Anglo American has leveraged the experience of its coal mine workers to devise its new frontline safety program, the Fatal Risk Management (FRM) program.

Through a bottom-up approach, frontline workers have been empowered to shape FRM, a program that, the company says, is easy to use and doesn’t add another layer of red tape.

Anglo American Australia CEO, Dan van der Westhuizen, said embedding frontline workers in the project team was crucial in designing the simplified and standardised tools as they understood the risks better than anyone else. He said the team included a mix of operators, coordinators, supervisors, superintendents and contractors across its Bowen Basin operations.

“Fatal Risk is not a new concept for the mining industry and learnings from our people, peers and industry experts have informed our approach,” he said. “Our point of difference has been cultivating FRM from the operator level to leverage the insights and experiences of our frontline workers to ensure we have the best chance of getting it right.”

The FRM program comprises 14 Fatal Risks and 50 crucial Fatal Controls that sit underneath risks and these must be in place to help prevent a fatality from occurring at the frontline. Every job. Every time.

“These 14 Fatal Risks are sobering because they represent circumstances where a teammate in our business or industry has lost their life or been seriously injured on the job,” van der Westhuizen said. “It’s not often you get a chance to stop, take a step back and create a new way of working but we knew we had to make a change. Everyone deserves to go home to their families, friends and loved ones at the end of every shift.

“We know change is not easy and a culture doesn’t change overnight, but we know we are moving in the right direction.”

Anglo American was a finalist in the 2024 Prospect Awards for the rollout of its FRM project – created by the frontline, for the frontline.

Capcoal Exploration Supervisor, Will Parfitt, who has been in the mining industry for more than 17 years, said he had been proud to represent his colleagues as a member of the Fatal Risk frontline team.

“There is nothing more important than the safety of my colleagues across Anglo American and this is one of the most important things I’ve done,” he said. “I’m really proud to be involved. We now have one universal Take 5 book and Job Risk Assessment template across all operating divisions – among the last lines of defence when it comes to identifying and managing risk at the frontline.

“Five different variations existed before which was extremely confusing and painful for our workers and contractors who work across multiple sites. It wasn’t an easy process – we each brought our own views, perspectives and things we thought our individual sites wanted and needed. We recognised early on that we wouldn’t be able to please everyone or achieve perfection. We wanted to design the best tool that met the needs of the majority.

“When coupled with the other tools in our FRM system, our Take 5 provides the prompts to change our frontline’s perception and tolerance to risk.”

Moranbah North Mine Underground Coal Mine Worker, Lil Shanley, who has just returned from the International Mines Rescue Competition in Colombia, was also a key member of the FRM development team.

“When someone doesn’t return home, the impact is significant on the families, friends, colleagues, community and the industry. The ripple effect is devastating,” she said. “Ultimately, we’re all here for the same reason – nothing is more important than safety. I’ve worked across almost the whole Bowen Basin and the simple tools are the ones that work best.

“If it’s too complex, people don’t understand it and they won’t complete it properly for fear of getting it wrong. There is nothing confusing about these new tools and the people using them are the ones who have come up with them. I am proud of being able to make the decisions that are going to become a legacy.”

Capcoal Dozer Operator, Emily Page, also involved in the FRM team, said she loved mining and could never go back to a normal nine-to-five job but being on site for a fatality was “the worst thing in the world”.

“If we can make sure everyone goes home every day, that’s the most important thing,” she said. “The most important thing to come out of the mine is the miner. I just don’t want anyone to lose their life, not just in Anglo American but in the industry; it’s got to stop.”

Anglo American defines Fatal Risk as something that has the potential to immediately kill a worker on the frontline during a task. Sadly, these Fatal Risks represent a circumstance where someone in the business or in our industry has tragically lost their life in the past. Under each Fatal Risk are 3-5 Fatal Controls which are the crucial few controls that need to be in place to help prevent a fatality on the frontline. Importantly to meet the criteria of being a ‘Fatal Control’, any worker must have the ability to implement and check that the control is operating as intended– with the power truly being in a frontline worker’s hands.

Shaun Dando, Safety Leadership Practices Coach at Grosvenor, says: “If you asked me until recent times, I would have struggled to identify the Fatal Controls most relevant to me – we have over 1,000 critical controls on file. With FRM, we have narrowed that down and now the controls relate specifically to the Fatal 14, which is so practical and user-friendly.

“I look at that list of 14 and can put faces and names to those risks. I have lost workmates to a number of them, so there is a real reason to have them; it is so we all go home safely – every day,” he said.