Drilling technology and services provider Rosond celebrated a year of zero-harm operations last month with its 263 employees across six different mining operations in Carletonville, Gauteng.

The company achieved this through its hazard identification and risk assessment (HIRA), which forms the basis for the implementation of occupational health and safety (OHS).

“In addition to HIRA, Rosond also aimed to promote employee ownership of improvements for overall health and safety through vigorous and regular communication and by recognising innovation and leadership,” says Rosond area manager Andre Jacobs.

He tells Engineering News that changes – such as enhancing the skills for management and staff by reviewing and actively pursuing an ongoing health and safety training programme – were made, which assisted in achieving a year of zero-harm operations.

“The objective of this ongoing training programme is to empower staff to perform the tasks more safely, in an environmentally responsible way, and to take ownership of the daily decisions they make,” explains Jacobs.

However, this achievement has not been without challenges, he says.

“One of the challenges was to ensure that sites in different geographical areas aligned with the safety measures and safety policies that were set in place,” explains Rosond safety head Andre Kleynhans.

These challenges were mitigated by conucting regular, independent audits of the operations to ensure that they meet or exceed all the applicable OHS and environmental laws and regulations in the jurisdictions where the company operates.

Rosond also implemented measures to ensure the safety of employees since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“In this regard, we followed a process to ensure that all employees who returned to work were healthy and free of Covid-19. This ensured that the virus did not spread at our workplaces, infecting employees,” notes Kleynhans.

He concludes that OHS is regarded as a critical component of the mining business fraternity, and “Rosond will apply and implement business disciplines to ensure safety in the workplace”.