As the saying goes, there’s no substitute for experience. This is particularly important in the context of workplace safety, where identifying potential hazards and taking appropriate action to rectify them are top priorities.

And while experience may be the hardest teacher, virtual experience allows mistakes to be made and learned from, without the reality of injuries and equipment damage.

As part of an ongoing intensive effort to eliminate fatalities and change safety behaviour across the workforce, Xstrata Alloys rolled out an interactive ‘virtual reality’ simulated hazard awareness programme in January 2006 aimed at helping employees and contractors to recognise workplace hazards and to address them appropriately. Failure to identify or react properly to a hazard created a simulated consequence. The bespoke programme was developed in collaboration with the University of Tshwane and Simulated Training Solutions. The programme was initially introduced at the Kroondal, Rietvly, Horizon and Waterval mines in South Africa, which together employ approximately 1,283 people and was subsequently introduced across the remaining Xstrata Alloys mines in November.

Employee and contractor feedback to the programme was both immediate and overwhelmingly positive, with many requesting repeat training. This response is attributed to several characteristics of the training programme.

For instance, the programme includes a voice-over feature available in different languages, which removes potential obstacles created by varying degrees of participant literacy. The programme also involves multiple senses; with both hearing and vision engaged, the programme is entertaining as well as educational.

The simulations are not time-limited, which allows employees to sensitise themselves to workplace hazards at their own pace of learning.

Since launching the programme, more than half of Xstrata Alloys mining employees have completed the training. The benefits of the simulation training, the first of its kind in South Africa, are also being shared through different mining forums within South Africa. Gold, platinum and coal miners have visited the Xstrata Alloys training centre to review the programme.

Feedback from both trainees and supervisors indicates a notable improvement in the ability of employees to identify and react correctly to the hazards present in their working environment. While this was simply one safety initiative among many within Xstrata Alloys, it is viewed as a positive contributor to the improvement in Xstrata Alloys’ (Mining Division) Total Recordable Injury Frequency Rate, which improved by approximately 35% from 2005.