What it Takes to Help Ensure a Sustainable, Safe Production
12 March 2023
This year’s National Safety Month took a close look at the company’s previous year’s safety performance, diving into the types of incidents, common themes and ways to improve safe production.
“National Safety Month is another opportunity to remind everyone of our shared responsibility in safety and that nothing can be done unless we prioritize safety,” said Carl Tauran, PT Freeport Indonesia Executive Vice President-Site Operations and Technical Mine Manager.
Since starting operations nearly 56 years ago, the company has proven that safe production can be achieved through unwavering commitment and perseverance. Most importantly, everyone needs to understand that creating healthy and safe workplaces is a shared responsibility and will help achieve sustainable, safe operations.
Everyone has their part
While the company has worked tirelessly to address and find the root causes of the uptick in safety incidents, it is especially important to stress that underground mine hazards are mitigated by constant awareness, following procedures and proper training, said Henky Rumbino, PTFI Senior Vice President-Underground Mine.
Safe production becomes more complex when production is entirely underground. While there are multiple hazards in an underground mine, wet muck is one of the most dangerous threats.
“More than 5,000 employees are working in three different underground mines. Our operation has so many dynamics, and there is no silver bullet when it comes to health and safety. We continue developing and evolving our programs so that our workforce can go home safely daily,” Rumbino said.
Mitigating underground mining hazards is a complex task. In underground operations, so many aspects are taken into consideration before production begins. For example, it takes decades of planning and work to get an underground mine to the point of pulling ore.
“With the long underground mine lifecycle ahead, all of us must remain vigilant in our pursuit of zero fatalities, preventing high-risk incidents and maintaining personal accountability for our safety and the safety of others,” said Anton Priatna, Vice President-Underground Mine.
Priatna said he also expects supervisors and their team members to make a positive impact by identifying the risks, focusing on doing the job safely and competently, supporting their co-workers and stopping the job if something isn’t right.
“The company puts safety above everything else. Stop work if controls are missing or if a change in the scope of work requires new or different controls.” he said.
“Our focus on fatality prevention by using our Fatal Risk Management Tools is paramount to our success while highlighting that everyone’s support and contribution matter in improving our safety performance.”
(Puspita Saraswati)
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