Sustainability website / Safety / Safety

Policy and approach

Policy and approach / Performance and goals

Safety is the most important consideration for any of our activities. Xstrata’s Sustainable Development Policy sets out our aims to operate a safe workplace that is injury- and fatality-free and believe that all work-related illnesses and injuries are preventable. Our approach also goes further than ‘zero harm’ and aims to proactively enhance the well-being of employees, contractors and communities. We believe that safety performance is also an important indicator of management quality and a critical element in maintaining Xstrata’s corporate reputation and access to resources.

Xstrata’s employees and contractors work in hazardous environments, including underground and open pit mines or in metallurgical operations. Hazards include working with large-scale mobile equipment, heavy machinery, hazardous materials or chemicals, explosives and molten metals. At some of our projects and operations, our people work in conditions of extreme heat or cold, at high altitude, underground, at height or in confined spaces or in regions prone to natural phenomena including earthquakes, tropical storms or infectious diseases such as malaria.

All Xstrata operations maintain comprehensive safety management systems which are fully aligned to OHSAS18001 or AS/NZS 4801. The integration of the former Falconbridge operations was completed in 2007. This included the introduction of Xstrata’s strategy and business planning process, risk management process, ‘near-miss’ reporting, and 17 HSEC standards. The effectiveness of these programmes was enhanced through significant increases in site HSEC resources and increased sustaining capital investment with a particular focus on operational integrity.

Health and safety topics are generally included in formal agreements with trade unions. At the local level, these agreements cover topics such as the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), joint management-employee health and safety steering committees and participation of employee representatives in health and safety inspections, audits and incident investigations. At the commodity business level, agreements include topics such as adherence to International Labour Organisation principles, grievance procedures and commitments regarding targets, performance standards and standard operating procedures.

Performance and goals

Policy and approach / Performance and goals

Fatality prevention

The most pressing safety challenge we face is in eliminating fatalities from our business. Regrettably in 2007, five employees and four contractors lost their lives at managed operations and projects, compared to two fatalities (one employee and one contractor) at managed operations in the previous year.

Summary of fatal incidents

In addition, five people were fatally injured at non-managed operations in which Xstrata has an interest in 2007. Two of these incidents occurred at the BHP Billiton-managed Douglas and Middelburg coal operations in South Africa which formed part of the Douglas-Tavistock Joint Venture. This JV has recently been restructured with each partner taking over management responsibility for a proportionate share of the reserves. Two fatal incidents occurred at the Cerrejón coal mine in Colombia in which Xstrata, BHP Billiton and Anglo American each own a one-third stake and one fatal incident occurred at Collahuasi copper mine, owned by Xstrata, Anglo American and a Japanese consortium led by Mitsui. Both Cerrejón and Collahuasi are operated by a joint venture management team appointed by the shareholders.

Xstrata’s comprehensive fatality prevention initiatives commenced in 2004 and continued to evolve in 2007 to reflect the Group’s current risk profile. Initiatives focus on the major hazards that are the principal causes of fatal, critical and near-miss incidents; and on enhancing our people’s skills, behaviour, reporting and leadership.

SD Management Standard 5: Risk and Change Management
SD Management Standard 6: Catastrophic Hazards

Injury frequency rates

The continuation of our core safety improvement programmes combined with targeted initiatives to address specific business or site safety challenges resulted in all commodity businesses reducing the frequency of total recordable injuries by 26% overall. Total recordable injuries include lost-time injuries, medical treatment injuries and restricted work injuries, providing a more comprehensive measure of safety performance than lost-time injuries alone.

Very significant improvements were achieved at the former Falconbridge sites acquired in September 2006, comprising Xstrata Nickel, a number of Xstrata Copper and Xstrata Zinc operations. Total injury frequency rates improved by 33% at these operations in 2007 compared to 2006, due to enhanced investment in site level safety resources, the introduction of Xstrata’s 17 HSEC standards and operational integrity improvements.

SD Management Standard 15: Incident Management