The International Council on Mining and Minerals (ICMM) has released a report benchmarking the 2021 safety performances of its members.
Since 2012, ICMM has measured and disclosed the safety performance of its members with the aim of benchmarking progress in their goal of eliminating fatalities.
ICMM members represent a third of the global resources industry and include major Australian miners BHP, Newcrest and Rio Tinto, among many others.
The current report analyses fatalities from ICMM company members based on the cause (or hazard) and provides safety performance metrics country by country. It found that 43 fatalities occurred across ICMM company members in 2021, compared to 44 in 2020 and 287 in 2019.
Twelve of the fatalities in 2021 were related to mobile equipment and transportation, and eight were caused by “fall of ground” incidents.
The continent with the highest number of fatalities was Africa, accounting for 63% of the total fatalities.
Company member operations in South Africa had the highest number of fatalities with 27, accounting for 51 per cent of the total fatalities across ICMM members.
Eleven members of the ICMM reported zero fatalities, including Alcoa, BHP, Boliden, Hydro, JX Nippon Mining & Metals, Minera San Cristobal, Minsur, MMG, Newcrest, Newmont and Rio Tinto.
Only one recorded fatality occurred within the Oceania region.
“The health and safety of workers is of paramount importance to our members and therefore any year with even a single fatality is unacceptable,” ICMM president and chief executive officer Rohitesh Dhawan said.
By collating ICMM company member data using a consistent reporting period (calendar-based versus various financial years) and unifying it under a common set of indicators, the ICMM can present the information in a more straightforward way.
The safety data continues to play an important role in informing leadership decisions and health and safety strategy.
Ongoing analysis of incidents and their associated root causes will continue to inform innovative and impactful approaches to improving safety performance across the industry.
All of the data is compiled using the ICMM’s ‘Guidance on Health and Safety Performance Indicators’, which was updated in 2021.
The full report, ‘Safety Performance: Benchmarking progress of ICMM Company Members in 2021’, is now available.