| Safety - process in place |
Twenty-nine people lost their lives in incidents at our managed (25) and non-managed (4)
operations during 2007.
A management process is in place to address this, and there is close collaboration with Anglo
American plc. |
The process division and the Potgietersrust Mine operated fatalityfree.
The Group's lost-time injury frequency rate (LTIFR)
decreased to 2.03 from 2.52 in 2006.
Platinum production at the mining level (equivalent refined)
decreased by 6%, compared with 2006, to 2,471,400 ounces. |
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| The skills shortage in South Africa remains a challenge and we are addressing the attraction
and retention of valuable human capital through several management programmes. |
 On 4 September 2007 Anglo Platinum, Anooraq
Resources and Mvelaphanda Resources jointly
announced transactions which, if successfully
concluded, would result in the creation of two
sustainable HDSA managed and controlled PGM
producers with significant broad-based
empowerment. |
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The safety, health and wellbeing of all Anglo Platinum
employees and contractors is an overriding priority in
the Group. Regrettably, 25 employees were fatally
injured in 2007 due to mining-related incidents at
Anglo Platinum's managed operations. This compares
with the 18 reported in 2006. The Board and
management extend their condolences to the families
and employees affected by these events and will
continue doing everything possible to ensure 'zero
harm'. Nine fatalities were attributed to falls of ground,
six to transportation and moving machinery-related
incidents, and the balance to other causes such as falling
and explosions.
Potgietersrust, Polokwane, Mortimer and Waterval
smelters, Rustenburg Base Metal Refinery and Precious
Metal Refinery were fatality-free during 2007. Lessons
from these operations are being shared across
operations to ensure a Group-wide improvement in
safety performance. |
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 While there was a deterioration in safety performance
in terms of the number of fatal incidents, the number of
serious and reportable injuries in 2007 decreased from
819 in 2006 to 754 in 2007. The lost-time injury
frequency rate (LTIFR) in 2007 was 2.03 compared to
2.52 in 2006. These improvements are encouraging
although safety performance clearly remains
unacceptable. This poor performance has had a material
impact on the business in 2007.
A deterioration in safety performance occurred in the first half of 2007 with 18 fatal incidents, 12 of which occurred at Rustenburg Mine. A decision was taken to suspend production at all shafts for seven days on a staggered basis, with the aim of ensuring that: |
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every employee fully understands the principles and accountability underlying all safety standards, initiatives and programmes; |
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any factors that may have contributed to the deterioration in performance were addressed; and |
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safety is recognised by all as the overriding priority in the Group. |
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| Following the closure of Rustenburg and safety initiatives at other Group operations, senior management and other relevant stakeholders, in conjunction with Anglo American, developed a comprehensive enhanced safety improvement plan. This plan will be implemented over the next three years. The enhanced safety improvement plan has five core themes with 12 focus areas across the themes: |
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aligned values |
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effective leadership |
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communication |
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caring and connectivity |
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systems |
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Alignment of values will focus on assessing the organisational and employee underlying values and evaluating what needs to change in the organisation to inculcate the principle of zero harm in the way the business is operated.
The effective leadership theme will deal with what leadership behaviours, both as a team and as individuals, are required to support incident- and injury-free production and to further develop a high performance culture. A gap analysis is being completed to determine the gap between required and current leadership behaviours. Thereafter a leadership academy will be established to ensure alignment.
Under the communication theme the first focus area is on language training to develop an organisation in which the working environment is made safer by the ability of employees and supervisors to converse at an operational level in English and the local language. To improve the overall safety performance, the second focus is on community engagement which will evaluate ways of creating communities that understand and value safe work behaviours by the individuals who live in those communities.
The caring and connectivity theme will address important issues that have a direct bearing on safety performance such as work conditions, accommodation conditions and modes of transport to and from work, diversity and team work.
The systems theme focuses on the roll-out of fatal risk standards, risk management processes and the alignment of incentives.
Following these interventions and the development of the enhanced safety improvement plan, there was an improvement in safety performance in the second half of the year, however, although seven of the 25 fatal incidents for the year did occur in the second half. |
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 As the implementation of the enhanced safety improvement plan continues, safety performance will improve. |
| Stope at Union with in-stope netting |
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