities occurred
in separate incidents at Grootegeluk, one in January
and the other in November. One fatality occurred at Rosh
Pinah in March, another at Matla in May and the third
at North Block Complex in December. Thorough investigations
were conducted in all cases and lessons learned from
each incident have been incorporated into our ongoing
safety programmes focused on an injury-free work environment.
Although there has been constant improvement in the
lost-time injury frequency rate (LTIFR) over recent years
(figure C), improvements have fallen short of targets.
Exxaro has set a target of zero fatalities and an LTIFR
of 0,21 for 2008, which is a reduction of 30% on the
LTIFR target set for 2007. Although we have not met he
target for 2007, we are confident that through renewed
focus and committed management and employees, we will
reach our goal. The safety of our people is a cornerstone
of our business and, by making this target a collective
responsibility,
we will reach and sustain it sooner
Note: Exxaro is standardising reporting on man-hours
and lost-time injuries across the group. |
