Having last year achieved the lowest fall of ground fatalities ever, South African mining’s next big safety challenge is to achieve greater safety in the use of trackless mobile machines – rubber-tired vehicles that operate in underground mines without making use of rail tracks.

In 2021, South African mining suffered 16 trackless mobile machine-related fatalities – and last year that worsened to 17.

“We’re going to do whatever we can to bring that down,” says Minerals Council South Africa chairperson Zero Harm Forum Japie Fullard, who was speaking to journalists in the media lounge of the Investing in African Mining Indaba, together with outgoing Minerals Council CEO Roger Baxter and Minerals Council senior executive environment, health and legacies Nikisi Lesufi.

Following constructive collaboration, 2015 regulations governing trackless machines have now been uplifted, and the Mine Health and Safety Act Trackless Mobile Machinery Regulations for collision avoidance systems promulgated.

“It means we must now get into forward-march mode,” says Fullard.

Trackless mobile machinery is now a very big focal point, and Baxter reports considerable progress in the adoption of collision avoidance systems. Also at the Mining Indaba, South Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research showcased a data-driven solution to eliminate trackless mobile machinery-linked transport injuries.

SIX FALL OF GROUND FATALITIES

In 2007, fall-of-ground incidents alone claimed 76 lives. Last year, this was cut down to six.

In 1992, the year Baxter joined the mining sector, the industry suffered 615 fatalities.

It has had a 90%-plus reduction since then, a lot of it testament to the adoption of global leading practice, changing people’s mindsets around safety behaviour within operations, legislative change through the Mine Health & Safety Act, and collaboration between the stakeholders through the Mine Health & Safety Council.

The Mine Health & Safety Act was promulgated after the Leon Commission of Enquiry, which took place after the Vaal Reefs disaster in 1995, when a locomotive fell into a lift shaft killing 104 people.

On what must be done to improve the safety of trackless mobile machines, Fullard says three things stand out:­ the technology itself and its link to mining processes, proper structuring of traffic management plans to ensure operational readiness within mines, and the importance of training.

“If you think that you’re just going to put in technology without upskilling your labour, you are going to have huge problems,” Fullard cautions.

“It’s not just push another button and it will be solved. It’s a process and that’s why we’re all working very hard to get all the companies into line,” he says.

A major focus is on high-potential incidents, which have not yet happened but which have the potential to cause fatality.

“We look at all the things that could have been fatal because that’s where the learnings are and the morale of those learnings is much better because nobody has lost a life. What we can do as the industry before people lose their lives is very important to me,” says Fullard, who emphasises that stopping mining in dangerous places is being incentivised and rewarded.

“If you think about a big mine, that’s 8 000 people going down underground, that’s 8 000 pairs of eyes. If you can get all of them to focus on the hazards, just imagine how safe that place can be. We are talking about people who have been in their roles in the mines for years and years. They’ve got so much experience and empowering them to let us know when they feel uncomfortable is probably one of the biggest breakthroughs that we have had,” Fullard adds.

“We still have 49 people who didn’t get home safely last year. Our focus is zero harm, every mineworker getting home safely every day,” said Fullard.

Indications of 100% collaboration by government, labour and business towards achieving zero harm were reportedly evident during this month’s release of the ...