Canyon Coal’s mines continue to set the benchmark for safe mining operations with its active operations having recorded over 5 200 fatality-free days as of the end of December 2022. Canyon Coal continuously strives to realise the Zero Harm goal of ensuring every employee or contractor returns home healthy and safely at the end of every day.

Phalanndwa Colliery from the start of its operations in 2012 has achieved over 3 400 fatal-free days and more than 178 lost time injury-free days. At Khanye Colliery, the mine has achieved over 1 800 fatality-free days from the start of operations in 2018 and currently has over 550 lost time injury-free days.

“We have maintained a very good safety record and which is supported by our targeted health and safety campaigns which we run throughout the year. For instance, we had a safety campaign that we run since the end of January 2022, which addresses your trackless mobile machinery, lockout stored energy, etc... which are all the basic types of safety issues that workers need to be consistently aware of,” states Menar Group Chief of Safety Johan Immelman

Safety toolbox talks form part of Canyon Coal’s mines campaign that is run throughout the year. From around November until the 12th of January the mines focus on the Festive/Silly Season in order to prevent injuries from occurring during the lead-up to the festive season.

“Throughout the 2021/22 Silly Season, we had no incidents at all which illustrates the success of the campaign. This successful campaign was driven by all spheres of management as well as their departments. The 2022/23 Silly Season safety campaign has commenced with safety notices and banners displayed at all mines with Safety Managers and Chief Safety Officers overseeing the campaigns to avoid injuries occurring during this period to drive the campaign so that you can have an incident-free and safe Silly Season.”

“Visible Felt Leadership Programmes (VFL) is another important factor in our ongoing success. Additionally, whenever we receive instructions given to other minds by DMRE inspectors, we take those instructions and put them on an action list to ensure that those types of findings do not occur at our operations. We follow up on these action lists through our VFL programmes and internal audits. These form part of our efforts to ensure we achieve our goal of Zero Harm,” Johan concludes.