We are dedicated to ensuring zero harm and placing a high priority on the health and wellbeing of our employees. Given the inherent risks in our operational environment, particularly in mining activities, identifying and managing material risks is a crucial principle in our business. Adequately eliminating, managing, and controlling these risks is essential for preventing occupational diseases and illnesses.
Our occupational health, hygiene, and wellness programmes aim to identify and quantify health hazards, allowing us to mitigate and reduce risks to the health and wellbeing of employees, contractors, and visitors. To comply with legislative requirements and Rössing’s occupational health standards, we have established various risk-based programmes, including but not limited to:
- Occupational hygiene
- Occupational medical screening and surveillance
- Fitness for work, wellness, and fatigue management
- Hazardous substances exposure control
- Noise exposure control
- Workplace ergonomics management
Exposure monitoring and control are integral components of our risk management approach. Workers are categorised into similar exposure groups (“SEGs”) based on their work areas, tasks, and associated exposures. At Rössing, we adopt a risk-based monitoring strategy for these SEGs, determined through annual reviews of the site risk register.
Occupational hygiene monitoring aims to assess the following aspects: adherence to legal requirements, risks to the health and wellbeing of our workforce, effectiveness of risk mitigating controls, and progress tracking against our objectives and targets aligned with Rössing’s management system and health performance standards.
In the year 2023, we conducted monitoring for 14 SEGs. The occupational hygiene monitoring programme encompassed assessments of noise and vibration levels, respirable dust (including crystalline silica quartz), welding fumes and metals in dust, volatile organic compounds (“VOCs”), hydration testing, and water-borne bacterium (legionella) in both onsite water systems and potable water quality.
Dust
Dust, a significant concern in open pit mining operations like ours, originates mainly from soil and rock removal, material transport, and ore crushing.
Dust sources may be:
- localised, e.g., from blasting, loading trucks, crushing ore, or transfer by conveyor
- diffused, e.g., from waste rock dumps or areas of disturbed ground
- linear, e.g., from haul roads
Mining operations primarily generate “fugitive dust”, which includes respirable mineral dust fractions such as rock, stone, and concrete, often invisible but capable of causing lung damage.
Chronic exposure to elevated dust concentrations can adversely affect workers’ health, leading to issues such as skin irritations, respiratory problems, and inflammatory lung diseases. Inhalation of dusts with specific elemental compositions, like crystalline silica in the form of quartz, can result in severe and even fatal diseases.
Airborne dust sampling is crucial for safeguarding workers’ health by measuring personal exposure to dust and ensuring it remains within occupational exposure limits (“OELs”). Respirable crystalline silica (“RCS”) samples were collected from SEGs with anticipated silica exposure, applying the OEL of 0.1mg/m3 for RCS. Two SEGs exceeded the OEL for silica, prompting a review of current dust control measures and subsequent corrective actions.
Noise
Continuous noise originating from large equipment, machinery maintenance activities, and mining processes poses a potential threat to workers, leading to the risk of temporary (temporary threshold shift) or permanent hearing loss (noise-induced hearing loss).
Human hearing is most sensitive to sounds around the centre of the frequency range of speech. A frequency weighting scale is employed to evaluate the impact of noise on individuals. The “A weighting” serves as a frequency filter with a response akin to the human ear, offering a reliable indication of subjective reactions to sound and the potential for hearing damage. Exposure to noise should remain below the designated OEL of 85 dBA.
In high-risk areas, noise zoning is implemented alongside customised personal hearing protection devices. In other areas, disposable earplugs or earmuffs are utilised.
The graph below illustrates the average annual personal noise exposures measured for different SEGs in 2023, without accounting for the protection factor provided by the hearing protection devices in use. Instances of exceeding the limits were addressed through our internal incident management and educational programmes.
Occupational medical surveillance
Medical screening and surveillance play a crucial role in identifying early health effects associated with exposure, both in individual employees and groups of employees. This proactive approach enables timely interventions to reduce exposures and prevent or address potential adverse health outcomes.
A risk-based periodic medical programme is established through an assessment of the exposures experienced by employees and contractor employees within SEGs. This comprehensive approach mandates pre-employment, periodical, and exit medical examinations for both employees and contractors.
Other medical examinations during employment include transfer medicals, return-to-work fitness medicals and impairment assessments. The mine’s workplace wellness programmes actively promote and encourage employees to undergo supplementary medical screening tests. This initiative serves the dual purpose of empowering individuals to take charge of their health and facilitating the early detection of chronic or life-threatening illnesses.
Wellness
Our workplace wellness programme prioritises the overall wellbeing of employees, addressing physical, emotional, and mental health aspects. Annually, we formulate a wellness calendar featuring monthly themes. The calendar includes the observance of significant international health days, monthly health topics disseminated by the company’s peer educators, and targeted campaigns, among other activities.
Some highlights were:
- The WellSteps Move it Coast to Coast Challenge, a fun team-based virtual race over seven weeks that was offered to employees and contractor employees.
- The annual Wellness Week held on site where the company partners with one of its medical aid service providers. This event provides employees with the chance to undergo onsite health screenings. Furthermore, during Wellness Week, both employees and contractor workers could access counselling services, engage in Alcohol and Drug Awareness sessions, and attend Financial Awareness sessions. The programme also includes onsite dietician consultations.
- Blood donation clinics were organised quarterly at the mine to support the Namibian Blood Transfusion Service blood drives, resulting in the collection of a total of 187 units of blood.
- Cancer awareness was promoted through screening clinics for breast cancer, cervical cancer, and prostate cancer at the mine.
Radiation safety
In Namibia, the protection of employees, members of the public and the environment against the harmful effects of radiation is governed by:
- The Atomic Energy and Radiation Protection Act 5 of 2005, Radiation Protection
- Waste Disposal Regulations GN 221, GG4835 of 11 November 2011 legislation
Managing radiation risks associated with our operations is prioritised at Rössing Uranium and a comprehensive summary on how we achieve compliance with the Act and Regulations is provided in the Radiation Management Plan (“RMP”). The RMP is approved and our compliance thereto audited on an annual basis by the National Radiation Protection Authority.
The assessment, quantification, and control of radiation exposure risks in the workplace are key aspects of the occupational hygiene monitoring programme at Rössing, with the risk-based monitoring approach applied for SEG monitoring.
Other monitoring activities include Final Product Recovery (“FPR”), surface contamination and airborne long-lived radioactive dust (“LLRD”), thermoluminescent dosimetry (“TLD”) for radiation workers, and urine sampling. Public monitoring, as well as the monitoring of shipments, forms part of radiation safety exposure control.
Monitoring
Personal and area monitoring for SEGs measures the three exposure pathways, namely internal exposures to LLRD, radon decay products, as well as external (gamma) radiation exposure.
Assuming a working year of 2,000 hours, the annualised and average dose by SEG is displayed in the graph below. The average dose ranged between 0.71 and 3.22 millisievert per annum (mSv/a) against the occupational legal limit of 20 mSv/a. The overall average radiation dose was 1.39 mSv/a.
In the FPR area, which is considered to exhibit the highest risk in terms of radiation exposure, we perform regular monitoring of surface contamination, inhalation dose rates for radioactive dust and area gamma dose rates. For surface contamination, we set a target of a maximum average surface contamination of 1 becquerel per square centimetre (“Bq/cm²”) for the area, and a maximum average dust inhalation dose rate of 10 micro-sieverts per hour (“μSv/h”). None of these limits were exceeded.
All workers belonging to the FPR and the recovery SEGs are classified as radiation workers and they receive continuous gamma monitoring in the form of thermoluminescent dosimeters, which are replaced at intervals of three months. They also undergo monthly urine testing to check for accidental ingestion of uranium. Female radiation workers undergo monthly pregnancy testing to enable prompt removal of pregnant employees from this working area.
In 2023, we performed over 2,000 urine sample tests with one exceedance of the warning level (20 micro-grammes per litre (“μg/L”)) for uranium in urine. This exceedance was mainly due to non-compliance with the PPE requirements for the area as well as increased maintenance activities in FPR. The incidents were reported to the National Radiation Protection Authority (“NRPA”) and investigated internally. Corrective actions were identified and implemented.
ALARA campaign
ALARA stands for “As Low As Reasonably Achievable”, taking economic and social factors into account, with regards to radiation protection. It is regarded as the gold standard for radiation protection.
In 2023, the Radiation Safety division continued to run an ALARA campaign that started in 2021, with the objective of:
- Sensitising employees on radiation safety protection and awareness
- Helping the workforce identify the actions taken in work areas that have the potential to cause unnecessary radiation exposures
- Reminding employees of what to do in the event of spills and incidents