Health and Safety
Occupational Health and Safety | |
Safety is a priority concern at all sites and the Company believes there is a clear relationship between safe and healthy workplaces and satisfactory production results.
Line managers are held accountable for their safety performance and management at each operating site is supported by professional safety staff. All employees are expected to be engaged in maintaining safe work sites through involvement in health and safety committee meetings and through conducting safety inspections. Employees are given safety training at the commencement of their employment and regularly throughout their career with the Company. Each operating site maintains a Joint Health and Safety Committee (JHSC) which addresses new regulations, site procedures and actions to improve health and safety. JHSCs are an important and valued component of our sites' organization for safety.
Employees are responsible for performing all tasks in accordance with relevant HSEC Site Procedures, so as to work safely and keep the workplace safe. Specifically they must:
- Accept personal responsibility for HSEC
- Identify hazards unsafe conditions, unsafe actions
and conditions that could result in spills or releases to
the environment
- Obey any instruction issued to protect their own
personal health and safety, and the health and safety
of others
- Report, as soon as practicable to their Manager any
situations where HSEC requirements are not being
conformed to within their work area
- Avoid endangerment to any other person through any
act or omission
- Use equipment correctly, particularly equipment
provided for health, hygiene and safety purposes;
Report all incidents
- Participate in HSEC training provided to them
Sites have in place processes for understanding their risks including hazard identification and risk assessment. Each site is required to maintain a Risk Register. Significant risks at Lundin Mining sites include slips and falls, falls of ground, chemical hazards, use of explosives, noise, electricity and moving equipment, especially heavy equipment. Aguablanca's safety management system is registered to OHSAS 18001. At the other sites, similar safety systems are in place but the decision has been made not to seek certification.
All mine sites provide occupational health services. Each mine site maintains an industrial hygiene program to conduct assessments of workplace exposure to, for example, silica, lead, cadmium, mercury and noise. Workplace chemical exposures are controlled within regulated limits at all mine sites. Mine sites also have an active audiometric program to pick up the earliest signs of noise-induced hearing loss or other hearing problems. Few cases are identified, reflecting the effectiveness of the sites' hearing protection programs. Regular biological monitoring is conducted to assess exposure to heavy metals. Sites have protocols in place to provide protective reassignment to any employee who shows blood metal levels that reach an action level. There were no reported cases of occupational disease at our operations during 2010.
Neves-Corvo maintains a medical center located in the plant complex under the direction of an occupational health position. The medical center is well equipped and includes separate rooms for surgery, emergency treatment and recovery. The clinic is well equipped for diagnostic testing, including x-ray, ECG, hearing and lung function testing.
A similar clinic is maintained at Zinkgruvan. The site maintains a medical surveillance program with all employees seeing the nurse and physician on a three year cycle. Vision, hearing and lung function are tested along with lifestyle counseling. Employees exposed to dust receive a chest X-ray every six years.
At the smaller Aguablanca mine, medical assessments are conducted annually by an outside service provider using exposure-based protocols. Workplace exposures are also assessed by an outside consultant.
At each mine site, Lundin Mining has training, counseling, prevention, and risk-control programs in place to assist workforce and their family members with health and safety concerns. Public health resources in the countries where we currently operate are of a high standard and are readily accessible for community members.
Safety Performance
Lundin Mining tracks safety performance at the Corporate Level, maintains statistics on, and reports to the Board of Directors, all incidents that result in lost time from work or which require medical aid (according to the US OSHA criteria). This "Total Recordable Incident Frequency allows comparison of performance between operations in different parts of the world where different social support systems or workers' compensation requirements may distort an indicator based only on Lost Time incidents. Statistics are normalized to 200,000 hours of work.
Safety performance in 2010 remained much the same as in 2009 with a TRIF of 3.55 compared with a TRIF of 3.12 in 2009. (Note that in reporting safety statistics Lundin Mining does not differentiate between full-time staff and contractors).
Efforts were made to bring about a culture of change at the sites that would establish an environment that would drive improved safety performance. For example, at Neves-Corvo, considerable improvements have been made to site infrastructure to enhance safety as well as productivity. The mine is moving from ANFO to emulsions explosives, which have less environmental impact and are easier to handle. New, secure storage facilities have been constructed underground that are easy to maintain and are well illuminated.
A campaign on housekeeping and site improvement has transformed the surface and underground areas at Neves-Corvo. This involved improvements to lay-down and workshop areas for contractors and clean-up of the stockpile area to explosives handling, shotcrete mixing, transportation into the mine and traffic flow in the mine.
At Zinkgruvan, there was a heavy emphasis placed on safety training. Over 300 employees and more than 100 contractors participated in training sessions that focused on changing safety culture. They included employee participation in risk assessment and a "strengths and weaknesses" exercise on safety management at Zinkgruvan.
Taken together, we believe these steps will yield significant reductions in incident frequency in 2011.
Regular training is an essential part of maintaining an
effective mines rescue capability at Neves-Corvo
| |
| Types of Accidents |
% |
| Fall of Ground |
5 |
| Contact with Chemicals |
5 |
| Burns |
10 |
| Loss of Control of Mobile Equipment |
13 |
| Slips, Trips, Falls |
21 |
| Struck by or against an Object |
18 |
| Musculoskeletal Injuries |
21 |
| Crush, Pinch injuries |
8 |
Emergency Preparedness
Each mine site maintains an emergency response capability suited to its working environment and risks. Neves-Corvo has a strong emergency response capability with three surface and three underground mine rescue teams, each comprising six and seven members, respectively. All the teams are staffed by volunteers from across the mine and plant departments, including miners, electricians and mechanics. They receive monthly, in-house training where fires, accidents and evacuations are simulated. In addition to the monthly in-house training, each team undergoes annual external training to ensure that their skills are maintained.
The emergency response capability at Neves-Corvo includes a fleet of emergency vehicles, including three fire trucks and three ambulances, two of which are based underground. A helipad is available for evacuation in the case of medical emergencies. Neves-Corvo places a strong emphasis on emergency training with 104 people certified and an additional 537 people trained in first aid, and approximately 600 people trained in fire protection.
In Sweden, community emergency services have the responsibility to respond to surface and underground emergencies. Zinkgruvan works closely with local services to ensure that they are familiar with the surface and underground layout of the mine and are able to effectively respond to emergencies on-site. The site trains and equips a group of employees to act as guides to the community rescue services in the event of an underground emergency. Annually, the community fire department trains with mine personnel to practice underground firefighting.
At Aguablanca, the site maintains an ambulance and has trained approximately 60 people in first aid and fire protection. Being an open-pit mine, the site does not maintain a mine rescue team but will establish one if a decision is made to extend the underground drift.
The Company's underground mines are equipped with underground emergency facilities, including refuge chambers strategically located throughout the underground workings. Each chamber is equipped with close circuit breathing apparatus, complete mine rescue kits and communication capability with surface.
Galmoy no longer maintains an active mine rescue team, but maintains access to mine rescue services from a neighbouring facility.
