One death, one too many for mine boss

IMPALA Platinum remains concerned about safety at its Impala Rustenburg shafts after the deaths of nine employees on duty in the year to June, Impala chief executive Nico Muller says.

Muller said yesterday that safe production was vital to the sustainability of the business and human behaviour was a major contributor to accidents.

“Human behaviour continues to contribute to many safety incidents and the emphasis is on ensuring effective leadership, responsible behaviour, and driving a culture of personal accountability and interdependence,” he said.

Muller added Zimplats, its Zimbabwe subsidiary, had achieved a safety milestone after completing a consecutive 365 days without a single injury.

“Safety is very important to us because it affects the lives of our people, we take it very seriously.

“It is fundamental to everything we are doing,” Muller said.

There were 73 fatalities on South African mines last year, down from 77 in 2015.

Muller, who was previously the vice-president for Gold Fields’ operations in South Africa and was the chief operations officer at the Royal Bafokeng Platinum, said safety improvement over the past number of years reflected safety leadership that had been applied in the organisation.

“I think, in particular, the outgoing chief executive was a decisive leader in the industry, and he installed a strong safety culture within the company,” Muller said. – Dineo Faku