Tag Archives: Trevor Schultz

Another fatality-free landmark for Murray & Roberts Cementation

Environmental, Mine shafts and equipment, Mining safety, , , ,

A hard-won culture of safety has earned Murray & Roberts Cementation the accolade of seven million fatality free shifts from the Association of Mine Managers of South Africa (AMMSA).

The award was made to Kethu Mokgatlha, Project Executive at Murray & Roberts Cementation (left), by AMMSA President, Mosala Letebele (right), at a ceremony in Johannesburg in June to recognise the company’s achievement. The seven million shifts were undertaken over a period of almost nine years, and spanned five different shaft sinking projects in South Africa. The work undertaken also covers specialist interventions such as ore pass rehabilitation, grout sealing and underground support systems.

According to Trevor Schultz, Risk Executive at Murray & Roberts Cementation, the award is particularly heartening in a working environment that carries a range of technical risk factors. Schultz points to the culture of safety, developed over decades of intense focus and commitment, as the foundation for this safety landmark.

“It also requires that everyone in the business – from those at the rockface right through to the executive management – is focused on the same goal,” he says. “It starts with carefully structured training at entry level, and a continuous emphasis on our corporate values which prioritise safe working practices and a constructive mindset that must be developed over time.”

He highlights that the company’s safety systems and protocols have always been in place to support and complement this culture. Its successful Major Accident Prevention Programme, for instance, has evolved into a Critical Controls Management process to continue raising the safety bar. These frameworks align with the requirements of customers in the mining sector, serving to enhance and reinforce both parties’ safety efforts.

“Working safely is also a highly collaborative effort that extends beyond our company and our customers,” Schultz says. “It includes the constructive involvement of local communities and suppliers – for example, we employ most of our general workers from the areas around our project sites which makes it vital that even our novice training is highly impactful and safety focused.”

All training is carried out to the highest standards at the Murray & Roberts Training Academy near Carletonville, in South Africa. Schultz paid tribute to the late Tony Pretorius, the company’s Education and Training Executive, for formulating innovative training modules to foster its safety culture.

Murray & Roberts Cementation’s safety performance heralded

Mine shafts and equipment, Mining industry recognition, Mining safety, Mining services, , , , , , ,

South Africa-based Murray & Roberts Cementation says it has just achieved six million fatality-free shifts, while also picking up a raft of awards at the recent Murray & Roberts Group CE Safety Recognition Awards.

These acknowledgements are especially significant for a mining-related business, Trevor Schultz, Risk Executive at Murray & Roberts Cementation, says. Schultz highlights that the Murray & Roberts mining group had reduced its lost time injury frequency rate (LTIFR) from 1.25 to 0.93 – taking it below the challenging score of 1.

Last month, the Association of Mine Managers of South Africa (AMMSA) recognised Murray & Roberts Cementation for reaching six million shifts without a fatality. The certificate was handed over to Managing Director, Mike Wells, and Project Executive Kethu Mokgatlha at an AMMSA meeting in Rustenburg.

At the Murray & Roberts in-house safety awards for the global group, Murray & Roberts Cementation received three prizes in the Zero Harm Projects category. The first was for outstanding safety performance at its Northam Grout Plant Project in North West province, after 18 injury-free years. The other two projects recognised were its Khutala Colliery Project in Mpumalanga, and the Murray & Roberts Training Academy in Gauteng.

In the same ceremony, the company also received a Special Recognition award for individuals, teams or companies with outstanding contributions to safety performance.

Schultz says a key aspect of the company’s safety success has been its consistency and ongoing effort.

“It is important that we focus on applying and adapting our plans – and sticking with the agreed framework,” he says. “There are obviously realignments, when necessary, but we follow the plan and build momentum that way.”

He emphasises that Murray & Roberts Cementation accepts mining is a hazardous environment, but that safety is a managed outcome and all injuries are preventable. In the company’s view, Zero Harm is not a slogan but a value.

“Safety management is about empowering people to manage risk,” Schultz says. “Within the group’s safety framework, we have developed an integrated management system to drive safety.”

Among the ways the business continuously improves its safety impact is to record and classify incidents and ‘near misses’ in terms of their potential severity. These are presented at group level in a constructive engagement that highlights the lessons learnt. Such lessons are fed back into the group to inform strategies where working conditions may be similar.

“The lessons we draw from incidents really take our safety awareness to the next level,” Schultz says. “We also tap into the Minerals Council South Africa, to learn from incidents reported and analysed by our peers in the sector.”

(Pictured from left, Murray & Roberts Cementation Project Executive, Kethu Mokgatlha, and Managing Director, Mike Wells, receiving the certificate of recognition from AMMSA for reaching six million fatality free shifts)