26 October 2010
Partners in safety – Anglo American, National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), Solidarity, UASA and the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) – will host a Transport Safety Day on 28 October 2010 at Anglo American's Isibonelo Colliery in Mpumalanga to highlight transportation safety risks and hazards.

According to the DMR's latest Occupational Safety Monthly Report released in August this year, 23% of injuries and fatalities in the mining industry were caused by transport-related accidents since January.

"Although transportation is not the highest contributing factor to lost-time and fatal injury statistics in the mining industry, the hazards are still very real and also pertain to our public roads. By highlighting these hazards, we are taking another step closer to achieving zero harm," says Thabo Gazi, chief inspector of mines at the DMR.

Anglo American's Tripartite Initiative is a collaborative health and safety partnership, which was formed to drive zero harm at all Anglo American's South African operations and it has been gaining significant ground since its formation after the Safety Summit in April 2008.

The Tripartite steering group, which has studied safety best practices both locally and internationally, recognises that the Transport Safety Day supports its five focus areas of engaging with key stakeholders, especially employees; ensuring that the Tripartite leadership is visible and present at operations; aligning standards across Anglo American; educating and building capacity of employees; and highlighting the health and wellness issues associated with mine transportation.

"Transportation is one of the biggest safety risks we face as individuals and as a business. To help us tackle this, we have developed a leadership and frontline transportation safety programme designed to help everyone understand and better manage these risks on a daily basis. This includes a range of 'Why risk it?' awareness materials and involvement activities which will be used at all our sites. These will help make these risks more visible, so everyone involved is better able to spot risks, stop unsafe work, prevent incidents and save lives," explains Dorian Emmett, Anglo American's head of safety and sustainable development.

Highlighting the importance of such campaigns, Leigh McMaster, Tripartite member and safety, health and environment coordinator at Solidarity, says: "Communication of zero harm should be a constant theme by employers and other stakeholders. Stakeholders should believe that zero incidents are possible and that a collaborative effort would achieve this goal."

"Part of our journey to zero harm is to motivate staff to be safe for their families and loved ones," says Eric Gcilitshana, a founding member of the Tripartite and NUM national secretary for health and safety. "Our attitude towards safety should not be limited to our workplaces; we must engender a shift in the hearts and minds of our workers that it becomes part of their everyday lives and part of who they are. This is one of the underlying principles of the Tripartite."

Speakers on the day will include Louis Bezuidenhout, DMR's Mpumalanga principal inspector of mines; Philip Williamson, Anglo American's executive of human resources for Thermal Coal; Reuben Hlatshwayo, general manager of Isibonelo Colliery; and Stimer Mofokeng, a safety representative at the colliery who was recently recognised in the Anglo American Applaud awards for employee excellence.

ENDS

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For further information, please contact:

South Africa
Pranill Ramchander, Media Relations
Tel: +27 (0)11 638 2592

Notes to editors:

Anglo American
Anglo American plc is one of the world's largest mining companies, is headquartered in the UK and listed on the London and Johannesburg stock exchanges. It's portfolio of mining businesses spans precious metals and minerals – in which it is a global leader in both platinum and diamonds; base metals – copper and nickel; and bulk commodities – iron ore, metallurgical coal and thermal coal. Anglo American is committed to the highest standards of safety and responsibility across all its businesses and geographies and to making a sustainable difference in the development of the communities around its operations. The company's mining operations and extensive pipeline of growth projects are located in southern Africa, South America, Australia, North America and Asia.
www.angloamerican.com