While the mining sector has been marred by operation headwinds, its fatalities reached a record low, as indicated in the latest health and safety statistics.
According to the 2022 Mine Health and Safety Statistics released yesterday, 49 mineworkers died on the job in 2022, compared with 74 in 2022, and 60 in 2021.
Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe delivered the statistics yesterday.
Mantashe said: “In 2019, we registered 51 fatalities. We slipped back in 2020 to about 60 fatalities, and we furthered down in 2021 to 74. Now we are already starting 49 fatalities in the industry.”
While Mantashe welcomed the decrease in deaths in the mining industry, he said the sector needed improvement. He said while the deaths and injuries seemed to be on a downwards trend, there was still a concern.
“There is a desire for zero harm, the way to that is through zero fatality, people must go to work and come back home safely,” Mantashe said.
“There is a general understanding and appreciation that the health and safety of mineworkers are central to the long-term sustainability of the mining industry. It is the workers who convert investments in the industry into wealth,” Mantashe said.
The sector had flagged a total of 1 946 serious injuries in 2022, which increased from 2 123 in 2021.
No mine disasters have been reported since 2018.
The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy’s chief inspector of mines David Msiza said fall of ground accidents also dropped significantly in the reported year, with 22 in 2021, and six in 2022.
The Minerals Council South Africa and its members said yesterday they were unwavering in their commitment to “zero harm” and noted the significant reduction in fatalities to a record low, after a concerted effort by all stakeholders and strict focus on the safety strategies developed to improve working conditions.
Meanwhile, the Minerals Council of South Africa expressed its condolences to the families, friends, and colleagues of the 49 employees who lost their lives in mine accidents in 2022.
In a statement, the Minerals Council's acting head of safety and sustainable development, Lerato Tsele, said: “The industry will build on the momentum we achieved during 2022, when we halted and significantly reversed the regression in safety during the previous two years in which 74 and 60 of our colleagues died in 2021 and 2020 respectively.”
She said the significant step change in safety during 2022, following the record low number of fatalities of 51 in 2019, proved that the mining industry was back on the right track with its safety initiatives, “but that there’s a lot of hard work ahead of us”.
The industry reported a total of 1 946 serious injuries in 2022, down from 2 123 in 2021.
There were reductions of between 19% and 47% in fatalities across all commodities, while iron ore and manganese reported no fatalities during 2022.
Tsele said there were encouraging signs that initiatives like the Elimination of Falls of Ground Action Plan (FOGAP) adopted by the Minerals Council board and CEO of the Zero Harm Forum in July, 2021 were contributing to the reduction in fatalities.
"In 2022, there were six FOG-related fatalities, a 70% reduction from the 20 deaths the year before,” Tsele said.
She said the number of FOG fatalities had fallen to an average of 24 a year in the 2016-2020 five-year period from an average of 111 a year in 2001-2005, a 78% improvement.
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