Safety is everyone’s responsibility

It is everyone’s responsibility to ensure that Hidden Valley Mine is a safe working environment.

Hidden Valley Mine General Manager, Gary Davies, made this remark during the opening event of the National Mining Safety Week (NMSW) at the Adam Wright Recreational Hall at Hidden Valley on Monday.

The theme for the weeklong event is ‘Road and Vehicle Safety’ and is spearheaded by the mine’s Health Security & Safety Department. It is an important event in the country’s mining calendar.

“The event is an opportunity to not only reflect on our past performance and learning, but to look forward to the future, to gain new knowledge, to learn new skills and importantly to recommit ourselves to our efforts of achieving our goal of zero harm in the workplace,” he said.

Mr Davies said the focus at Hidden Valley has been on the High Risk Tasks and the critical controls required to make these tasks safe.

“A part of this has been a focus on Road and Vehicle safety. We have implemented a range of critical controls to ensure that all our vehicles, whether it is a light vehicle or a prime mover, can move safely on our roads,” he said.

Some of the controls put in place have been vehicle monitoring, correct gear selection and vehicle specification and driver competency checks.

“Since we have implemented these controls in July last year, only two incidents from 18,000 light vehicle trips have been reported on the Hamata Access Road and incidents involving our logistics contractor prime mover fleet have reduced dramatically,” Mr Davies said.

He further added; ““We must put safety first before production because we know from experience that an unsafe workplace is not productive. We can best help this business by working safely and therefore, being productive. Safety is our priority, words alone will not help us and it is through our actions that we can truly deliver our most important value. We owe it to ourselves, our colleagues and our families.”

Hidden Valley Safety Superintendent, Charles Yamanson, urged all employees to get involved and learn about safety.

“The demonstration and awareness will teach employees about being safety conscious both at work and at home. We would like to remind them not to lose focus of the spirit of the week and that it’ll act as a reminder that safety is important. At the end of their shifts they have to go back home safely to their families,” he said.

Mr Yamanson commended Safety Supervisor, Timothy Reuben for taking the lead in facilitating the program, Emergency Response Coordinator, Jonathan Tali, and the Asset Protection Department (APD) for their support.

A cake cutting ceremony was held to officially open the weeklong event. Events include a staff mine tour for employees who have not visited the Hidden Valley pit, learn how a 785 haulage truckworks, Road Crash rescue demonstration, Fire Extinguisher drill, Road and Vehicle Rescue Awareness by the Community Affairs, Vertical Rescue Demonstration, Vehicle monitoring system awareness and dog skills rescue demonstration.