Sandvik Mining and Rock Technology has recorded a remarkable accident-free operations for the past ten (10) years.

The company has achieved a decade without a Lost Time Injury (LTI) which is equivalent to one hundred and twenty (120) months, 3,652 days and 7.6 million manhours.

“This outstanding achievement reiterates our company’s commitment to safety and demonstrates that in Sandvik we ‘walk the talk’ when it comes to safe working practices.

It is also a testament of the strong leadership commitment and relentless effort from our employees, customers and stakeholders,” Vice President, Sales Area West Africa, Nuhu Salifu said.

Over the last three years, both activities and workforce have been increased by 30 percent - now operating several warehouses and workshops across Ghana, Mali, Nigeria and Burkina Faso.

For Mr Salifu, this makes the achievement even more remarkable.

“…We passed a significant milestone in our journey towards making Sandvik West Africa (Ghana, Mali, Nigeria and Burkina Faso) a zero-harm environment”.

What it means
This means that no one has been injured through work processes or at work and not being able to go back to work the next day.

“…the work that we do is to ensure that people work and can go home safely and come back safely. Your teams are working in very challenging environment but you are still assured that they can close and go home and come back safely without being hurt during the process,” Mr Nuhu Salifu said.

This safety mark during a period of growth underscores Sandvik West Africa’s unwavering commitment to Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) best practices across all facets of its Sales Area.

The last lot time injury recorded in Sandvik occurred in November of 2012 at a customer location in Tarkwa.

Officials say this incident was a wake-up call for leadership to consciously pursue a zero-harm journey and increase a proactive focus on safety.

“…We took a continuous improvement approach which included incorporating lessons learned from near misses and incidents to improve our safety management system. Procedures and processes.

Notable amongst these improved processes and procedures is our hazard reporting system, with the introduction of the ROAM mobile App for reporting hazards, near misses and incidents daily”.

These improvements according to Management have enhanced prompt hazard reporting and implementation of corrective actions.

Our daily and weekly toolbox meetings, engagement and feedback sessions with employees can't also be overlooked.

International Safety Standards
SANDVIK Ghana and Mali are certified to the world acclaimed ISO standards for environment (ISO 14001:2015), occupational health and safety (ISO45001:2018) and quality management systems (ISO 9001:2015) since 2018 by an independent certification body.

Compliance with the requirements of these international standards has played a pivotal role in our zero-harm journey.

“All our senior managers ‘lead by example’ by way of a public declaration of their EHS leadership commitments every year and ensure that these commitments are achieved by year-end.

These measures and the passion and commitment of our people have ultimately got us to where we are today”.

Charge to employees
Some deserving employees were awarded for their outstanding performances that contributed to upholding safety.

Mr Salifu therefore admonished employees against accommodating any form of complacency in the wake of this safety achievement.

“…whilst acknowledging that achieving 10 LTI free years is an incredible safety performance which we must absolutely be proud of, I would like to emphasize especially on this occasion, that we cannot become complacent.

We must not lose focus on our main objective – zero harm to our people, the environment we work in, our customers and suppliers. We must continue to take personal responsibility for our won safety and that of our colleagues”.

The energy with which they commit to continuously drive a high safety culture is truly an inspiration and we all have the honour of being part of this fantastic achievement.

Mr Salifu is optimistic the company can operate the next 10 years without LTI, “if we ensure that the daily actions we all take to identify and mitigate hazards in our work sites are effective and everyone goes home safe and healthy”.'

Call to Scale-up EHS
Ghanaian industries are therefore being encouraged to prioritize Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) practices in their bid to improve productivity and profits.

He believes that if this is scaled up in the larger Ghanaian community, there is assurance that there are systems in place to ensure that people are safe at work.

“…It will increase the productivity of our workforce at the national and global level. And reduce medical cost, because when one person gets injured the cost of treatment can be quite significant.

And the fact that that person may not be available to work for you, you factor in the psychological impact on the general workforce who worked with the person as a team.”

For him, it is quite significant that industries are encouraged to emulate the examples that those who participate in the mining industry are championing.

"Even at the national level that we work, we want to encourage the national leadership to champion the campaign at that stage

It can be very significant, it means that for 10 years you have to spend any significant amount of money in treating people who get injured, because the cost of prevention is quiet less than what you incur in offsetting the injury that the employees encounter in the workplace," Mr Salifu noted.