Maintaining the highest standards of health and safety is critical for a business working in an inherently dangerous environment and we have continued our drive to raise standards and reduce risks throughout the year.
NWR has well-developed safety guidelines, processes and monitoring systems throughout our mines and coking plants. Every employee is encouraged to be aware of risks and to take personal responsibility for their own safety and that of their fellow workers.
Our safety record is comparable to worldwide standards and we strive to constantly improve it. Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (‘LTIFR’)1 is an internationally used measure of safety, and our LTIFR demonstrates the significant progress we have made over the last five years, falling by 49 per cent and 63 per cent for our mining and coking operations respectively. Despite this improved performance, five fatalities incurred during 2009, three in our mines and two at our coking plant operations. These incidents are taken extremely seriously and investigated by the Company, the labour unions and government representatives, with recommendations being made to the Company’s Health, Safety and Environment Committee (‘HSEC’) for action.
Our major capital investment programme, Productivity Optimisation Programme 2010 (‘POP 2010’) has contributed to the improvement in 2009.
As well as significantly raising productivity at our mining operations, the cutting edge technology installed as part of POP 2010 has a direct impact on health and safety, by providing better support for roofs and producing less dust.
Non financial key performance indicators - Safety
Mining LTIFR 2007-2009 (incl. contractors)
Mining LTIFR - comparison between 2005 and 2009 (incl. contractors)
Coking LTIFR - comparison between 2006 and 2009 (incl. contractors)
(1LTIFR = number of reportable injuries after three days of absence divided by total hours worked expressed in millions of hours.)
