Chilean Minister of Mines emphasises the importance of health and safety

On Tuesday, the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) convened top executives from international leading companies to learn from each other in order to improve their health and safety performance. During the opening ceremony of the three-day conference, the Chilean Minister of Mines, Hernán De Solminihac, hailed the ICMM for its efforts to raise the industry’s performance in sustainable development.He said “The mining industry has multiple challenges, such as the health and safety of its workers. Our government’s concern in this issue was heightened following the San José mine accident. President Sebastián Piñera has asked us to work intensely to address this issue in a holistic fashion, by considerably increasing the number of site-level audits, the training of safety monitors and ensuring mine sites comply with national regulations.”

Thomas Keller, CEO of Codelco, spoke as a representative of ICMM’s Council of 22 CEOs. “For Codelco, it is no longer enough to deliver the resources that benefit all Chileans, we must also play an active role in improving international sustainability standards. We are here, shoulder to shoulder with our fellow ICMM member companies and associations, to find ways of improving how we take care of our employees”.

Anthony Hodge, ICMM President, closed the ceremony by stating the importance of Chile in the global mining and metals industry. “As an industry, we should be proud of the way we have made the well-being of our workers a priority and the way we have made worker health and safety a core part of our business,” said Anthony Hodge.  “However, we still have a long way to go. It is our aim for this conference to be a stepping stone in that journey, looking to move us forward and improve the industry’s performance.”

The Health and Safety Conference runs to November 16 in Santiago. It is the second conference of its kind that ICMM has organised and brings together 300 top-level executives, including the CEOs of five member companies, to share best practices and learnings concerning common health and safety issues.

Yesterday, the first full day of the conference, the first session featured speeches from Cynthia Carroll, CEO of Anglo American; Charles A. Jeannes, President and CEO of Goldcorp; Richard O’Brien, CEO of Newmont Mining Corporation and Eduardo Zamanillo, Mining Manager in Chile from Mitsui & Co.

During her speech Carroll encouraged delegates to share knowledge, best practices and lessons learned with colleagues from all over the world.

“The mining industry faces significant challenges which can only be successfully tackled if we as an industry operate to the highest standards. In my experience, a strong health and safety performance translates into a strong business performance. The communities in which we operate should benefit from our presence in a sustainable way and – above all – our workers must be safe,” she said.

During his presentation, Zamanillo presented an overview on efforts to improve the industry’s health and safety performance. “For effective safety, we need effective leadership. That is why we are all here and I look forward to sharing what we know and learning from your experiences in the next three days.”

O’Brien, in a video message, said, “As a global organisation that brings together industry, government and international organizations, ICMM provides a critical forum to help us improve the safety performance of our industry by learning from each other and using our collective knowledge to make a difference.”

Hodge asked delegates to build long-lasting relationships that will ultimately ensure the well-being of mining employees, contractors and communities.

Later in the day René Aguilar, Director, Health and Safety, ICMM, presented the findings of an upcoming ICMM good practice guidance on leading indicators to be made available to the public in late November. His presentation was followed by workshops and technical sessions in which leading experts shared best practices and lessons learned on topics including leadership and eliminating fatalities..