Management tools

Anglo American’s programs for improved safety management

Anglo American thinks that every incident can and should be avoided. They are unacceptable, and the company’s safety programs have the purpose of identifying, solving and avoiding this type of occurrence – this is precisely the “translation” of the Zero Injury Mindset.

Anglo Safety Way and Anglo Health Way are structured sets of standards that are the basis for the development, improvement and application of a safety management system in all Anglo American’s operations. These standards have been developed by the analysis of the best practices and safety standards existing in the company itself and in other industrial segments. They reflect, in a structured manner, the right way to achieve the Zero Injury and Zero Occupational Disease targets.

Safety Risk Management Process – SRMP

The Safety Risk Management Process – SRMP uses courses to promote education for process management related to safety risks. These courses have the purpose of starting an extreme change in the safety sector by disseminating knowledge about the hazard conditions and their controls. Another target of this training is to establish a world safety risk management standard based on “One Anglo” that achieves safety improvements for the company’s operations. The SRMP also intends to enable a better understanding about the safety risk management practice by means of an educational process that approaches the best practices, principles and tools, so that direct and indirect employees make daily the correct safety-related decisions.

The company has established a joint venture with the Mining and Oil Engineering Department of Escola Politécnica of Universidade de São Paulo (Poli/USP), with focus on the dissemination of its standards and on the Risk Management training. A total of 200 employees from different sectors were qualified in 2009, and another 200 will be trained by the end of 2010.

Anglo American’s Fatal Risk Standards (AFRS) – For the compliance with one of Anglo Safety Way’s guidelines, which specifies criteria for the systemic risk management control, Anglo Fatal Risk Standards have been prepared, which consist of a set of standards that establish compulsory technical, engineering, facilities and management system requirements for the management of the hazard conditions usually found in fatal incidents in the company and in the mineral industry.

These standards have been developed after examination of the best potentially high hazard condition management practices in the mineral industry and in other industrial segments and from the experience in fatal incidents occurred in the company. They are:

• Light vehicles: either eliminate or minimize risks resulting from the use of light vehicles in the operations;
• Surface mobile equipment: either eliminate or minimize risks resulting from the use of off-road equipment in load transportation operations;
• Management of hazardous materials: either eliminate or minimize risks resulting from the storage, handling, production, transportation, recycling and disposal of hazardous substances;
• Cast material management: either eliminate or minimize risks associated with the exposure to and processing of cast materials or under melting process;
• Equipment protection: either eliminate or minimize risks resulting from human interaction with rotating or moving parts of plants and equipment;
• Energy insulation and blocking: provide means for the machines and equipment to be insulated and blocked, so that no energy is released during the intervention, with the purpose of preserving the involved workers’ safety and health;
• Work at heights: either eliminate or minimize risks resulting from works carried out at heights;
• Hoisting and elevation operations: either eliminate or minimize risks associated with the material elevation or hoisting operations;
• Underground mining operations: either eliminate or minimize risks associated with rock movement and material displacement in underground mining operations.
• Underground mining equipment: either eliminate or minimize risks associated with the use of transportation equipment in underground mining operations.

For implementation of the Light Vehicle and Surface Mobile Equipment standards, the Vehicle Management Plan was established to define requirements and guidelines focused on ensuring the use of vehicles in suitable conditions to provide safe routes to pedestrians and light and heavy vehicles, segregating them and eliminating the risks resulting from their interactions.