More safety accolades for Lonmin

Lonmin, one of the country’s safest miners, has been honoured again for its safety record, this time with an international award: the John T Ryan Trophy.

This prestigious award, which recognises outstanding safety practices in the mining industry, was presented to Lonmin’s 1B 4B mine at MineSAFE 2012, the premier industry safety conference incorporating the MineSAFE Awards. The John T Ryan Trophy is awarded to a mine which is an industry leader in terms of fatality free shifts (FFS) and which has had no recent fatality.

This is only the second time in history that the John T Ryan award has been awarded to a mine in South Africa.  .

Hosted by the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (SAIMM), the Association of Mine Managers South Africa (AMMSA), and the South African Colliery Managers Association (SACMA), the awards are a joint venture between these parties with important input from the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR), the Chamber of Mines, NUM, Solidarity and UASA.

Accepting the award, Lonmin mine manager Rodney Opperman proudly acknowledged the efforts of all responsible for this achievement. “This is a wonderful accomplishment for the whole team: safety is always about every member of the team,” he commented.

In addition, Lonmin was presented with the Most Improved Corporate Award for its 73.58% improvement in the safety performance, as measured in terms of Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR) – over the past 7 years (since 2005). Collecting this on behalf of the company, Mark Munroe, Executive Vice President Mining and Head of Safety: Mining Division, said: “I’m delighted with this achievement, showing that if we work together we can achieve anything we set out mind to. We take safety extremely seriously at Lonmin and we will strive to do even better in future. Safety is a journey, not a destination.”

Lonmin’s incredible achievement stems from its process called “Lonmin’s Health and Safety Journey”, which began in mid-2010. All stakeholders, including employees, unions, regulators and management at all levels, have been involved in the process to encourage and facilitate engagement in terms of both safety and health challenges: to pinpoint causal factors; to identify solutions; to implement these; and to assess performance. The success can be seen in the considerable reduction in safety –related incidents.

All four of Lonmin’s mining divisions are multi-millionaires in terms of FFS and the mining division achieved 11 million fall of ground FFS (FOG FFS) and 6 million FFS.

Lonmin CEO Ian Farmer had praise for his mining staff: “Mark and his team are to be applauded for accomplishments. People are the most important part of our business and we must always do everything possible to ensure their safe return to surface, every day.”

About Lonmin

Lonmin is one of the world’s largest primary producers of platinum group metals (PGMs). These metals are essential for many industrial applications, especially catalytic converters for internal combustion engine emissions, as well as their widespread use in jewellery.

Lonmin creates value through mining, refining and marketing PGMs and have a vertically integrated operational structure – from mine to market. The mining operations extract ore from which the process division produces refined PGMs for delivery to global customers.

Issued by Inzalo Communication for Lonmin Plc

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Gillian Findlay082-330-1477This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.