Abstract
Good companies in the mining industry want to prevent all injuries. Many feel that one injury, regardless of severity is too many. While there are healthy debates about the practicality of this, there is no debate that everyone wants to prevent workplace fatalities and life altering injuries. Workplace fatalities have a ripple effect which can have a devastating impact to families, crews, mines, companies, and the industry.
While the mining industry has done a commendable job in reducing Total Recordable Injury Frequencies through significant effort, the frequency of workplace fatalities in our industry has largely flat lined.
Mining contractors are often tasked with complex work which can have energy sources that have the potential to cause fatalities. In many cases, while working for a mining client, a contractor will work under aspects of the owner’s safety program and standards. A contractor who works across the country, or even the world has the benefit of being exposed to safety programs from multiple companies and jurisdictions, providing the opportunity to learn from them and apply them to their own internal programs.
This paper will discuss Cementation Americas’ journey in rolling out a fatality prevention program. It will cover why this was important, how selection and development of a program took place, rollout strategies, and lessons learned.