We celebrate the excellence in health and safety practices in the European mining industry and we recognize that safety is the foundation upon which our industry is built.
A number of frontrunner mining companies on H&S joined the Euromines Safety Award competition in 2023.
Here we would like to present the three best projects:
Boliden, “Improved Organisational and Social Work Environment” project, 1st place.
“We are very pleased to receive this award. Many people have been involved and there is a lot of hard work behind it. The prize is really that of all the employees at Boliden Garpenberg.” Jenny Gotthardsson, General Manager at Garpenberg
This project is from Boliden at Garpenberg Mine in Sweden, Boliden has gone above and beyond in its efforts to improve Health and safety not only in its physical environment but also in its psychosocial work environment covering organizational and social aspects.
As we know, safety is not just about the tools and equipment we use, but also about how we organize our work and how we treat each other, so very much connected to well-being and improving safety culture. Reports show that psychosocial issues are one of the most common reasons for long-term sick leave, and Boliden recognizes the importance of addressing these issues to create a safer workplace for all employees.
To achieve this, Boliden has implemented a variety of tools and ways of working such as daily pulse meetings and monthly discussions on various topics related to improving workplace culture (for example handling stress, work-life balance, and appropriate behaviour); furthermore, Boliden has created a dedicated team to promote proactive activities and tools related to these issues (”care checklist” a checklist to use when you have a concern regarding someone in your working group).
“We all contribute to developing our work environment and how we treat each other is an important part of that. We are each other’s work environment.” André Eriksson, Head of Safety Representatives at Boliden Garpenberg.
That is to say, the benefits of this project are many for instance: Reduced stress, Reduced sick leave, Reduced rehabilitation, and Increased well-being.
Eldorado Gold Corporation, “Employee Engagement project”, 2nd place.
As ELDORADOGOLD-Tüprag Efemçukuru Gold Mine, we are very pleased to achieving important successes for our company and our country by winning the 2nd prize in EUROMINES Occupational Safety Awards competition which was held for the first time in 2023 with an “Occupational Safety Participation” project. Göksel Alpaslan, H&S Group Manager, Tüprag Metal Madencilik San.Tic.A.Ş
The next project has been developed by Tuprag Eldorado Gold in Turkey which aims to improve safety culture and communication between white-collar and blue-collar employees through the use of an Employee Engagement program.
Employee Engagement is designed to encourage supervisors to interact with blue-collar employees on safety using various opportunities such as workplace inspections, toolbox meetings, risk assessments, JSA, hazard identification, task observations, and 5S activities.
Each OHS interaction is entered into the Employee Engagement software, which captures all interactions and tracks performance. The software is accessible through both computers and smartphones, and all records are verified with positive evidence.
Since its commissioning in December 2022, Employee Engagement has clearly shown an increase in the number of OHS engagements compared to the same period of the previous year. This project already has an important contribution to creating a positive safety culture, ensuring the active participation of all managers, which will lead to the development and adoption of the OHS culture at its core.
Engagements show our people we really care about them!
LKAB, “Safe Conveyor Belts from port-to-port” project, 3rd place.
LKAB is extremely grateful to receive 3rd place the Euromine Safety Award, in strong competition with several good projects. We wanted to increase safety on conveyor belts and took a holistic approach which resulted in standardized machine guards. It is an important award for everyone who has been involved in the work with the 44 kilometres of conveyor belts. A special congratulation to the project team and our project manager Jenny Pyykkönen! Linda Karlsson, Sustainability Department LKAB
The problem that LKAB faced was complex. The company has had conveyors throughout its history, and only a few years ago did they start to be identified as a risk. Therefore, almost all conveyor rollers were unprotected, and it was not possible to buy suitable machine guards for conveyors. Due to continuous production, a structured way of working was needed, and the Safe Conveyor Belt project was created.
LKAB worked with the probability of avoiding a hazardous situation and ensuring no one gets hurt.
The scope of the project is large. It consists of 6 subprojects with 23 different production units. About 1100 conveyors with a length of 44000 meters. In the project, seven different courses have been developed and about 1200 persons have been trained. About 150 designers work in the project and together they have standardized many safety solutions adapted for conveyors. About 6000 risks have been identified, and most of them have been fixed.
