29 April 2010
Anglo American joined forces with its Tripartite partners; the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) and the National Union of Mine Workers (NUM) to recognise International Health and Safety Day on April 28th in a celebration at the Kriel Colliery near Emalahleni (Witbank), Mpumalanga. The Kriel Colliery is noted for having an outstanding safety record, and is thus an appropriate venue to host this event.

In their address, members of the Alliance discussed relevant health and safety issues within the mining environment, in a joint effort to raise awareness and inform the workforce on how they could contribute to safe and sustainable mining in South Africa. The event concluded with a call to action - for every employee, to commit to health and safety in the workplace and take responsibility for their safety as well as that of those around them. While everyone has a responsibility for safety, Anglo American holds its leaders responsible for ensuring that the foundations for delivering good safety practice – from safety standards and system to equipment – are in place to keep people safe from harm.

The Tripartite Alliance, established in March 2007, is part of Anglo Americans continued commitment to ensure zero harm in the mining industry and working with our partners; both DMR and NUM to find solutions.

The work of the Alliance to date has been extremely phenomenal as the team has continued to work to identify and jointly address issues which could make a positive, substantial impact on both Anglo American's safety performance, and the wider mining industry.

Anglo American South Africa Executive Director, Godfrey Gomwe said: "This event will create the opportunity for an honest sharing of views on the state of mining health and safety. We hope that it finds a way of contributing to South Africa becoming a global leader in mining health and safety as we wish to jointly unlock the enormous potential resident in aligning government, labour and business as partners in informing the workforce and creating awareness around all related health and safety matters."

The event is one of several that are set to be hosted by the Tripartite Alliance over the coming months, including events concerning HIV/AIDS & TB.

This Tripartite Alliance initiative, and the commitment of all three parties, has led to the subsequent Tripartite programme, which serves as a best practice for partnership delivery in South Africa.

For further information:

United Kingdom
Pranill Ramchander, Media Relations
Tel: +27 (0)11 638 2592

Notes to Editors:

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. Its 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.

Anglo American's constant striving for Zero Harm is reflected in its outstanding safety record, with the level of fatalities at the Group in 2009 nearly 55% lower than in January 2007, while the lost-time injury frequency rate (LTIFR) has improved by 34% over the same period. The fatal-injury frequency rate (FIFR), calculated per 200,000 man hours worked, showed a 33% improvement from 0.015 in 2008 to 0.010 in 2009. A total of 92% of Anglo American's sites remained fatality-free during the year, including all Kumba Iron Ore, Nickel, Copper, Metallurgical Coal and exploration operations.