DIPOLOG CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Feb. 24, 2012) – TVI Resource Development (Phils.) Inc., (TVIRD) has accomplished another milestone in its copper-zinc mining operations in Canatuan in the town of Siocon in Zamboanga del Norte province.
Just recently, it achieved 4.8 million man-hours without lost-time accidents, a feat not common in the mining industry – and deemed by the Occupational Safety and Health Center of the Philippines as having the most hazardous workplaces.
Engr. Arturo Abad, Safety Department manager, said the unprecedented safety record was achieved because every worker in the company religiously practices safety at work. “But more than that, everybody too, is willing to improve their safety performances. That is why we are preparing more and new programs to ensure and strengthen safety and health practices in the workplace,” he said.
“While we sustain a few incidents in the workplace, they were either simple first-aid or non-recordable cases. Since June 2010 until February 20 this year, for a period of 625 days, we generated 4,842,000 million man-hours without experiencing a serious work-related injury that caused a worker to lose a workday,” said Kurt Zion Torres, the company’s safety officer.
To operate an open-pit mining company with a concentrator plant involves dealing with the hazards of numerous heavy equipment milling around during the ore extraction.
Also, there are risks from more machines and chemicals during the processing of the ore to bring out minerals such as gold, silver, copper or zinc. Industries like these are prone to accidents, thus, safety is primordial for its workers.
“Every worker here is conscious about safety in their work that it has now become a culture,” said Engr. Rey Carubio, Superintendent of the company’s mill plant.
In the mill plant, there are about 80 heavy machines like ball mills, crushers, concentrator machines, flotation cells and detoxification plants that operate 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. The machines are manned by around 80 workers who also have to contend with chemicals used in the processing of the minerals.
“That is why safety is the most important issue in the minds of our workers. Here in our department, every move and every step we make, we place safety of the workers first and foremost. In fact, 50% of a worker’s average workday is all about safety,” Carubio said.
All employees in the mill plant begin work every day with a 30-minute safety “pep-talk” (daily tool-box meeting). Aside from the compulsory wearing of the personal protective equipment, the workers are also well equipped with the knowledge of identifying job hazards and how to avoid them, according to Ed Israel, TVIRD’s Chief Metallurgist.
In the mine pit, the workers also give highest regard for safety and Engr. Pete Remoto, Manager of the Mines Department, pointed out that “one little stone in the middle of the road is enough to cause injury when it is run over by a truck and then hit an unsuspecting worker. These may be just little things that other people tend to ignore but not here in the pit.”
The daily safety meetings have inculcated to the mine workers the safety culture and pro-active involvement in dealing with 35 heavy equipment and trucks working around a 31-hectare ore extraction area.
Given all these safety programs, TVIRD received three prestigious awards on Safety – the Safest in the Surface Mines Category, the Safest in Concentrator Category and the highly coveted Safest Mining Operations Award during the 2011 Presidential Mineral Industry Environmental Awards. TVI was declared as the “Best of the Best” in the Safety Category.
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