The ICMM has released a report that benchmarks the 2023 safety performance of its members, highlighting that 36 people from ICMM company members lost their lives at work in 2023.

ICMM members are constantly looking for ways to make their operations safer, to eliminate fatalities towards a goal of zero harm, the ICMM says. To support this, ICMM compiles, analyses and publishes the safety data provided annually by company members, which collectively represent a third of the global mining and metals industry. The full report, ‘Safety Performance: Benchmarking Progress of ICMM Company Members In 2023′, is available here.

Tragically, 36 people from ICMM company members lost their lives at work in 2023. This compares to 33 in 2022 and 45 in 2021.

The report analyses fatalities from ICMM company members based on the cause (or ‘hazard’) and provides safety performance metrics by county and company. In 2023, 10 of these fatalities were related to mobile equipment and transportation, and five fatalities were caused by structural failures. Company member operations in South Africa had the highest number of fatalities (13), accounting for 36% of the total fatalities across ICMM members. Twelve out of 25 members reported zero fatalities.

Rohitesh Dhawan, President and CEO of ICMM, said: “There is no higher priority for ICMM members than keeping people safe and healthy at work, and this report is a stark reminder of the work ahead of us in that regard. The concerning increase in fatalities in 2023 underscores that there is absolutely no room for complacency. With this in mind, we are committed to fostering stronger safety cultures across our workforces that cascade to every corner and facet of operations.”

ICMM began collating and publishing data on members’ safety performance in 2012 with the intention of driving transparency, learning and continual improvement across the industry. This data is compiled using ICMM’s ‘Guidance on Health and Safety Performance Indicators’.