ICMM has, today, released a report that benchmarks the 2022 safety performance of its members, highlighting that 33 people from ICMM company members lost their lives at work in 2022.

This number compares to 45 in 2021 (after an additional two were retrospectively added to the count) and 44 in 2020.

ICMM says its members are unwavering in their commitment to operate responsibly, as they work to eliminate fatalities towards a goal of zero harm.

To support this commitment, 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 2022,’ is available here.

The report analyses fatalities from ICMM company members based on the cause (or ‘hazard’) and provides safety performance metrics by county and company. In 2022, nine of the 33 fatalities were related to mobile equipment and transportation, and five fatalities were caused by falling objects. Company member operations in South Africa had the highest number of fatalities (seven), accounting for 21% of the total fatalities across ICMM members. Thirteen out of 26 members reported zero fatalities.

Rohitesh Dhawan, President and CEO, ICMM said: “Everyone deserves to work free from harm, within a safe and healthy industry environment.

“ICMM has remained steadfast in our belief that we can always find new ways to improve, and as we enter a period of unprecedented demand for minerals and metals, we will continue to focus on identifying new ways to eliminate fatalities from mining and metals operations.”

ICMM began collating and publishing data on members’ safety performance in 2012 with the intention of driving knowledge-sharing, transparency and continual improvement across the industry. This data is compiled using ICMM’s ‘Guidance on Health and Safety Performance Indicators’ which was updated in 2021.