Transcript Mining Industry

Breakout Session Summary
Mining Industry
November 1-2, 2007
Mining Team
Stephen Thompson
Shiv Sinha
Allen Christy
Rick Marlowe
Jim Angel
Dan Della-Giustina
Overall Mining Industry Trends and Organizational
Consistency with Trends
 Better performers (low incident rate) are not immune
to fatalities and the rate is not necessarily an
indicator of potential fatality prevention
 High quality safety programs may not provide
protection against fatalities
 Internationally – contractors have higher fatality rate
 Domestically – employees have higher fatality rates
 2006 Data presented by MSHA shows mixed results
between coal (employees higher) and metal/non
metal (contractors higher) in domestic setting
Most Significant Organizational Weaknesses
 Risk perception problems – perception that it can’t
happen or it can’t happen to me – element of
overconfidence
 Lack of leadership skills among mining line
organization (7 key element of leadership – vision,
credibility, collaboration, communication, action
oriented, feedback and recognition and
accountability)
 Lack of understanding of risks
 Lack of formal risk assessment process
 Business needs and competition push us to be too
risk tolerant
 Lack of understanding of human performance
concepts and/or needs
Most Significant Organizational Weaknesses
 Overextended equipment life
 Non-standardized equipment
 Lack of cohesiveness – Lack of
organizational sharing of information
 Non-standardized crew work practices
 Lack of written standard procedures
 Risks associated with work
environment/condition changes are not
recognized
Most Significant Contributing Causes
 Lack of human resources to provide adequate training
and to develop and maintain written procedures and a
lack of trained H&S professionals
 Lack of identification and control of the risk of fatality
 Lack of hazard recognition training
 Lack of well established safe work procedure for all tasks
 High turnover rate - frequent new employees
 Lack of established human performance principles
 No industry safety equipment standards
 Lack of use of current technology
 Lack of perceived need to change
Solutions & Best Practices for Fatality
Prevention
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Written pre-job planning document used for every job – must include a
risk assessment (IPDE)
Empower employees to do whatever it takes to do a job safely and
then hold them accountable
Develop formalized leadership safety training program (should include
a selection and promotion process for leaders)
Safety audits driven (led by) by the leadership
Incident investigation/root cause analysis programs and training
Develop strong safety culture and climate principles
Deployment of human performance principles (traps, triggers and
tools)
Implement new employee screening processes – aptitude, physical
capabilities, drug and alcohol, etc.
Implement wellness programs
Areas of Future Research
 Determine the psychological
relationship to risk-taking behavior (risk
tolerance)
 Explore technological improvements in
mining equipment
 Adult education/teaching technologies