People

• Employees
• Training and
       organisational
       development
• Health management
• Safety management

PEOPLE

Safety Management

Rössing Uranium’s Health, Safety and Environmental (HSE) Policy stipulates that excellence in HSE management is one of the foundations of the mine’s vision to be a safe, long-term supplier of uranium oxide. To accomplish this, in line with the Policy, a number of actions have been taken to guide all HSE actions.

Two of the highlights for the Safety Section were the completion of a semi-quantitative risk assessment (SQRA), and the development and implementation of the Safety Skills Mastery Workshop.

To further enhance safe work practices, current initiatives were continued and strengthened, while some new safety initiatives were introduced in 2007.

The SQRA identified high-voltage electricity as the primary hazard on the mine, with vehicles and driving in second place. Over 100 action items were developed to manage these hazards. Once these actions are in place, the likelihood of a fatal accident occurring is reduced by 66%.

At Rössing, we believe that a management team demonstrating their commitment to safety and a workforce committed to safe work practices will lead to meeting production targets in an injury-free workplace. The Safety Skills Mastery Workshop was aimed at improving the safety skills of Rössing’s front-line management.

The All Injury Frequency Rate (AIFR) is the rate of occurrence of all injuries across the mine per 200,000 hours worked. The AIFR is the amount of all injuries multiplied by 200,000 and divided by the hours of exposure (work) by all employees and contractors.

The AIFR for 2007 was 0.71, slightly above the target of 0.58 set for the year. The target of 0.58 was extremely aggressive and has only been achieved once in Rössing’s 30-year history. As the mine is in a strong growth mode, many new contractors have been employed that have yet to fully embed the Rössing safety culture. A disproportionate number of incidents occurred among these new contractors. Rössing has since managed this issue, and the incident rate among contractors has plunged.

The number of injuries reported in 2007 was made up as follows:

• Lost-time injuries: 9
• Cases requiring medical treatment: 7
• Cases requiring first aid treatment: 27

The target for 2008 remains at 0.58. The focus for safety in 2008 will be on the following aspects:

• Improving compliance with the safety standards
• Improving driver safety through supervision, continuing the Safety Skills Mastery Workshops
• Improving HSE-related skills amongst the HSE representatives via safety improvement and housekeeping competitions, and
• Specific emphasis on contractor performance through improved quality safety interactions and audits.

The Rio Tinto Africa Regional Health, Safety and Environmental (HSE) Workshop was hosted by Rössing in Swakopmund, the aim of which was to strengthen collaboration
between Rio Tinto mines and HSE experts from England and Australia.