In Australia, Sandvik Mining has backed its commitment to the industry’s highest safety levels by achieving a full year with no lost-time injuries for its APAC market area (covering Australasia, Asia and the Indian subcontinent). It reached the milestone at midday on August 20, 2013. Rowan Melrose, President of Sandvik Mining Asia Pacific, said one year lost time injury (LTI) free was a remarkable achievement for the business. It reflects the commitment, the behaviours and culture of a workforce that values safety and a safe work environment,” he said.

“This result covers not only Australia, but our entire market area – including New Zealand, China, India, Southeast Asia, Mongolia and Indonesia – encompassing over 2,881employees, many of whom work directly in the mining industry across a range of sites and working conditions. It is an outstanding result for Sandvik Mining and Sandvik AB – and for the mining industry as a whole,” he said. 

“It reflects our employee’s commitment to safety and their continued efforts to improve their workplace standards. And results like these raise the bar in terms of our commitment to social responsibility and being an employer of choice – and help to deliver against ever-increasing community expectations.”

Melrose said Sandvik Mining’s achievement of one year LTI-free for its APAC market area had not been without its challenges. When he took on the role of President of Sandvik Mining’s Australian operations in 2007, its TRIFR (Total Recordable Injury Frequency Rate) was 46, while its LTIFR (Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate) was around 15. “At this time our systems and processes, as well as our understanding of safety and safety systems, were relatively immature,” he said.

“Because of this, during the next 12-18 months, we undertook a real drive to raise awareness, improve our learnings and generally improve our standards with regard to safety in our business. As a result, by mid 2008 our TRIFR had almost halved to 25, while our LTIFR had also halved to 7.5.  These numbers then plateaued for the next 24-30 months. We had the systems, processes and procedures in place, but we were running safety from a compliance perspective.”

“We recognised that to get to the next level and drive a zero-harm work environment, we had to achieve cultural, behavioural and attitudinal changes in all personnel. To achieve this, we moved our focus to developing a safety culture where we achieved the industry’s highest safety standards because we wanted to – rather than simply complying with minimum safety requirements,” said Melrose.

“We changed tack to focus on individual actions and performance, and what standards individuals were prepared to accept,” he said.

“We put in place a number of programs which provided leverage for the next stage of  improvement; the combination of these programs and a strong focus across the entire company over the past 12 months has seen our safety performance continuing to rise – to the point where we have now achieved one year LTI-free.

“I would like thank and congratulate every individual who has worked with Sandvik Mining over the past year in delivering this result; every employee, contractor, subcontractor and casual.

“I firmly believe that a zero-harm work environment is achievable – and with continued efforts from everyone this will be realised,” Melrose said.