Barberton Mines completed the 2010 financial year on June 30.  Casper Strydom, general manager, congratulated the whole team on their safety achievements for the financial year.
The mine achieved an overall improvement in accident statistics. The total accidents reported reduced from 202 in 2009 to 188 in 2010. “These accidents include all the incidents even if no time was lost. The amount of lost time injuries reduced by 32% while reportable injuries reduced by 33% which is a very good achievement,” Strydom said adding that these achievements were the results of all the employees of the mine, from senior to the most junior person.

Unfortunately the mine had one fatal accident that happened at the Fairview section soon after they achieved 2 million fatal free shifts. This took them more than six years to achieve which was also a remarkable achievement. The whole mine had over 1,2 million fatality free shifts at the same time.

“We are certainly planning to better those achievements now”.

Strydom added that the effective management of the Safety, Health, Environmental and Community (SHEC) programme was a primary company objective and in this light a “zero tolerance drive” was also successfully implemented.  The company’s SHEC policy was based on the belief that employees have the right to work in a safe environment.

Barberton Mines will continue to focus on internal auditing, appropriate remedial actions (based on accident investigations) and effective safety communication to improve these statistics. The mines consists of three gold mining operations within a radius of 15 kilometres of Barberton’s magisterial district which includes the Fairview, Sheba and New Consort sections. The three mines have roots that go back more than a hundred years.

Barberton Mines is a wholly owned subsidiary of Pan African Resources PLC www.panafricanresources.com

Marion Gericke (Pan African Resources) and Casper Strydom (general manager)